General developments

In the past 10 years significant development have taken place in our world.

• The internet has become ‘mature’, it is  and it’s quick.

• People’s mindset has changed, nowadays it is more and more about “sharing” and “openess”. Knowledge and science are abundantly available and easy to excess through the internet and networks. Naturally we have te mention Wikipedia here, but think of all the countless forums that exist. 

• Juridical tools have been developed for online content. One example is Creative Commons. People who share their photo on Flickr, can easily indicate what others are allowed to do with it, by using a so-called Creative Commons license. "Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge and creativity with the world."

• Mass customization, where customers can tailor a product’s appearance, features or content to their own specifications, is back with a vengeance and thriving. Read more.

• Digital manufacturing technologies have become accessible for a larger public. 

The tools and knowledge available to us have significantly reduced barriers. 

With the internet as infrastucture, the sharing-knowledge mindset and easy-to-use tools there is no holding back and "the crowd pours in..." Chris Anderson (Wired).

This happens in every type of industry. Lower the barrier, give people a chance and they will seize the opportunity.

Take a look at the creativity explosion in the music and film industry in the past years. A very interesting documentary to watch about this is PressPausePlay. 

Or take the enourmous growth of the DIY (Do It Yourself) and maker movement. Makezine.com gets around 2.5 millon unique visitors per month. "MAKE's mission is to unite, inspire, inform and entertain a growing community of highly imaginative and resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages. We call these people 'Makers' ". Read more. maker faires are held all around the world. Another example is Etsy, "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade, vintage and supplies" with 800,000 active sellers and 13 million members (read more) and "Share what you make" Instructables 

From digital to physical

As a result of the mentioned developments, the digital and online world has a big influence on, and is entwined with our physical world.

The way things in our physical world are created is changing: the design process, development, fabrication and distribution of products. 

Today, most products are designed digitally. There is wide variety of easy to use, affordable or even free software to do so. 

Take the popular and free 3D modelling application Google Sketch Up or the free and open source 3D modeling and animation applications Blender and Art of Illusion. 

Or even easier: download 3D CAD files from sites like Thingiverse and even Pirate Bay, one of the world's largest facilitators of illegal downloading, has announced their Physibles, the place to download "data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical".

Using 3D CAD files, it is possible to manufacture a product with the use of digital manufacturing technologies like additive manufacturing or laser sintering. 

"DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin have publicly declared that digital technologies have saved them millions of dollars in just a few years". Read more. 

Cheaper and open source fabrication tools and developments in digital technologies have made professional development and manufacturing possibiliets obtainable for a larger public. 

FabLabs have lowered the barrier to get acquainted with such technologies. "A fab lab is generally equipped with an array of flexible computer controlled tools that cover several different length scales and various materials, with the aim to make "almost anything".

You can buy a 3D printer, lasercutter or CNC cutter for less than 1000 euros or, if you’re a bit handy, you can even make your own. RepRap is an example of an open source 3D printer and is also self-replicating. You can find open source or free CAD software to control your machines.  

An interesting website to visit is Ponoko: "It’s where creators, digital fabricators, materials suppliers and buyers meet to make (almost) anything." 

Business at home

Local production is thriving, you can even sell and distribute your home made products online. You can easily upscale and professionalize your business through websites like Alibaba.com, where you can get in contact with fabrication facilites in manufacturing countries. Nowadays, upscaling and outsourcing your products has become a lot easier and faster.

Open-Design

Open-design applies the idea of open-source to physical products.

Increasingly the concepts of open-source software are being applied to various fields, for example open-science and open-biology. It has also spread to the design of products, and is called open-design. Its range includes products like furniture, electroncial devices and architecture, and is basically unlimited in its possible applications.

Open-design means that in the design process, of for example a chair, the idea and all design information such as sketches and 3D-files are shared openly through the internet, and that everyone is allowed to take part, to use or to adapt the design.

A very interesting initiative is the (Un)limited Design Contest. "(Un)limited Design functions as an experiment in Open Design – the sharing of creative work in the same manner as open source software".

The resulting design has a Creative Commons license chosen by the starter of the project. This license determines in what way the design may be used and shared, for example if commercial usage is allowed or not.

By means of those licenses creative works can be shared in a safe way. 
Some open-source software licenses, such as the General Public Licence (GPL) may also be translated to to open-design.

So open-design refers to both an open and collaborative design process, as to physical products that  can be shared, used or adapted freely.

According to Andrew Katz* a design is totally open as it bears 4 freedoms;

- Freedom to use, including making it.
- Freedom to study how the design works and to change it to make it do what you wish
- Freedom to redistribute copies of the design, so you can help your neighbours.
- Freedom to distribute copies of your own modified version, so the whole community can benefit from your changes. 

However between a totally closed design, with all rights reserved, and a design that is totally open lie a number of possibilities to make a design usable and shareable for others. It is not possible, or necessary to draw a hard line between close and open. Open design has a large grey area.
The extend to which a design is opened will depend on its application, so a user has to choose the openness and the accompanying license that suits best.

An important note is that open-design doesn't necessarily exclude monetization possibilities or rejects all commercial use. To use the words of open-source software activist Richard Stallman*;
“Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.” 

Why would people open their design-process, share their designs and ideas?

The applications of open design and the reasons why people get engaged in it are diverse. 

Some projects start as initiatives of individual designers or small groups. People put in their knowledge and passion and share what they achieved with the community that shares their interests. Some work open-source because of a firm belief in this phylosofie. However, often people are moved by more subtile reasons and they see that “open” and “closed” can co-exsist.

People start open-design projects, or contribute to them, for the common good. Open-design is a very appropriate method for solving issues that are of great public interest or where commercial interest is lacking. For example developing solutions for environmental issus, developing  ecological or cheaper technologies, and medications against deseases that are ignored by the pharmaceutical industry. People that participate in such projects know why, because it feels good. A nice example is the OpenIDEO platform. "OpenIDEO is a place where people design better, together for social good."

Open design can also provide a framework for developing very advanced projects and technologies that might be beyond the resource of any one company or individual. An example is DARwIn-OP, a collaborative effort between universities and a robotics company to create a humanoid robot. 

Another trend is that open-design is used merely for creative reasons and powers creative development. It can enable users to share and remix each others work without constraints. It can also involve people who, without the copyleft mechanism, might not otherwise collaborate.

The rewards for contributing also includes indirect mechanisms, such as:
enhanced reputation, learning processes, social recognition and the joy of creative activity itself. 

One might be able reach a much bigger and broader audience for his/hers work by allowing others to share and adapt the work, which otherwise might not be of interest to many people.

Benefits from the community

By sharing your work, you can get in collaboration with others and get selfless help more easily. Furthermore, as a maker you give others the possibilty to work further on your concept, to innovate your product or to use your findings for other applications.

“Open work” can lead its own life because, in contrast to “closed work” that is dependant to the original maker, others can build further on it. If you base your work on something that is already “open”, you can achieve knowledge and be part of a skillful communtiy. Also it could be very valueble for your product if you manage to build a lively community around it yourself.

Furthermore, being part of a community could be the incentive to participate in open design projects. Making impact on your community can be highly motivating and gives you a chance to display your talents.

Making/saving money by being open

An active, open project can open possibilities to find a job. It also happened on a large scale in the softwareindustry.

You can also attract a lot of attention to your work from which you can develop a revenue model.

Also, the open-design model makes manufacturing and development processes available that otherwise would cost a lot of money and time. Take a look at the open source 3D-printing community, where people, added toghether, spend 1 million euros  a year en 200 FTE on it. Linux started an innovation process that even the largest company is not capable to match up to. 

Read more about how to make money with open source. 

There are numerous communities built around succesful open-design applications. Take Arduino, the open-source microcontroller, often used by multimedia artists. Their community consists of more than 50.000 members that work on and with Arduino and openly share their knowledge and skills with one another. Or the earlier mentioned RepRap 3D printer, that started in 2007 and in the meantime has exploded into more than 100 derivative projects or evolved version of the original.

Open-design compared to open-source software

The "open design" movement is currently just taking off but holds great potential for the future. In some respects design and engineering are even more suited to open collaborative development than the increasingly common open-source software projects, because with 3D models and photographs the concept can often be understood visually. It is not even necessary that the project members speak the same languages to usefully collaborate.

However there are certain barriers to overcome for open design when compared to software development where there are mature and widely used tools available and the duplication and distribution of code cost next to nothing. Creating, testing and modifying physical designs is not quite so straightforward because of the effort, time and costs required to create the physical artefact; although with access to emerging flexible computer-controlled manufacturing techniques the complexity and effort of construction can be significantly reduced. [source: wikipedia >]