Open Source Manufacturing
Open Source Manufacturing (OSM) consists of applying Free Open Source Software (FOSS) values and methods to the act of making things. There is now a burgening community that is venturing into this area. Several years ago, I came up with my own definition and guidelines so I that is linked below along with other definitions and links on the internet.
- Open Source Manufacturing – Our Definition
- Open Source Hardware (OSHW) Draft Definition version 0.3
- Open Source Manufacturing (google group)
There are now a fair amount of variation on the theme of open source manufacturing. From the Wired article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/look.html), here are some of the most interesting:
- Threadless – T-shirt manufacturing that crowd-sources designs
- John Fulevog Shoes – Regular shoe manufacturer that has an crowd sourced effort for shoe design
- Local Motors – They build crowd-sourced limited production vehicles that are produced in local “micro-factories”
- River Simple – A small UK firm wanting to build a hydrogen fuel cell car whose design is open source. The open source info is supposed to be here.