Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
stand built for use in education and training programs, Mach 30 shared
it on our social media channels, in video conferences, and on our blog
At Mach 30, we go further than just sharing our designs, because I
personally believe the values expressed in the “Statement of Principles”
should apply to all aspects of open source hardware. So, we share the
final design and everything leading up to it, including design decisions,
tests of the project's function, proposed modifications, and operating
instructions. Guided by this belief and the Definition of Open Source
Hardware, I propose the following Prime Directive of Open Source
Hardware:
If someone else cannot reproduce your project, your test, your modi-
fication, or any other aspect of your work, go back and improve the
documentation until they can.
Like Starfleet's Prime Directive, the Open Source Hardware Prime
Directive gives concrete direction on how to carry out our mission. If
one's work (e.g., a design, a test, user instructions) doesn't pass the test
embodied by the Prime Directive, the work is at best incomplete. At
worst, a lack of sufficient and accessible documentation is a sign of a
potentially non-open source project masquerading as open source. Even
the whiff of such a project will inevitably raise the ire of one or more
members of the open source hardware community (myself included;
ht-
All of this discussion about replication inevitably brings up the sub-
ject of cloners. I realize cloners can be, shall we say, a touchy subject in
the open source hardware community. But I also think they are an in-
tegral and important part of the open source economy, albeit with one
important caveat. Cloners are, simply put, proof of a project's success.
When someone decides to clone an open source hardware project, they
are demonstrating two important aspects of that project. First, the pro-
ject abides by the Prime Directive. If someone can clone the project,
that certainly counts as replication. Second, the project has developed
enough demand to warrant financial investment from third parties.
Even where there is no need to spend money on research and develop-
ment, setting up a production line for a cloned project is still an invest-
