openMaterials

The Open Hardware Summit (OHS) invites submissions for the second annual summit, to be held on September 15, 2011 in New York City. The Open Hardware Summit is a venue to present, discuss, and learn about open hardware of all kinds. The summit examines open hardware and its relation to other issues, such as software, [...]

WikiChains is an initiative “to gaze backwards through the chains of production in order to gain knowledge about the sites of production, transformation, and distribution.” WikiChains is a website that aims to encourage ethical consumption and transparency in commodity chains. Contemporary capitalism conceals the histories and geographies of most commodities from consumers. Consumers are usually only [...]

Our friend Michel Bauwens fabs it up at Reality Sandwich by breaking down the rising activity in open design and manufacturing. The article outlines the barriers to creating truly open materials non-commercially. Michel, perhaps wisely,  does not suggest we’ll have a non-commercial environment, however. [T]o produce physical goods, there are inevitable costs of getting the capital together, [...]

OpenMaterials is a collaborative research project dedicated to open investigation and experimentation with DIY production methods and uses of materials. In the spirit of the open source software and hardware movements, we hope to promote materials to be researched and developed in a public, collaborative manner. We see materials as an open resource, and wish [...]