hi as you might know I'm a big supporter of open-source hardware have done a few
open source hardware projects and I've done a few videos on it so click to
check those out if you haven't seen them already but unfortunately there's some
big problems with open source hardware and the use of the famous gear
logo and these issues don't look like they going to sort themselves out
anytime soon
now open source hardware is hugely popular and then sort of like a de facto
standard community-driven definition for what open source hardware isn't click
here if you haven't seen that and a whole bunch of big players supported
including myself and there's the gear logo that everyone loves and they
plaster it over absolutely everything
so what's the problem well it's the latter that is the first problem with
open-source hardware -- everyone is using this logo's slapping the gear logo on
anything regardless of whether or not it meets that community-driven definition
and sometimes this is done completely innocently with the best of intentions
other times it can be a marketing ploy just to you know capitalize on the open
source hardware name and the community and the brand and everything else where
people slapped the logo on and it doesn't really meet the open-source hardware
definition and many people might say well so what the gear logo itself is
open-source you don't have to abide by the definition the community is
kind of community police the market will sort of take care of itself and you know
what there's no issue with doing that if you don't want to follow the formal
definition you don't have to
okay well that's actually a fair enough argument but that's the problem
and with the use of the gear logo it's turned into a bit of a shambles people
are slapping it on absolutely everything and there's nothing inherently wrong
with that it's great
it helps promote and support open source hardware but just by looking at that
logo on a product on a PCB on a webpage or you know a Kickstarter campaign or
something like that you don't know what it actually means do they meet the
formal community-driven definition
and or do they just release a schematic as a PDF and call it open or did they
release the firmware or part of it what do they have a non-commercial clause in
the license you just don't know by looking at the logo so the logos kind of
become a bit meaningless ends lost its value and that's a major problem so the
trying to fix the open-source Hardware Association quite some time back
proposed a new trademarked open-source Hardware logo that they would control
the rights to so that people can't just slap it on anything if you want to use
that certified logo then you would have to abide by the definitions and
there would be penalties if you don't comply
maybe they might be there was talk of a license for you i'm not sure if that's
still happening and ok that is one solution to the problem so that was
generally I think not very well received and actually quite a few people got
quite upset about it and I can understand why because it's essentially
a bureaucratic solution to a problem and a community in that doesn't respond well
to bureaucratic process so whilst I applaud their efforts in trying to fix
it this way ultimately i personally don't think it's going to be that
successful and it does risk actually fragmenting the community more but it
also doesn't solve the problem of the original open-source hardware gear logo
which people are still going to continue to use regardless of what this
new certified standard does so essentially it's a solution that just
will abandon the problem altogether with using the gear logo and starts again
from fresh and I don't think that's what we need but I it could work on its own
as an independent thing for the true spirit of open-source hardware which is
everything open with the original definition and that's fine i support
them continuing trying to do that now the next problem is the open-source
Hardware definition itself it's basically all or nothing it's like
completely open or nothing like you shouldn't use the gear logo you
shouldn't use some people saying you shouldn't even use the name you should
call it something different like just open hardware instead of open-source
hardware
and well that's a problem so creating like two camps the open-source Hardware
camp in the open hardware camp that just further splits the community and waters
down the gear logo which is so popular and has so much traction and the current
community definition for open source hardware is very strict and rightly so
because that was the original intention behind it was that you open everything
everyone is free to copy and also commercially copy the design and build
upon it and everything else and I still support that philosophy but it has
a major problem the problem is is that big companies commercial companies who
want to get into open-source hardware and release open products are sort of often a
bit scared and I've got personal experience with this that this scared to
that they have to open everything and they can't use a non-commercial clause
for some aspect of it all or whatever and quite frankly i can actually see
their point of view because personally I'd rather have companies join on the
open hardware bandwagon and release whatever they feel comfortable releasing
anything that's just the schematic well so be it release just the schematic hey
that's a small win and a bigger step towards opening up hardware but
unfortunately with the current definition and current sentiment in
the community companies that do this and might potentially want to use the gear
logo or they might want to call it open hardware open-source Hardware risk
having their asses handed to them on a plate by the community if they attempt
to use the word open source hardware or open hardware and they might use a
license people don't like or they might do this all that when they don't meet
the strict formal definition and I think that's wrong i think we should encourage
them to do that i'd rather encourage companies to at least open some of their
hardware rather than just scare them away and they just don't open anything
so is it right that these companies all these individuals shunned by the
community because they don't open their product enough that doesn't seem right
Are they forbidden for using the words open and hardware in the same sentence
without going the whole hog that doesn't seem right either and I can hear it now
the open-source hardware
purists are probably chanting freedom freedom freedom and whilst I
support this sentiment i don't think it reflects the practical reality of the
hardware business that we're in people will still do what they want to do and I
think we can have this all-or-nothing approach so I think we need to
essentially claim back this open-source hardware logo the gear logo but not
in an authoritarian way but one that actually supports and accepts the
practical reality of the hardware business that we're in and yep you
guessed it
I've got a plan we know that everyone loves the gear logo so let's keep that
of course but let's change the definition so that you can open as
little or as much as you want as long as you identify what you can kind of do
that at the moment by going to our project website down to the download
page checking out what stuff they've got available to download what they're
making available and what license are using but that is not at all obvious
from just the gear logo
what if we had a gear logo that represented how open a project is.
That would be cool.
Let's say you want to release the schematic. Hey, let's add a little 's' to
the logo. Want to release the PCB -- add a 'p'. Want to release your firmware -- add a big
fat 'F'. Want to release your mechanical CAD files -- add the big 'M'. Have you got
design documentation you want to release you know those things we used to do back
in the magazine project days before this internet rubbish came along where you
would publish a theory of operation flowcharts and how it works and how to
troubleshoot and everything else
Well you can do that -- add a big fat 'D'. Have you got a BOM with that -- give me a
'B' and we've got one space left on our gear so finally if you're using a
license that doesn't have a non-commercial restriction in it bloody
rippa good onya then you get to add a 'c' how easy is that
and the good thing is you can mix and match to add whatever you want to
release and it's immediately identifiable based on the gear logo so
if you just want to release the schematic well that's fine just put the
's' and if you using that license without any non-commercial clause you put a 'c'
as well and Bob's your uncle everyone knows where you stand and releasing
something is better than releasing nothing but I know what you're thinking
Dave what about the original design files what if people just want to
release a PDF of the schematic instead of the schematic or original design
file same thing for with a PCB then we'll it gets a little bit trickier but
hey make them red to show that you're partially releasing it and of
course I think this logo might be a little bit tricky to use or as silk
screened on your PCB or something like that so maybe just continue to use the
regular gear symbol on its own on your PCB but then on your product
website on your Kickstarter page or whatever it is and plastered everywhere
you can put a more specific logo that shows exactly what you're releasing so
with a system like this i think it takes away all the ambiguity with the gear
logo and the good thing is they don't have to worry about getting scored by
the community for using the logo because it's clear what they're releasing of
course this is just my suggestion I'm just one voice in the community and
nobody really sets the standard for open source hardware and nor should they
the best idea and the best implementation should simply win out in
the marketplace of ideas and that's what I hope can happen with this one so if
you like this idea just start using it on your own project i'll be using it on
my projects and hopefully if enough people do it, it'll catch on and i'll
link to my website down below where you can actually download the image files
so you can use and then modify yourself so if you like my idea or you don't let me know
in the comments down below if you've got a better idea and different proposal or
modification
hey there's a link to the EEVblog forum where we can discuss it or just leave YouTube
comments and all that sort of jazz anyway catch you next time
hi I thought about talking about open source hardware or open hardware because it seems to be a
lot of confusion out there a lot of misinformation about exactly what
open-source hardware is what the definition of it is when can you call
your stuff open hardware
and what license should you use it why you would do it won't you give you stuff
away
sounds ridiculous well let's try and break it down for you
here we go