The Current State of Open Source Hardware: The Need for an Open Source Development Platform

Abstract

Open Source Hardware (OSHW) is a new paradigm attempting to emulate the Open Source Software movement. While there are several flagship OSHW projects, this product development paradigm has yet to live up to its full potential. This paper reviews the current state of OSHW and reveals the lack of a robust and simple development platform as being a major barrier to the uptake of OSHW. The authors argue that an Open Source, Cloud-based platform would be the most viable direction.