definitely interested
this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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I'd be interested in this as a developer that does a lot of open source work.
Maybe dumb, maybe already happening. "Open source" refers to code, but it would be cool if open source was open to all kinds of contributions, like information architecture, ui design, strategy, etc. without the barrier of technical literacy. It's difficult because all of the infrastructure for managing the projects is focused on code contributions and issues are, generally, submitted in the context that they can be addressed by code.
I guess I'm saying open project instead of source
could be a governance hell, but that's life eh
This project was in my mind when I wrote this https://openmovement.org/
this is exactly the kind of project I’d love to collaborate on, even if it’s a bit out of my area of expertise! the first thing that came to mind when I opened the page was “huh I wonder how much of this I could make 3D printable” and now I’m tempted to try it and release STLs and nonprintable parts lists for folks to make their own watches.
the same thing applies to a wide variety of other designs — I’d love to grab a well-documented open source keyboard design and swap its circuit board out for an open source FPGA dev board and use that as a whole reconfigurable computing platform, for example
One potentially relevant idea I’ve thought about is starting a design collective with a focus on anti-capitalist/profitable design. We’d intentionally make designs that people can build from easily obtainable/reclaimable materials to take the place of products that you would normally buy instead. This is already a reality within the realm of programming/the open source community, but you don’t really see this for physical objects. Like you can fork the code for some open source project, but good luck building a computer from the component level up to run it on.
Again- just something I’ve been thinking about. Creating user-buildable designs for complex things like modern day computers or motor vehicles would be difficult. I guess I want to live in the past when you could buy DIY house/car kits??
I guess I want to live in the past when you could buy DIY house/car kits??
If you haven’t you should read Victor Papanek’s Design For The Real World or How Things Don’t Work
Thanks for the rec!
this is, no shit, exactly the thread I’ve been chasing with a bunch of my projects. a lot of the hardware I use the most is either handmade or heavily modified with bespoke components, and that process has already produced so many things I’ll likely keep using forever that I’ve been looking at extending it to the rest of my computing environment
to that end, I’ve already got a static site generator and operating system distro/programming workbench that are both a little bit of polishing away from an initial public release, and I plan to release them under anti-commercial terms and form a collective to manage those projects (and maybe down the line reform it as a cooperative, if any of the projects get big enough that it makes sense)
organizing around these principles wouldn’t by any means be required to participate in the new community, but I feel like it’d be a good vibe to start on