Knowledge Tree
open source development
Also known as: open source product development, OSPD
Facts (50)
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Seven observations and research questions about Open Design ... cambridge.org Oct 19, 2021 48 facts
claimOSPD projects provide a publicly available empirical basis because processes are conducted and documented publicly online and outcomes are shared freely.
claimOpen Source Hardware and Open Source Product Development (OSPD) may only gain a significant audience and ecosystem of participants if a 'Linux-like product'—defined as an essential infrastructure product that generates significant economic activity—emerges.
claimResearch question #3 asks: To what extent can available design process models reflect Open Source Product Development (OSPD) practices, and is there a need for alternative design process models reflecting the specific characteristics of OSPD?
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) does not challenge conventional product design and development textbooks such as Pahl et al. (2007) and Ulrich & Eppinger (2011), as it still requires activities like ideation, concept selection, embodiment design, and prototyping.
claimCurrent practices in Open Source Hardware, Open Source Product Development (OSPD), and Open Design are primarily focused on early-stage design processes, such as prototyping and technology development, and on distributed, low-tech manufacturing.
claimTo avoid ambiguities regarding the term hardware, some authors prefer the term Open Source Product Development (OSPD), as noted by Balka (2011) and Bonvoisin et al.
claimThe temporal dimension of Open Source Product Development (OSPD) practices complicates research because some characteristics of these practices may be transitional rather than structural, meaning findings may change over time.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) is a community-based process where working documents are shared publicly to encourage external contributions, following the 'release often, release early' motto.
claimThe analysis of 105 Open Source Hardware projects on GitHub did not demonstrate the existence of massively distributed development projects that adopt an Open Source Product Development (OSPD) process from the initial idea through to a commercialized product.
claimThe authors of the article define a significant marker of maturity for Open Source Product Development (OSPD) as the existence of a flagship product that serves as the center of a flourishing ecosystem of companies and contributors, similar to the role Linux plays in Open Source Software Development (OSSD).
claimBall & Lewis (2018) and Panchal (2009) hypothesized an era of 'mass collaborative product development', but current research indicates that Open Source Product Development (OSPD) has not yet reached this stage.
claimThe authors define 'Open Source Product Development' as the development of Open Source Hardware products performed in a collective process allowing the participation of any interested person.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) projects exhibit limited use of project and task management tools and low motivation to perform key activities such as documentation.
claimThe authors question whether Open Source Product Development (OSPD) will achieve the same success as Open Source Software Development (OSSD), specifically regarding adoption trends, best practices, and drivers or barriers.
claimDemonstrating the feasibility of end-to-end Open Source Product Development (OSPD) requires focusing on downstream processes and experimenting with business-led, open industrialization processes.
claimCurrent Open Source Hardware and Open Source Product Development (OSPD) practices often recreate controlling mechanisms to maintain the applicability of known design methods in the absence of formal hierarchies.
claimThe applicability of existing design process models to Open Source Product Development (OSPD) is uncertain because these models reflect 'orthodox' industrial practices that Open Design often challenges.
claimIn the context of the article, 'Open Design' is defined as a general field of practices involving either product or process openness, while 'OSPD' (Open Source Product Development) refers specifically to practices implying both product and process openness.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) practices are typically limited to projects with lower product complexity and fewer developers, particularly in the mechanical and mechatronic sectors.
claimOSPD projects contribute to an online corpus of product documentation and development activity traces, allowing for more extensive study of the phenomenon compared to other forms of Open Design.
perspectiveThe future of Open Source Product Development (OSPD) likely involves increased company engagement and the organization of companies into standardization initiatives, similar to the evolution of Open Source Software Development (OSSD).
claimFew Open Source Product Development (OSPD) projects successfully reach manufacture-ready designs that are introduced into the market.
perspectiveIn the current state of Open Source Product Development (OSPD), it is more accurate to describe the processes as 'local open processes' rather than expecting consistent openness throughout the entire product development process.
claimThe diversity of motives and practices in Open Source Product Development (OSPD) projects creates a challenge for the generalization of research results.
claimBecause different phases of the product development process focus on different intermediary objects, they require different supporting IT tools, making it difficult to sustain an Open Source Product Development (OSPD) process within a single tool from beginning to end.
claimIn Open Source Software Development (OSSD) and Open Source Product Development (OSPD), refined product designs emerge from evolutionary learning processes.
claimOpen Source Hardware data provides an empirical anchor for studying Open Source Product Development (OSPD) practices, offering an alternative to speculative or programmatic research contributions in the Open Design literature.
claimWhile some pioneering businesses have built upon Open Source Hardware by releasing products or appropriating external designs, the authors of 'Seven observations and research questions about Open Design and Open Source Hardware' are unaware of any company that has led or participated in an Open Source Product Development (OSPD) process.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) projects tend to limit the adoption of open practices to specific phases of the product development process and product life cycle rather than applying them consistently throughout.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) is a complex field of related practices rather than a single, uniform form, making it difficult to generalize research results from one project to another.
claimThe ability to adopt Open Source Product Development (OSPD) in specific phases of the product development process is likely bound to the availability of online supporting tools, suggesting that current limitations are a transient problem for emerging practices rather than a fundamental impossibility.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) projects are driven by a wide array of motivational drivers and define success in diverse ways, according to Li et al. (2017).
claimOSPD presents unfamiliar challenges to businesses and requires novel business and design approaches because it involves both process and product openness.
measurementAn analysis of the versioning control history of 256 repositories characterized Open Source Hardware development as a heterogeneous field that exists on a continuum between Open Source Product Development (OSPD) and public innovation practices, ranging from active contributor communities to dormant projects.
claimThe authors define an 'observation' as a thesis or a statement based on their experience in the field that remains to be investigated, intended to prompt reflection on uncertainties in Open Source Product Development (OSPD) practices.
referenceA 2018 study by Bonvoisin et al. provided evidence of Open Source Product Development (OSPD) practices, defined as product design activity that is performed publicly, distributed in non-centralized networks, and uses data management tools that allow any interested person to participate.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) practices exhibit diverse organizational patterns with varying levels of centralization and work distribution, which indicates different internal governance policies.
claimOpen Source Hardware and Open Source Product Development (OSPD) initiatives often mimic conventional, centrally structured product development processes to fit into existing prescriptive design methods.
claimThe authors of 'Seven observations and research questions about Open Design and Open Source Hardware' recommend six actions for research and policy to support Open Design and Open Source Product Development (OSPD): (i) encourage business involvement and industry-led open industrialization, (ii) clarify definitions through large-scale comparative studies, (iii) experiment with extreme openness, (iv) generate practical guidance for OSPD processes, (v) push standardization for both product and process openness, and (vi) consolidate the understanding of OSPD and Open Design as a socio-technical phenomenon.
claimThere is currently no example of a product development project that has fully demonstrated the feasibility of Open Source Product Development (OSPD) from the initial elicitation of product requirements to the release of manufacture-ready documentation.
claimOSPD struggles to grow beyond its infancy despite being widely speculated upon in literature and actively sought after in practice communities.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) practices currently lack evidence regarding their feasibility throughout the entire product development process, raising the question of whether this is a transient issue or a structural limitation.
claimOSPD (Open Source Product Development) is the form of Open Design that deviates most from industrial mainstream practice, making it significant from a design science perspective.
referenceThe Open Source Hardware Life Cycle, as illustrated in Figure 3, depicts the interplay between Open Source Product Development (OSPD), Open Source Hardware, and public innovation.
perspectivePractitioners of Open Source Product Development (OSPD) would benefit from practical product design guidelines and operable design principles to help establish active contributor communities.
claimOpen Source Product Development (OSPD) practices have historically been reported almost exclusively through isolated case studies.
claimThe Open Source Ecology project, a spearhead Open Source Product Development (OSPD) project, demonstrated that forcing stage-gate-like Product Development Process (PDP) models into an open source development community has limited potential.
claimThere is a contrast in the extent to which product openness and process openness are defined in both practice and academic communities, with process openness remaining an ill-defined aspect of open source product development practices.
Open-source hardware - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 2 facts
claimThe process of developing open-source hardware in a community-based setting is also referred to as open design, open source development, or open source product development.
referenceJérémy Bonvoisin, Laetitia Thomas, Robert Mies, Céline Gros, Rainer Stark, Karine Samuel, Roland Jochem, and Jean-François Boujut published 'Current state of practices in open source product development' in the 2017 Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering Design.