Open Source Hardware

Can the DIY ethic of the Web be transfered to the physical world of atoms? It feels like the push is on with the sudden interest in customer-driven innovation and the various hacker/maker activities. But do the same rules apply? In the digital universe, coding an HTML page, posting a photo or writing a blog entry is entirely different than designing and building a physical object. Why? The physical world is less forgiving, which in turn puts significant emphasis on precision and accuracy. Errors are much more costly, literally. In the world of computers the only limited resource is time. In the world of atoms, time is only one of many limited resources. You can only make so many mistakes before you run out of raw material. Acquiring additional or extra resources requires money and, usually, more time. This then points to the need for fairly in-depth training and education in not only design but material science, which is fine for the early adopters but does not work for the mass market. Therefore, while one could make the argument that the world of physical DIY could experience significant growth, I believe it will be different, and more complicated. With the Web, anyone with a computer could participate, which means most of the US population. Where will the resources for the building of new things come from? In the consumer electronics space, the manufacturers of the latest and greatest gear don't sell retail and definitely don't sell in quantities of one or two. In fact, getting access to the best stuff as a hobbyist today is next to impossible unless you cannibalize another device for its components - not a cheap option. What will the standards be for assembling things? The protocols for communicating between components - serial, USB, TCP/IP? What about physical interfaces? The list goes on. It's difficulty is what interests me and, ultimately, makes me believe that figuring it all out, hard though it may be, represents a big opportunity.