Open-source product development

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Open source product development (OSPD) refers to the development of open-source hardware products in a collaborative process allowing open participation from anyone, or the application of the open-source model in physical products. [1]

Contents

Characteristics

OSPD is characterized by the presence of two forms of openness:

Generally, OSPD processes are relevant for complex products, whose definition requires the collaborative integration of input from multiple contributors. This, however, does not exclude the existence of OSPD processes for simple products. OSPD specifies the concept of "open source innovation" as defined by Huizingh [2] with complex tangible products.

Process openness requires that the product development process is performed by a "community". The word "community" is used in contrast to "company" or "team" in order to highlight three fundamental differences with the governance of conventional industrial product development. [3]

OSPD is "collaborative" in that it is performed with a certain simultaneity or parallelism in the work provided by the community members. In other words, OSPD is characterized by "intention for co-development". [4] Collaboration is defined as the coordinated work performed by a group using common material and following a common objective. [5] It therefore delineates with sequential development loops of open source designs [6] where a product is sequentially developed and released by an isolated member then reused, further developed and released again by another community member, and so on.

Further characteristics

Delineation with other terms

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-source software</span> Software licensed to ensure source code usage rights

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative, public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software.

Participatory design is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all stakeholders in the design process to help ensure the result meets their needs and is usable. Participatory design is an approach which is focused on processes and procedures of design and is not a design style. The term is used in a variety of fields e.g. software design, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, product design, sustainability, graphic design, industrial design, planning, and health services development as a way of creating environments that are more responsive and appropriate to their inhabitants' and users' cultural, emotional, spiritual and practical needs. It is also one approach to placemaking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-design movement</span> Movement for product development with publicly shared designs

The open-design movement involves the development of physical products, machines and systems through use of publicly shared design information. This includes the making of both free and open-source software (FOSS) as well as open-source hardware. The process is generally facilitated by the Internet and often performed without monetary compensation. The goals and philosophy of the movement are identical to that of the open-source movement, but are implemented for the development of physical products rather than software. Open design is a form of co-creation, where the final product is designed by the users, rather than an external stakeholder such as a private company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-source hardware</span> Hardware from the open-design movement

Open-source hardware consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and apply a like concept to a variety of components. It is sometimes, thus, referred to as FOSH. The term usually means that information about the hardware is easily discerned so that others can make it – coupling it closely to the maker movement. Hardware design, in addition to the software that drives the hardware, are all released under free/libre terms. The original sharer gains feedback and potentially improvements on the design from the FOSH community. There is now significant evidence that such sharing can drive a high return on investment for the scientific community.

Neuros Technology was a Chicago, Illinois–based company that produced a number of audio and video devices under the brand name Neuros. Founded by Joe Born in 2001 as a division of Digital Innovations, it previously operated under the name Neuros Audio. Like Digital Innovations, Neuros distinguished itself by its use of open-innovation and crowdsourcing techniques to bring products to market, as well as by its prominent use of open-source software and open-source hardware. In its development model, end users were involved throughout the product development process from reviewing initial concepts to beta testing initial product releases.

There is no agreed definition of value networks. A general definition that subsumes the other definitions is that a value network is a network of roles linked by interactions in which economic entities engage in both tangible and intangible exchanges to achieve economic or social good. This is close to the definition of Verna Allee, see below. Here are a few definitions that provide different perspectives on the general concept of a value network.

Commons-based peer production (CBPP) is a term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler. It describes a model of socio-economic production in which large numbers of people work cooperatively; usually over the Internet. Commons-based projects generally have less rigid hierarchical structures than those under more traditional business models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open research</span> Research made available to the public

Open research is research that is openly accessible by others. Those who publish research in this way are often concerned with making research more transparent, more collaborative, more wide-reaching, and more efficient. Open research aims to make both research methods and the resulting data freely available, often via the internet, in order to support reproducibility and, potentially, massively distributed research collaboration. In this regard, it is related to both open source software and citizen science.

An ideas bank is a widely available shared resource, usually a website, where people post, exchange, discuss, and polish new ideas. Some ideas banks are used to develop new inventions or technologies. Many corporations have installed internal ideas banks to gather the input from their employees and improve their ideation process. Some ideas banks employ a voting system to estimate an idea's value. In some cases, ideas banks can be more humor-oriented than their serious counterparts. The underlying theory of an ideas bank is that if a large group of people collaborate on a project or the development of an idea that eventually said project or idea will reach perfection in the eyes of those who worked on it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crowdsourcing</span> Sourcing services or funds from a group

Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digital platforms to attract and divide work between participants to achieve a cumulative result. Crowdsourcing is not limited to online activity, however, and there are various historical examples of crowdsourcing. The word crowdsourcing is a portmanteau of "crowd" and "outsourcing". In contrast to outsourcing, crowdsourcing usually involves less specific and more public groups of participants.

Co-creation, in the context of a business, refers to a product or service design process in which input from consumers plays a central role from beginning to end. Less specifically, the term is also used for any way in which a business allows consumers to submit ideas, designs or content. This way, the firm will not run out of ideas regarding the design to be created and at the same time, it will further strengthen the business relationship between the firm and its customers. Another meaning is the creation of value by ordinary people, whether for a company or not. The first person to use the "Co-" in "co-creation" as a marketing prefix was Koichi Shimizu, professor of Josai University, in 1979. In 1979, "co-marketing" was introduced at the Japan Society of Commerce's national conference. Everything with "Co" comes from here.

Living labs are open innovation ecosystems in real-life environments using iterative feedback processes throughout a lifecycle approach of an innovation to create sustainable impact. They focus on co-creation, rapid prototyping & testing and scaling-up innovations & businesses, providing joint-value to the involved stakeholders. In this context, living labs operate as intermediaries/orchestrators among citizens, research organisations, companies and government agencies/levels.

Citizen sourcing is the government adoption of crowdsourcing techniques for the purposes of (1) enlisting citizens in the design and execution of government services and (2) tapping into the citizenry's collective intelligence for solutions and situational awareness. Applications of citizen sourcing include:

Open-source appropriate technology (OSAT) is appropriate technology developed through the principles of the open-design movement. Appropriate technology is technology designed with special consideration for the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political, and economic aspects of the community it is intended for. Open design is public and licensed to allow it to be used, modified, and distributed freely.

Crowdsourcing software development or software crowdsourcing is an emerging area of software engineering. It is an open call for participation in any task of software development, including documentation, design, coding and testing. These tasks are normally conducted by either members of a software enterprise or people contracted by the enterprise. But in software crowdsourcing, all the tasks can be assigned to or are addressed by members of the general public. Individuals and teams may also participate in crowdsourcing contests.

Government crowdsourcing is a form of crowdsourcing employed by governments to better leverage their constituents' collective knowledge and experience. It has tended to take the form of public feedback, project development, or petitions in the past, but has grown to include public drafting of bills and constitutions, among other things. This form of public involvement in the governing process differs from older systems of popular action, from town halls to referendums, in that it is primarily conducted online or through a similar IT medium.

Open collaboration refers to any "system of innovation or production that relies on goal-oriented yet loosely coordinated participants who cooperate voluntarily to create a product of economic value, which is made freely available to contributors and noncontributors alike." It is prominently observed in open source software, and has been initially described in Richard Stallman's GNU Manifesto, as well as Eric S. Raymond's 1997 essay, The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Beyond open source software, open collaboration is also applied to the development of other types of mind or creative works, such as information provision in Internet forums, or the production of encyclopedic content in Wikipedia.

Open manufacturing, also known as open production, maker mamanufacturing or material peer production and with the slogan "Design Global, Manufacture Local" is a new model of socioeconomic production in which physical objects are produced in an open, collaborative and distributed manner and based on open design and open-source principles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open source</span> Source code made freely available

Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration. A main principle of open source software development is peer production, with products such as source code, blueprints, and documentation freely available to the public. The open source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code. The model is used for projects such as in open source appropriate technology, and open source drug discovery.

References

  1. gil (2016-08-08). "Is There a Future for Open Source Product Development? | Software Test Management | Testuff" . Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  2. Huizingh, Eelko K. R. E. 2011. “Open Innovation: State of the Art and Future Perspectives.” Technovation, Open Innovation - ISPIM Selected Papers, 31 (1): 2–9.
  3. see for example Demazière, Didier, François Horn, and Marc Zune. “Des relations de travail sans règles ?Sociétés contemporaines, no. 66: 101–125.
  4. Raasch, Christina, and Cornelius Herstatt. 2011. "Product Development in Open Design Communities: A Process Perspective." International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management 08 (04): 557–575.
  5. Leimeister, Jan Marco, and Eva Alice Christiane Bittner. 2014. “Collaboration Engineering.” WiSt - Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium 43 (5): 243–249.
  6. for a description of such iterative processes, see Kyriakou, Harris, Jeffrey V. Nickerson, and Gaurav Sabnis. 2017. "Knowledge Reuse for Customization: Metamodels in an Open Design Community for 3D Printing." SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 2924083. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network.
  7. Fjeldsted, A.S., G. Adalsteinsdottir, T. J. Howard, and T. C. McAloone. 2012. "Open Source Development of Tangible Products-from a Business Perspective." In DS 71: Proceedings of NordDesign 2012, the 9th NordDesign conference, Aarlborg University, Denmark. 22-24.08.2012.
  8. Bonvoisin, Jérémy, Laetitia Thomas, Robert Mies, Céline Gros, Rainer Stark, Karine Samuel, Roland Jochem, Jean-François Boujut. "Current state of practices in open source product development." Accepted for publication at the ICED 2017 Conference (to be published)
  9. Brulé, Emeline, and Frédéric Valentin. 2016. "Of Open Bodies: Challenges and Perspectives of an Open Design Paradigm." In 50th Anniversary Design Research Society Conference. Proceedings of DRS’16. Brighton, United Kingdom.
  10. Ronen Kadushin, "Open Design Manifesto."
  11. Open Design Definition v. 0.5
  12. Aitamurto, Tanja, Dónal Holland, and Sofia Hussain. 2015. "The Open Paradigm in Design Research. Design Issues 31 (4): 17–29.
  13. Ostuzzi, Francesca, Peter Conradie, Lieven De Couvreur, Jan Detand, and Jelle Saldien. 2016. “The Role of Re-Appropriation in Open Design: A Case Study on How Openness in Higher Education for Industrial Design Engineering Can Trigger Global Discussions on the Theme of Urban Gardening.” The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 17 (4).
  14. Buitenhuis, A. J., & Pearce, J. M. (2012). "Open-source development of solar photovoltaic technology". Energy for Sustainable Development, 16(3), 379–388.
  15. Howard, T. J., Achiche, S., Özkil, A., & McAloone, T. C. (2012). "Open Design and Crowdsourcing: maturity, methodology and business models." Proceedings of the 12th International Design Conference DESIGN 2012, 181–190.
  16. Fjeldsted, A. S., Adalsteinsdottir, G., Howard, T. J., & McAloone, T. C. (2012). "Open Source Development of Tangible Products-from a business perspective". Presented at the NordDesign 2012, Aalborg, Denmark.