What are the possibilities of Open Source Hardware – and what are the challenges? How do you convert a business to Open Source? What potential revenue streams for OS development have the OPENNEXT projects revealed? And how do you create a community? 

The current way in which we development, manufacture and distribute products is not just costly, but also highly unsustainable and unreliable. If the pending climate crisis hasn’t already proved it, the past two years with the global pandemic and war in Europe has provided undeniable evidence suggesting that time is due for change. If we want to streamline new solutions we simply cannot continue to let silo thinking obstruct our outlook or rely on the rigid supply chains of an outdated market structure.

WHAT IF…

Instead of creating an unsustainable amount of one-size-fits-all solutions, we created a singular one-size-adaptable-to-all solution. We let common solutions become a commons, so that anyone, regardless of wealth, status, nationality or gender, can adapt, remix and repair according to needs and local materials.

Open source hardware has the potential to fundamentally change the future of product creation. What’s more, it’s not a new concept. Several hardware businesses are claiming success with taking an open source approach. But more often than not, it is hard to succeed with open source hardware development. Not only are the ways of OS highly counterintuitive, it also entails a large amount of unknowns.

THE CHALLENGE: How do you make a business out of giving something away for free? 

It takes courage to explore the unknown. From Columbus potentially sailing over the edge of the world, to Neil Armstrong placing his foot on the moon, some of humanity’s greatest explorations and the derivatives they’ve bred required first and foremost an open minds. 

In OPENNEXT, six small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) took a leap of faith and ventured into their open-source hardware development (OSHD) journeys, becoming the best-practice examples and reference points for future OSH businesses.

At the end of their 18 months development sprints, the OPENNEXT consortium gathered to explore what we had learned together compiled in the so-called Open Hardware Future Talks series.

Dive into the perspectives of OSHD, build-to-order furniture, open mobility, user electronics and future scenarios of impact