There’s a lot of people doing small scale manufacturing now. A lot of it is open source related, much isn’t. Identifying the various groups and their association with open source is an idea inspired by a discussion with Jeff from MightOhm. It’s not fleshed out enough to submit this time, but we’re posting it up for discussion (and so we can find it again later).
Type of submission: poster
Title: Who’s doing indy cottage manufacturing?
Description:
An indy cottage manufacturing scene has grown up alongside the Open Hardware movement. Small shops, many times just a single person, kit electronics projects or assemble small batches of hardware for sale. We feel this is positive because it spreads open hardware to talented people who don’t etch PCBs or buy electronic components, but still have a lot to contribute.While lots of cottage manufactures are working with open licensed hardware projects, many are not. This poster summarizes some general types of organizations involved in small-scale electronics, and their relationship to open source.
Indy cottage manufacturing classifications, such as:
1. Open source hardware, open business and process documentation (Adafruit, MightyOhm)
2. Open-for-education hardware (mostly non-commercial, CC BY-SA-NC)
3. Crowdsourced open hardware development funding (eg Kickstart) (OpenVizsla)
4. Crowdsourced funding to manufacture an existing open hardware project (Analog Pirate)
5. Closed source hardware designed or produced with crowdsourced funding
6. Closed source APIs and software-as-services marketing to open hardware community (GitHub, Upverter)
7. Groups/clubs releasing open hardware for fun, host build workshops (hackerspaces, ham radio)
8. Groups/clubs releasing open hardware and seeking funding (Air Quality Egg)Importance: TBD :)
Bio: Ian builds a new open hardware project every month at DangerousPrototypes.com. Copies of the projects are available from Seeed Studio’s open hardware manufacturing service.