OSHWA announced during the Open Hardware Summit on Friday that:
Certified open source hardware is now in 47 countries! And every continent except for Antarctica.
C’mon Antarctica!
Have open hardware to certify (it’s free)?
Originally tweeted by oshwa (@oshwassociation) on April 9, 2021.
The 2021 Open Hardware Summit starts tomorrow, Friday, April 9th, at 10:00 EDT / 14:00 UTC
Tickets are still available starting at $20
Here is the schedule for the 2021 Open Hardware Summit this Friday, April 9th, from 10am – 5:30pm EDT:
New post from OSHWA executive director Alicia Gibb in the Journal of OpenHW:
Enabling American Science through Open Source Hardware
The US is primed and ready for open source hardware to accelerate scientific breakthroughs, but open source hardware needs a cemented place on the intellectual property landscape within the sciences enabling a faster, more efficient acceleration. If we can cement science using open source hardware, we’ve got a path to expanding American manufacturing. Many businesses profit from open source hardware, demonstrating that it is a lucrative business model. The field of science needs equipment for all sorts of experiments and lab work. Let’s apply the groundwork already laid in the United States for open source hardware to be the default for science.
News from the Open Hardware Summit coming up in April:
Open Hardware Summit (Edition 11), Call for Proposals
Link to Apply: https://forms.gle/RNXUfWaZBpohdq5Y6
The Open Hardware Summit (OHS) invites talk proposals for the eleventh annual summit! This year’s summit is virtual and will be held online on Friday 2021-04-09, 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM EDT.
The Open Hardware Summit is for presenting, discussing, and learning about open hardware of all kinds. The summit examines open hardware applications, practices, and theory, ranging from environmental sensors to 3D printable medical devices to open hardware processors and beyond. We are interested in open hardware on its own as well as in relation to topics such as software, design, business, law, and education. Past talks have featured topics such as advances in space propulsion, humanitarian projects, right to repair legislation, open hardware in education, and open hardware marketing.
For our eleventh edition we are especially looking for speakers who can offer insights around the role of open hardware in the COVID-19 pandemic, open hardware medical devices, and related topics.
We invite talk proposals from individuals and groups. Submissions are due by Thursday 2021-02-11 at 11 PM EDT.
News from the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA):
Announcing the Open Source Hardware Certification API
Today we are excited to announce the launch of a read/write API for our Open Source Hardware Certification program. This API will make it easier to apply for certification directly from where you already document your hardware, as well as empower research, visualizations, and explorations of currently certified hardware.
OSHWA’s Open Source Hardware Certification program has long been an easy way for creators and users alike to identify hardware that complies with the community definition of open source hardware. Since its creation in 2016, this free program has certified hardware from over 45 countries on every continent except Antarctica. Whenever you see the certification logo on hardware:
You know that it complies with the definition and that the documentation can be found using its unique identifier (UID).
What’s New?
The new API supports both read and write access to the certification process.
Write access means that you can submit certification applications directly instead of using the application form. If you already have all of the application information in a system, there is no need to retype them into a webform.
We hope that this will make it easier for entities that certify large amounts of hardware to build the certification process directly into their standard workflow. We are also working with popular platforms to integrate a ‘certify’ button directly into their systems.
Read access gives you access to information about hardware that has already been certified. This will make it easier to explore the data for research, create compelling visualizations of certified hardware, and build customized lenses to understand what is happening in open source hardware.
What Happens Now?
The first thing you can do is get a key and start exploring the API itself. The team at Objectively has created detailed documentation, code snippets, and sandboxes that make it easy to test out all of the features.
In the longer term, we hope that the community will build better ways to both submit applications for certification and present information about certified hardware. OSHWA expects to maintain our application form and certification list for the foreseeable future. That being said, we are also happy to share (and possibly cede) the stage to better ways to get information into and out of the system as they come along.
For now, let us know what you do with the API! You can tweet to us @OHSummit or send us an email at [email protected].
News from the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA):
In 2020 we conducted the third OSHW Community Survey (see 2012 and 2013), which collected 441 responses. All questions were optional, so you may notice response counts do not always add up to 441. In particular, a number of individuals didn’t feel comfortable with the demographic questions. We ask these questions as part of our efforts to promote diversity in the community, but these too were optional and anonymous.
A few highlights from this year’s survey compared to the 2013 survey:
- The portion of people coming to open source hardware from open source software increased from 14.6% to 23.9%
- In 2013, 42.8% of respondents indicated they have worked on or contributed to an open hardware project. This jumped to 85.6% in 2020.
- While 2013 showed a plurality of people using blogs to publish design files, this year’s survey shows public repositories as the most popular option. The increase in people with open source software experience and improvement in repository collaboration offerings may be contributing factors.
- This year’s survey shows a large increase in attendees for the 2020 Open Hardware Summit. This is likely due to 2020 being the first virtual summit. Although it was moved online due to unfortunate circumstances, the virtual platform offered the upside of greatly expanding the audience.
- A small gain in the community’s gender diversity was seen, with those identifying as either female or other making up 18% of respondents, compared to 7% in 2013.
Interested in more granular results for any of these questions? Reach out to us at [email protected].
For Open Hardware Month, Jeffrey Yoo Warren from the Open Source Hardware Association is compiling a list of Black creators in maker/DIY/open hardware/art:
Now is the time to nominate yourself for the Open Source Hardware Associtaion (OSHWA) board of directors:
OSHWA is looking for 5 new faces to join the board of directors for the Open Source Hardware Association.
The nominee form is, as always, for self-nominations only. Please fill out the nominee form (deactivated 11:59PM ET on Oct. 10th) to become a nominee or forward the link to someone you want to nominate. Do not fill out the form for someone else. The purpose of this form is to tell voting members why you want to serve on the OSHWA board. We will be publish the nominees and their answers on Oct 12th. Board members hold a 2-year position. Once board members have been chosen by the community, the board will appoint a President, VP, and Secretary. Board responsibilities include fundraising, advising on goals and direction, and carry out compliance with the organizations purposes and bylaws. See the board member agreement to get a sense of the responsibilities. Board members are expected to adhere to the board attendance policy and come prepared having read the board packet. Board members are expected to spend 5-10 hours of time per month on OSHWA. Nominees can submit questions to [email protected]. Nominations will be open until Oct. 10th.
OSH Park 