Open-Source Hardware Association!

David Mellis

April 12, 2012

Open-source hardware has seen a number of exciting development over the past few years: the open hardware summit [ http://summit.oshwa.org/ ], the open-source hardware definition [ http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW ], an open-source hardware logo [ http://oshwlogo.com/ ], and, of course, lots of great new open-source hardware products. Many of the people behind these efforts have been working together to establish an lasting framework for the promotion of open-source hardware and the coordination of these kinds of community initiatives. I’m very happy to share the news that this initiative has found a home in the newly-announced Open-Source Hardware Association [ http://www.oshwa.org/ ] (OSHWA).

The founding board consists of Alicia Gibb, co-founder of the Open Hardware Summit and former employee of Bug Labs; Nathan Seidle, founder and CEO of SparkFun Electronics; Windell Oskay, co-founder of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories; Danese Cooper, a long-time advocate of open-source; Wendy Seltzer, a lawyer and expert in free software and free speech; and Catarina Mota, PhD researcher and co-organizer of this year’s Open Hardware Summit.

The association was set up and the initial board members selected by a working group which also included myself, Tom Igoe, and Massimo Banzi (of Arduino); Ayah Bdeir, co-founder of the Open Hardware Summit, founder of littlebits, and instigator of many of the above community initiatives; and many others (listed in the OSHWA FAQ [ http://www.oshwa.org/faq/ ] ). These folks have been much of the driving force behind the open-source hardware summit, definition, and logo and I’m thrilled to see the energy from these efforts being translated into a more lasting form. Additional board members will be elected soon, from public nominations.

This is a very exciting time for open-source hardware and I think the establishment of the association is an important step in maintaing and developing a vibrant open-source hardware community.

Read more about the Open-Source Hardware Association [ http://www.oshwa.org/ ] here.