Why Open Source Hardware Does Not Scale
The recent events with MakerBot made me think if the Open source hardware is actually a viable business solution in the form that is right now.
Are the first cracks appearing in the model , the same thing that happened with patent system a while ago?The patent system was created to protect the creators from other people copying their hard earned ideas.
The OSH(Open Source Hardware) went the opposite direction and said that sharing is more important, but still does not deal with how the product and the idea is handled ideally.This is OK but there are some issues that come out from that.Open source software and open source hardware are different.
Before that even if the product is "free" there are still costs.For software is still the cost of storage , transmission.This cost is very low for software , the cost of hardware is not by any means low. We are not so advanced to just send the information about the product and then create it whenever is needed. There are advances in this direction but we are not there yet.
So whenever you build something you gather your bill of materials and start buying parts , which ironically most of the time are not open source. The clash comes when the business has to make money and build new products and still try to release their product under OSH.
There are guidelines made by other makers like never copy another open source project which makes sense in sense of just playing nice with the other guys.
But there is no reinforcement of those unwritten rules. And beside the community's wrath are not enforceable .If somebody decides that is a good business to copy a OSH project could do it and there is nobody to stop him.Can the business that owns the product survive? Maybe the product costs 10$ and the company loses a few hundred dollars.maybe company invested a few hours developing the product.
It is not the end of the world.But how about the product costs $1K and development costs is thousands of dollars.Is that still OK? How about the product costs $1 million and development costs in millions.Is the builder still willing to release the product as open source?
Is Google releasing their search engine code public? No but they ere releasing a lot of open source products to advance their strategy.So maybe the best solution is a hybrid solution that releases some lower price products under OSH and proprietary release for some newer and expensive products but then release the product under OSH after a few years.
Here is another idea . Create a Delayed Open Hardware License.
The builder agrees to release the product with normal Open Hardware License after 1 year. Is somewhat similar to the patent system but there are no public releases until the Delayed Open Hardware License until it becomes public and can be used by everybody.
Are the first cracks appearing in the model , the same thing that happened with patent system a while ago?The patent system was created to protect the creators from other people copying their hard earned ideas.
The OSH(Open Source Hardware) went the opposite direction and said that sharing is more important, but still does not deal with how the product and the idea is handled ideally.This is OK but there are some issues that come out from that.Open source software and open source hardware are different.
Before that even if the product is "free" there are still costs.For software is still the cost of storage , transmission.This cost is very low for software , the cost of hardware is not by any means low. We are not so advanced to just send the information about the product and then create it whenever is needed. There are advances in this direction but we are not there yet.
So whenever you build something you gather your bill of materials and start buying parts , which ironically most of the time are not open source. The clash comes when the business has to make money and build new products and still try to release their product under OSH.
There are guidelines made by other makers like never copy another open source project which makes sense in sense of just playing nice with the other guys.
But there is no reinforcement of those unwritten rules. And beside the community's wrath are not enforceable .If somebody decides that is a good business to copy a OSH project could do it and there is nobody to stop him.Can the business that owns the product survive? Maybe the product costs 10$ and the company loses a few hundred dollars.maybe company invested a few hours developing the product.
It is not the end of the world.But how about the product costs $1K and development costs is thousands of dollars.Is that still OK? How about the product costs $1 million and development costs in millions.Is the builder still willing to release the product as open source?
Is Google releasing their search engine code public? No but they ere releasing a lot of open source products to advance their strategy.So maybe the best solution is a hybrid solution that releases some lower price products under OSH and proprietary release for some newer and expensive products but then release the product under OSH after a few years.
Here is another idea . Create a Delayed Open Hardware License.
The builder agrees to release the product with normal Open Hardware License after 1 year. Is somewhat similar to the patent system but there are no public releases until the Delayed Open Hardware License until it becomes public and can be used by everybody.