OSHW Definition and Best Practices - Building Open Source Hardware - page 35

the open source method when it comes to hardware, we must open
source our failures along with our successes, so those who come behind
us can build on our complete experience and not just the times when
we have found things that work. In other words, we must change our
culture to one that asks, “What do you mean you didn't share your fail-
ure?!?”
Summary
Although many individuals and companies have endorsed both the OSHW Definition and
Best Practices, the open source hardware movement is still young, and the documents con-
tinue to be malleable. Moreover, as we've seen with Mach 30's OSHW Ground Rules, the
documents have room for growth. For this reason, the wiki 3 —where the OSHW Defini-
tion was originally written—is still available for edits, as is the Best Practices doc. 4 The
definition has also served as a jumping-off point for several open source hardware licenses.
For further explanation of the legal and intellectual property implications of hardware, see
Chapter 3 . For the history of how the movement has grown, see Chapter 1 .
3 . http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW
4 . http://bit.ly/oshwbestpractices
The OSHW Definition and Best Practices are lengthy, in-depth documents. To help
disseminate key points, see the open source hardware checklist and the “must” and “may”
bulleted lists in Appendix A in this topic. Since the definition and best practices lie at the
heart of the open source hardware movement, you may be interested in other aspects of
open source development. If you have read this chapter to ensure your hardware is open
source and are currently building your hardware, you may want to flip to Chapter 12 , Ac-
celerate from Making to Manufacturing . If you are looking for resources on documenta-
tion, read Chapter 14 , Taxonomy of Hardware Documentation . If you're just getting star-
ted, you may want some advice from Chapter 5 , The Design Process: How to Get from
Nothing to Something .