《代码英雄》第四季（6）：开源硬件 —— 创客的联合
开源硬件 代码英雄

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> 代码英雄讲述了开发人员、程序员、黑客、极客和开源反叛者如何彻底改变技术前景的真实史诗。
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> **什么是《代码英雄》**
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> <ruby> 代码英雄 <rt>  Command Line Heroes </rt></ruby>是世界领先的企业开源软件解决方案供应商红帽（Red Hat）精心制作的原创音频播客，讲述开发人员、程序员、黑客、极客和开源反叛者如何彻底改变技术前景的真实史诗。该音频博客邀请到了谷歌、NASA 等重量级企业的众多技术大牛共同讲述开源、操作系统、容器、DevOps、混合云等发展过程中的动人故事。
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![](/data/attachment/album/202108/11/123320ypl3tvbo5eeg23tz.jpg)


本文是《[代码英雄](https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes)》系列播客[《代码英雄》：第四季（6）开源硬件 —— 创客的联合](https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes/season-4/open-source-hardware)的[音频](https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/a88fbe/a88fbe81-5614-4834-8a78-24c287debbe6/84559c59-7868-461d-af3f-a002e1d0646f/s4e6-open-source-hardware-vfinal-20200306_tc.mp3)脚本。




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> 导语：人们从未停止过改装。个人电脑成为主流后，对硬件的黑客改装并没有消失。但它确实发生了变化。新一代的艺术家、设计师和活跃分子正联合起来，用开源硬件来改变世界。
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> 曾经，对硬件的黑客改装是昂贵和耗时的。更具适应性的微控制器正在使这种改装变得更加容易。但是，即使进入门槛开始下降，围绕硬件销售的做法也继续偏向于保密性。Ayah Bdeir、Alicia Gibb 和 Limor Fried 正在努力保持硬件的开放。这些领袖们分享了她们是如何帮助发起开源硬件运动的，并在激烈的分歧中穿行，使每个人都能成为工程师。
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**00:00:00 - Saron Yitbarek**：


现在是 2010 年 9 月 22 日，明天第一届开源峰会即将在纽约开幕，现在，这次活动的两位组织者 Alicia Gibb 和 Ayah Bdeir 都有些忐忑不安。


**00:00:13 - Alicia Gibb**：


![Alicia Gibb](/data/attachment/album/202108/11/123415o1ht313dvwhi3w7n.jpg)


在这样的夜晚，总是会产生紧张的情绪，比如“天哪，要是没有人来参加怎么办？”


**00:00:20 - Ayah Bdeir**：


![Ayah Bdeir](/data/attachment/album/202108/11/123416h3mxg2zyl631114e.jpg)


这就好比，“嗯，就像是我们有一个会议室，大概会来 30 人，嗯，我们还会提供三明治这样。”


**00:00:27 - Saron Yitbarek**：


Alicia Gibb 和 Ayah Bdeir 几个月之前才初次见面，Ayah 召集了一群人组织了一个名为<ruby> 开源硬件 <rt>  Opening Hardware </rt></ruby>的研讨会，每一位与会者都以自己的方式参与到了一项新兴的、令人兴奋的新计划当中：<ruby> 开源硬件运动 <rt>  open source hardware movement </rt></ruby>。但是，这个早期的社区非常分散，而且缺乏良好的组织，同时每个人对于“开源硬件”的理解都有所不同。当时，Alicia 和 Ayah 意识到她们需要将这个研讨会提升到一个新的水平。


**00:01:05 - Alicia Gibb**：


所以，她和我决定共同努力，把研讨会进一步升级为<ruby> 开源硬件峰会 <rt>  Open Hardware Summit </rt></ruby>，让更多人可以参与到开源硬件中。


**00:01:12 - Saron Yitbarek**：


由于只有三个月的时间来准备这次峰会，紧迫的时间给她们带来了很大的压力。但是 Alicia Gibb 和 Ayah Bdeir 对于这次的合作感到非常兴奋。一群热烈的独立<ruby> 创客 <rt>  maker </rt></ruby>的初次会面会碰撞出怎样的火花，她们对此非常好奇。距离第一次峰会的所剩时间已经不多了，在 9 月 23 日早上 6 时，也就是峰会召开当天的早上，她们收到了一封来自会场联系人的电子邮件。


**00:01:49**：


当今的开源硬件是整个开源运动中一个引人注目的分支，如同开源硬件与工程学联系在一起一样，它也同时涉及了设计和艺术领域。事实上，开源硬件运动是早期计算机爱好运动的延续。还记得第三集里提到的<ruby> 自制计算机俱乐部 <rt>  Homebrew Computer Club </rt></ruby>的世界吗？在个人电脑成为主流之后，对硬件的黑客改造并没有就此销声匿迹。甚至当计算机成为一个巨大的专有业务之后，对硬件和电路的<ruby> 黑客改造 <rt>  tinkering </rt></ruby>的热爱、对与同好者分享你的创作的热爱，也从未真正消失过。人们从未停止过改造，而如今开放的硬件文化与早期的改造爱好者有很多共通之处。不同的是，现在这个开源运动分支的掌舵人，比如 Alicia Gibb 和 Ayah Bdeir，是全新一代的开发者和思想家。在接下来的内容中，我还会为大家介绍这个运动的第三位领导者：Limor Fried。我是 Saron Yitbarek，这里是《代码英雄》，一档来自红帽的原创播客。


**00:03:09**：


早在 2000 年代中期，开源硬件社区还不能算是一个真正的社区。当然，有个黑客的小圈子，那里有对开源硬件充满想法的人。越来越多这样的圈子在世界各地出现，其中一个位于麻省理工学院（MIT）。


**00:03:32 - Ayah Bdeir**：


我是 Ayah Bdeir，是 littleBits 的创造者。这个团队几乎都是由一群在麻省理工媒体实验室里的怪人组成，我们之中有艺术家、有设计师，还有一些积极分子，我们想用科技对世界做出一些改变。


**00:03:54 - Saron Yitbarek**：


Ayah 是这个由新硬件赋能的下一代多学科创客之一。她是一名工程师和互动艺术家。她毕业于<ruby> 贝鲁特 <rt>  Beirut </rt></ruby>，于 2004 年获得了计算机与通信工程及社会学的学位，之后于 2006 年毕业于麻省理工学院媒体实验室。


**00:04:15 - Ayah Bdeir**：


我和父母商量，在我取得了工程师的学位之后，我可以去学习我想要学的设计。这是一个约定。


**00:04:25 - Saron Yitbarek**：


工程技术开始进入世界各地的各种非工程领域。在 2008 年，Ayah 获得了 Eyebeam 艺术和科技中心的奖学金，就在这里，她创造了 littleBits。它是一种类似于乐高的、采用预制的、可以用磁性吸附的电子块，不过它们还包含了 LED 灯、声音传感器、发动机和太阳能电池板等。


**00:04:51 - Ayah Bdeir**：


所以当你拿出一个 LED 灯，装上电池，它就亮了。你可以在中间放一个光传感器，这样你就得到了一个小夜灯。你再将发动机和轮子装上，现在这是一个光动车了。如果再加上低功耗蓝牙模块，你就可以用手机来激活它。所以你并不需要是一个工程师，只需要花几秒钟就可以组装它。它们可以用磁铁扣住，就像是有魔法，而且扣住的时候声音听起来很美妙。


**00:05:22 - Saron Yitbarek**：


Ayah 有两个目标：把 littleBits 做成一个公司，并使之开源。她希望工程知识能够被每个人所接受。


**00:05:32 - Ayah Bdeir**：


现在只要是 IT 公司，它的很多工作都围绕着开源软件。有一些人感兴趣如何将开源应用于建筑、如何用于硬件、如何用于电子设备。世界上充满了这种奇思妙想，以及为此付出的努力，这很有意义。


**00:05:51**：


如果所有人都封锁他们的专利和知识产权，世界将会陷入困境。所以，对我来说，如何找到一种方法，让你可以支持自己，持续地发展，创造强大的企业，还可以分享知识，这很有趣。


**00:06:15 - Saron Yitbarek**：


但是 littleBits 也必须作为一个企业来运作，制造、分销、投资，每个部分都要花钱。Ayah Bdeir 是如何做到在商业化的同时，使她的硬件，也就是她的运营核心，成为开源的呢？为了找到这个问题的答案，她在<ruby> 知识共享 <rt>  Creative Commons </rt></ruby>组织做了一项研究，把 littleBits 当作一项案例研究。这是她决定在 2010 年初举办“开源硬件”研讨会的原因。


**00:06:46 - Ayah Bdeir**：


我们做了一个研讨会，我们想，“哪些东西是关键？我们应该有一个定义吗？我们需要一个开会的地方吗？我们需要一个网站吗？什么有用，什么没用？”与此同时，Alicia Gibb 正在另一家想要做开源的创业公司 Bug Labs 做一些类似的工作。


**00:07:08 - Alicia Gibb**：


我非常赞成在开源你的硬件之前，需要做好情感上的准备，因为在某种程度上意味着，你要把自己的孩子送出去。


**00:07:17 - Saron Yitbarek**：


Alicia Gibb 当时在一家叫做 Bug Labs 的开源硬件供应商工作，担任研究员和原型设计师。她曾经是一位图书管理员。


**00:07:28 - Alicia Gibb**：


我本来是为了取得图书和信息管理硕士学位，最终却走向了这个奇怪的方向，进入了电子领域。我发现自己真的非常热爱它，我享受点亮一个 LED 灯的感觉，沉迷于自己可以让电子去实现一些事情。这种感觉有一些类似于你可以控制宇宙中的小小的一部分，这样的感觉有一种强大的力量，我喜欢这种感觉。


**00:07:51 - Saron Yitbarek**：


尽管图书管理和开源硬件似乎有很大差异，但是对于 Alicia 而言，这两者展现出了相似的精神。


**00:07:58 - Alicia Gibb**：


作为一名图书馆员，你的工作并不是看门，你在那里是为了帮助人们寻找他们想要的信息。这种本质有点为我铺平了一条通往开源的路，让它展现在了我的眼前。


**00:08:13 - Saron Yitbarek**：


就像 Alicia 任职的 Bug Labs，许多公司开始意识到开源硬件可以创造商业机会。小型公司可以通过开源接触到更广泛的创客群体（也可以说是顾客）。大型公司可以对竞争对手开放设计，并通过向他们提供相关部件而获利。


**00:08:39 - Alicia Gibb**：


我的老板最后问我，“你看，除了我们，一定有更多的人在尝试做开源硬件，你觉得自己可以找到他们并且把他们聚在一起吗？”


**00:08:49 - Saron Yitbarek**：


就是这段谈话，让开源峰会的种子在 Alicia 心中种下。为此她开始寻找其他开源硬件创客，此时 Ayah 也得到了知识共享组织的奖学金，并主持了这次研讨会。


**00:09:03 - Alicia Gibb**：


所以，这就是我第一次见到了 Ayah 本人。当时我非常激动，因为我读过她的研究报告，并且在写 Arduino 的论文时还参考了她的文章。这个领域的很多人我都见过，要么就是在电子邮件列表或其他地方见过。


**00:09:20 - Saron Yitbarek**：


Ayah 在她的研讨会上召集的人后来都成为了开源硬件运动的领导者。其中有 Arduino 的成员、SparkFun 和 MakerBot 的创办者，还有一位非常有趣，她以世界上第一位程序员的名字命名了她的公司。


**00:09:49 - Limor Fried**：


![Limor Fried](/data/attachment/album/202108/11/123417bj05wp0avdbb5cjv.jpg)


你好。


**00:09:50 - Saron Yitbarek**：


你好 Limor，最近怎么样？


**00:09:52 - Limor Fried**：


嗨，Saron，很高兴见到你。


**00:09:54 - Saron Yitbarek**：


我也很高兴见到你。我去曼哈顿中心拜访了 Limor Fried。她不仅是 Ayah 研讨会的一份子，同时在 2000 年代初，她也是 Ayah 在麻省理工的同学。


**00:10:09 - Limor Fried**：


我喜欢拆解物品。我很少有强烈的意愿做什么，就用音乐来举个例子吧，尽管我父母想让我去学习小提琴，我喜欢的却是摆弄电子产品、计算机和技术。当时我不太喜欢把它们重新组装起来。但是随着我渐渐长大，学习了解了更多工程学知识，我开始组装东西而不仅是把它们拆开。这些齿轮和发动机，都是美丽又复杂的技术之舞。


**00:10:37 - Saron Yitbarek**：


在麻省理工，Limor 学到的不仅是组装，更重要的是如何以一致而精密的方式一遍又一遍地组装。与此同时，一件很酷的事情正在发生，对硬件的黑客改造出现了。


**00:10:53 - Limor Fried**：


在过去的几十年，你可以将单个芯片连接起来，这样你可以制造出一些东西，但是它们相当巨大、昂贵，且耗费大量的时间。


**00:11:03**：


之后人们想到，“既然我们可以在电脑上写代码，为什么我们不为电子元件编写代码呢？”我开始尝试改造电子设备。就在这时，一些可重复编程的低成本 MAC 控制器出现在市场上。


**00:11:20 - Saron Yitbarek**：


改变游戏规则的是一款叫做 Arduino 板卡的微型控制器，由意大利人 Massimo Banzi 创造。他正在一款叫做 BASIC Stamp 的旧设备上探索交互设计的新方法，但是这个设备非常昂贵，而且计算能力较弱，也不兼容 MAC。所以 Banzi 和他的团队创造了一个更便宜、更强大的微控制器，还可以接入到电脑。他们基于一种叫做 Processing 的图形语言进行编程，他们还用公元十世纪的意大利统治者 Arduino 国王的名字来命名他们的新板卡。Arduino 的出现是 Limor Fried 这样的硬件黑客的灵感来源。


**00:12:07 - Limor Fried**：


Arduino 真的非常非常的强大，你可以用它创造你自己的产品，这是迄今为止没有出现过的。很多人是软件工程师，或者想成为软件或硬件工程师。他们可能对电脑技术有些熟悉，但是他们还没有意识到，哇，你实际上可以制造出物理硬件。我认为，对于那些码农们来说，让“盒子”在屏幕上移动是一件很好的事情，我自己也做过许多类似的事情，他们最终会想，“我真的厌倦了在我的屏幕上移动 CSS 盒子，我想要创造一些可以拿起来的东西，可以和朋友分享的东西。”


**00:12:43 - Saron Yitbarek**：


在当时，这种创造物理硬件的概念还很新，Limor 在麻省理工的工程课程中并没有涉及，所以她就另外自学了这方面的知识。


**00:12:53 - Limor Fried**：


我觉得我在学校课程和自学课程中都学到了很多东西，我很高兴我会傅里叶变换，但是我更高兴的是我熬夜做出了一个并行端口选择程序。这不是课程上教的东西，但现在它实际上已经在课程中了。


**00:13:07 - Saron Yitbarek**：


所以在 2005 年，Limor 在做改装而没有在寝室完成她的论文，导致她的论文延误了。她被电路板环绕，自己动手做 MP3 播放器和便携电子游戏机。每当她完成一个项目，她都在网上分享电路图。现在，她的线上教程变得非常受欢迎，甚至有其他的创客问她是否可以购买她定制的微型控制套件。起初她拒绝了。但之后她意识到这是有意义的。于是，在麻省理工的宿舍，Limor 开始向其他的爱好者出售电路板和电路图。她受到了<ruby> 自由软件基金会 <rt>  Free Software Foundation </rt></ruby>和<ruby> 电子前沿基金会 <rt>  Electronic Frontier Foundation </rt></ruby>的启发。


**00:13:58 - Limor Fried**：


修改的自由、重用的自由。就像是在五金商店里买的工具一样，他们不会说，“请在这里签署许可协议，你只可以用这个锤子来在墙上钉画，不可以用它们盖房子。如果你要盖房子，你需要买一把加强版锤子。”但是现在，这正是我们在软件方面所面临的情况。我们意识到，如果我们不给人们运用软件的自由，不允许他们以公共的方式运用他们自己写的或是别人写的软件，这将是我们的未来。


**00:14:26 - Saron Yitbarek**：


他们为软件做的事情，她同样也想为硬件做这些。Limor 想倡导那种你可以使用 Arduino 控制板来创造的硬件，那种你可以在自己的宿舍里制造出的硬件。但是，为了推进这一愿景，Limor 需要开放的心态，需要吸引和教导其他创客。而且，很快就需要对所有这些开源硬件进行保护。现在让我们回到对 Limor 的采访。


**00:14:56 - Limor Fried**：


我们现在位于曼哈顿中心，在我们 50,000 平方英尺的车间里，在这里我们完成了制造、生产、测试、编程、设计，还有一些命令行操作。


**00:15:09 - Saron Yitbarek**：


所以，是的，这和她在 2005 年创办公司的那个小寝室相差甚远。Limor 向业余爱好者发售工具包的业务最终大规模地发展成为了一家名为 Adafruit Industries 的公司，它是以构思了世界上第一个计算机程序的 19 世纪英国数学家 Ada Lovelace 命名的。


**00:15:31 - Limor Fried**：


我们在生产和制造包含开源的固件和软件的开源硬件。这像是开源世界里的<ruby> 威利旺卡仙境 <rt>  Willy Wonka Wonderland </rt></ruby>。


**00:15:41 - Saron Yitbarek**：


这像是迪士尼乐园。


**00:15:41 - Limor Fried**：


是的，确实有人这么说过。


**00:15:42 - Saron Yitbarek**：


这是硬件的迪士尼乐园。Adafruit 的工厂在 2012 年开业。当我们参观它的时候，Limor 向我们展示了她的制版机，它可以勾勒出各个元件在版面上的位置。


**00:15:56 - Limor Fried**：


所以，你的手机、电脑、任何电子产品或者 GPS、你在假期赠送的小玩具、许许多多的产品都是由<ruby> 拾取-贴装 <rt>  pick-and-place </rt></ruby>流水线制造出来的。这些流水线所做的就是拾起非常小的表面贴装部件，并且放置它们。正因为这样，它们的名字叫做“拾取-贴装”线。


**00:16:19 - Saron Yitbarek**：


它的 Pick 操作系统包含了数据库、字典、查询语言、流程语言、外设管理、多用户管理和编译的 BASIC 编程语言。


**00:16:33 - Limor Fried**：


是的，这是一块薄薄的金属，你可以看到上面的激光切割小孔。


**00:16:38 - Saron Yitbarek**：


嗯。


**00:16:39 - Limor Fried**：


他们看起来像花边一样漂亮。


**00:16:41 - Saron Yitbarek**：


这真的太美了。


**00:16:42 - Limor Fried**：


是的，你再看这里，在电路板上看到的图案与模板上的花边相匹配。所以在拾取-贴装之后，所有的元件都安置在了电路板上。它们要经过这个烤箱。


**00:16:56 - Saron Yitbarek**：


嗯。


**00:16:56 - Limor Fried**：


这基本上就像是熟食店里的那些百吉饼传送带。


**00:17:00 - Saron Yitbarek**：


这看起来像是一个微型的城市。


**00:17:01 - Limor Fried**：


是啊。


**00:17:03 - Saron Yitbarek**：


Limor 发现，总的来说硬件的生态系统在历史上是开放的。不像软件，硬件总是更为开放一些。当你购买机械产品，甚至是电子产品时，都会附赠电路图，以防万一你需要修理它们。


**00:17:20 - Limor Fried**：


那时我们并没有真正意义上的开源硬件，但是所有的东西，你只需要一个螺丝刀就可以轻轻撬开。因此，这是某种自带的文档。你不会在没有电路图的情况下修理你的 Apple II 的软盘驱动器，所以你可以深入挖掘电路图。可是如今，这不再是现实了。现在你的硬件是在一个美观光滑的玻璃柜中。由此可见，自愿分享硬件的年代已经结束了，这就是为什么我必须想出一种方法让人们分享它们。


**00:17:53 - Saron Yitbarek**：


Limor、Ayah、Alicia 和其他参加知识共享组织的研讨会的开源硬件爱好者们，在一个关键时刻走到了一起，当时，了解硬件是如何组装起来的机会正在减少。如果他们想要为开源硬件社区打造一个未来，让开源运动成为可持续的运动，而不再只是黑客爱好的聚会，他们需要一起建立一个带有规则、定义和标准的更集中的集体。


**00:18:22 - Limor Fried**：


开源社区就像是珍贵且易碎的宝石，一个小的难题都可能将它毁灭。它是由一个个人组成的，人们编写代码、支持代码、使用代码，并为它撰写文档。发布代码是一件非常私人的事情。你在向大家展示你是如何思考的、如何编写的、你的大脑是如何构思的。如果没有一个健康的良好的环境，人们就不会通过他们发布的代码来自由地表达自己。


**00:18:51 - Saron Yitbarek**：


之后发生了什么呢？当一代硬件创客离开他们的寝室和黑客圈子并彼此相遇时，所发生的事情将为一场运动奠定基础。这是 2010 年 9 月 23 日清晨，在几个小时之后，Alicia Gibb 和 Ayah Bdeir 将欢迎与会者们来到第一届开源硬件峰会。在短短三个月里，她们为全新一代的创客们成功创建并策划了一个崭新的活动。但是他们会来吗？当天早晨 6 点，她们收到了一封来自会场联系人的邮件，令她们惊讶的是，邮件中说……


**00:19:37 - Alicia Gibb**：


门外已经有一队人在等候入场了，而峰会要到 9 点或延后的某个时候才会开始，然而在 6 点就已经有人在等待了。


**00:19:48 - Saron Yitbarek**：


2010 年的首届峰会，大厅被 320 个人挤得满满当当。


**00:19:55 - Alicia Gibb**：


这个社区的规模大到完全出乎我们的意料，同时也提醒了我这是一个国际化的社区。其中令我印象深刻的一点是，有人想要从泰国给予我们捐赠，于是他们从泰国寄来了现金和一张便签。他们竟然会如此信任我们，以至于在信件里寄来现金。


**00:20:16 - Ayah Bdeir**：


我环顾四周，感到“就是这个瞬间”。我当时就感觉到，这里发生的一些事情将成为一个历史时刻。而就在这期间和之后，从想要赞助的人身上，从期待着明年发言的人身上，我们感受到了支持。


**00:20:34 - Saron Yitbarek**：


在第一届峰会之前，Alicia 和 Ayah 知道自己的主要目标是制定开源硬件的定义。


**00:20:42 - Alicia Gibb**：


我们需要一个定义，其实原因有两个：首先是为了社区里达成共识，这样人们就不会认为你可以把一些东西作为开源硬件放在那里，但又说，“哦，但你……得有一个非商业条款才行”。我们必须能够转售硬件，特别是因为硬件需要花钱才能从各种零件把它组装起来。所以对于人们是否分享布线图，还是只是电路图就足够了，或者你是否需要打开电路板文件以及诸如 “等等，这是否符合开源硬件的要求？因为我们控制着芯片，但我们不开放芯片的源代码” 之类的事情，存在着分歧。


**00:21:23**：


第二个原因很重要，这是关于硬件本身的。硬件不同于软件，你不能在创造它的那一刻拥有它的版权。硬件实际上是天生自由的，直到你申请到专利，并将专利封锁垄断，它才真正属于你。所以我们希望这里可以有一些定义，可以或多或少地提供法律保障，可以成为能够在法庭上得到支持的社区准则。


**00:21:55 - Saron Yitbarek**：


这实际上并不是开源硬件标准化的第一次尝试。在 1997 年，一个名为 Bruce Perens 的人创建了一个开源硬件的认证项目。他是一位著名的开源人物，因为他在同一时期帮助创建了最初的开源软件准则。这些被一个叫做<ruby> 开源倡议 <rt>  Open Source Initiative </rt></ruby>（OSI）的组织管理着。但是在 1997 年，并没有围绕这个认证项目产生什么影响，随着新一代的创客开始出现，更新这些原则是有意义的。在开源峰会上，她们会让所有人都就开源硬件的标准化定义和最佳实践达成一致。仅仅让大家聚在一起，分享想法和项目似乎就能启动这个社区。但随后的讨论转向了定义开源硬件的含义。


**00:22:57 - Ayah Bdeir**：


有一些纯粹主义者认为，除非整个工具链都是开源的，否则不能称之为开源硬件。其他人会说，“不，这是不切实际的，因为我使用的一些电路设计工具或是 3D 打印机并不是开源的，但是它们是可以使用的，并且有免费的版本。”至少软件是这样的，因此，这就足以让你复制和修改那些发明。因此，为什么开源硬件的工具链必须全部是开源的呢？


**00:23:27**：


然后围绕归属问题进行了讨论。在许多开源软件的许可证中，<ruby> 归属权 <rt>  attribution </rt></ruby>并不那么重要。但在这里，我们对此做了大量的讨论，因为硬件很昂贵。创造它的人并不只是在车库里对着电脑，他们还投入了美元，在现实世界里投入了现金到实物中，这些实物从一个国家来到另一个国家并且被制造出来，然后以某种方式被收回。


**00:23:58 - Saron Yitbarek**：


Ayah Bdeir 的老同学 Limor 是开源峰会的主讲人之一。


**00:24:04 - Limor Fried**：


所以我们的辩论之一是，CAD 文件必须是开源格式的吗？我记得当时大家围坐在一个大圆桌边，每个人都在发表自己的观点。有些人说，不。而有些人则说是。我们最终说，“我们不如说，它必须采用合理的原始格式，否则好像我们必须得想出点什么似的。”之后我们找到了比较折中的说法，“如果你可以发布你的文件，它不一定必须是公开的文件格式，但必须是一个可以被合理使用工具的人阅读的格式。”


**00:24:40 - Saron Yitbarek**：


他们甚至从知识共享组织请来了几位律师来帮助理顺问题。


**00:24:44 - Limor Fried**：


律师说，“听着，如果你要为开源硬件上法庭，那就已经输了。”所以我们说，很多被许可人和社区的裂痕是不匹配的期望或人们没有很好的沟通他们的期望。因此，这个定义所做的是，它不是一个真正的法律框架，因为实际上很多都没有法律保护，但它是一个框架，可以让人们表达他们的期望，他们想要他们的硬件、固件以及设计被他人使用。


**00:25:17**：


到目前为止，这个定义取得了良好的效果。当越多的人展示出他们希望自己的硬件被怎样使用，其他人就可以更好地使用这些硬件，因为这样就不会有类似“你说要这样做，但是按照法律来说我应该那么做。”的麻烦。


**00:25:35 - Saron Yitbarek**：


对于开源硬件定义的争论持续了一年。同时，还举行了一次竞赛，以创造一个与定义相一致的徽标。在 2011 年的第二届开源硬件峰会中，人们打算批准这个开源硬件的定义。但是也出现了一些小的问题，在竞赛中取得胜利的徽标有一个麻烦，它与<ruby> 开源倡议 <rt>  Open Source Initiative </rt></ruby>（OSI）的徽标很相似。


**00:26:04 - Alicia Gibb**：


我当时还在想，“哦，就像彩虹和独角兽，每个人喜欢的都是类似的。”这就像是一个警钟，即使在开源社区，我想也会有错误发生，有分歧发生，也会有人想在法律上找你麻烦。


**00:26:22 - Saron Yitbarek**：


最终我们达成了妥协，但是这次的经历激发了新的运动。在 2012 年，Alicia、Ayah 及她们的团队创立了<ruby> 开源硬件联盟 <rt>  Open Source Hardware Association </rt></ruby>（OSHWA），并且这个联盟也有了自己的定义。


**00:26:41 - Alicia Gibb**：


所以，开源硬件的定义差不多是，你同意把你的硬件以开源的方式呈现出来，允许其他人去学习、改造、然后转售你的设计和硬件。然后，你可以要求在硬件上注明归属，可以要求其他人遵循你附加在硬件上的许可证。


**00:27:11 - Saron Yitbarek**：


从最初的宿舍、车库和餐桌，从世界各地的上千名创客那里，终于出现了一个社区标准。


**00:27:22 - Limor Fried**：


无论你使用何种许可证，人们都可以对你说，“如果你把自己的东西称作‘开源硬件’，这就是它的定义，这里你可以表达你的基本期待。如果不符合这些，请别叫它‘开源硬件’。”除此之外，几年前我遇到的另一件事更具体一些，比如说，注册开源硬件的目录。当你要加入其中时，你基本上要做出一个小小的承诺，说我要发布的设计遵守这个定义。所以说定义是某种基石，这些东西是在基石上的高楼。所以当人们得到了一个小徽标和标识符，他们就可以说，“是的，这是开源硬件，开源硬件联盟是支持我的。”


**00:28:07 - Saron Yitbarek**：


今年（2020）是开源硬件峰会庆祝成立 10 周年，如今他们甚至开拓了消费者领域。


**00:28:16 - Alicia Gibb**：


因此，有一系列来自 System76 的电脑是开源硬件，像 LulzBot 这样的 3D 打印，还有其他 3D 打印机也是开源硬件。我认为现在我们正处于更多消费者产品出现的风口。


**00:28:35 - Saron Yitbarek**：


在过去的 10 年，开源硬件为科技文化的开放性和多样性设立了一个新的标准。


**00:28:43 - Alicia Gibb**：


真正让我远离开源软件的事情之一是，我去参加几个会议时被问我的男朋友在哪里，我是和谁一起来的，这样类似的问题。这是在假定，作为一位女性，我是不会自己前来的。我可以看到的是，在开源硬件社区中，大家都非常年轻，我们刚刚建立。我和 Ayah 都认为，“在开源硬件社区里，这样的事情一定不会发生。”


**00:29:11 - Saron Yitbarek**：


在第一届峰会时，有几个 10 岁的创客参加了会议。他们是峰会上的亮点。峰会的组织者是女性，而开源硬件运动的代言人就是女性。Limor Fried 在 2011 年成为了第一位登上《WIRED》杂志封面的女工程师。根据 Ayah Bdeir 的说法，开源硬件的可及性和多样性，是我们现在应该关注的问题。


**00:29:43 - Ayah Bdier**：


在我的成长过程中，技术一直在我的生活里。它曾经对我而言是一门学科。你可以说，自己不是技术人员，这不是问题。现在已经不是这样了。技术是我们做所有事情的基础。它是我们如何吃饭、喝水、交谈、旅行、预测和出版的基础。技术影响民主、心理健康、社会和环境。这个使命很重要，因为如果我们失去了科技的创造者和决策者，失去了象征着世界人口的构成的科技，这时我们所作的决定就会有所偏驳，这是不包容的、是危险的。


**00:30:39 - Saron Yitbarek**：


《代码英雄》是一档来自红帽的原创播客节目。请在 <https://www.redhat.com/commandlineheroes> 上查看我们对开源硬件的研究。如果你已经看到了，请注册订阅我们的新闻。我是 Saron Yitbarek，感谢你的收听。下期之前，编码不止。


**附加剧集**


Ayah Bdeir、Alicia Gibb 和 Limor Fried 是将多样性纳入开源硬件社区的早期支持者。听听她们是如何定下这个基调的。




> 
> **什么是 LCTT SIG 和 LCTT LCRH SIG**
> 
> 
> LCTT SIG 是 LCTT <ruby> 特别兴趣小组 <rt>  Special Interest Group </rt></ruby>，LCTT SIG 是针对特定领域、特定内容的翻译小组，翻译组成员将遵循 LCTT 流程和规范，参与翻译，并获得相应的奖励。LCRH SIG 是 LCTT 联合红帽（Red Hat）发起的 SIG，当前专注任务是《代码英雄》系列播客的脚本汉化，已有数十位贡献者加入。敬请每周三、周五期待经过我们精心翻译、校对和发布的译文。
> 
> 
> 欢迎[加入 LCRH SIG](/article-12436-1.html) 一同参与贡献，并领取红帽（Red Hat）和我们联合颁发的专属贡献者证书。
> 
> 
> 




---


via: <https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes/season-4/open-source-hardware>


作者：[Red Hat](https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes) 选题：[bestony](https://github.com/bestony) 译者：[Ucoer](https://github.com/Ucoer) 校对：[Northurland](https://github.com/Northurland), [wxy](https://github.com/wxy)


本文由 [LCRH](https://github.com/LCTT/LCRH) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出


OK
![Episode hero image](/rhdc/managed-files/img-clh-s4e6-hero-455x539.png)

People never stop tinkering. Hardware hacking didn’t disappear after personal computers became mainstream. But it did change. A new generation of artists, designers, and activists are banding together to change the world—with open source hardware.

Hardware hacking used to be expensive and time-consuming. Adaptable microcontrollers are making tinkering much easier. But even as the barriers to entry started falling, the practices around selling hardware have continued to veer toward secrecy. Ayah Bdeir, Alicia Gibb, and Limor Fried are working to keep hardware open. These leaders share how they helped build the open source hardware movement, and navigated fierce disagreements to make engineering accessible to all.

![Episode notes image](/rhdc/managed-files/img-clh-s4e6-notes-326x159.png)

**00:00** - *Saron Yitbarek*

It's September 22, 2010, the night before the first ever Open Hardware Summit taking place in New York City, and the two organizers behind the event are worried.

**00:13** - *Alicia Gibb*

There's always that nightmare, the night before that's like, "Oh my God, what if nobody shows up?"

**00:20** - *Ayah Bdeir*

We were like, "Yeah, this will be like in a room. We'll have you know, maybe 30 people. We'll have, you know, sandwiches."

**00:27** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Alicia Gibb and Ayah Bdeir had only met for the first time a few months back. Ayah had gathered together a small group to a workshop called Opening Hardware. Each of the attendees were involved in their own way in a burgeoning and exciting new development, the open source hardware movement. But this early community was pretty scattered and lacked structure, and everyone had a slightly different take on what open source hardware even meant. That's when Alicia and Ayah realized they needed to take this workshop to the next level.

**01:05** - *Alicia Gibb*

So she and I decided to join forces and take it one step further to an Open Hardware Summit, and involve a lot more people.

**01:12** - *Saron Yitbarek*

With only a three-month window to prepare for the event, the pressure was on. But Ayah and Alicia, were excited to collaborate. And they wanted to see what could happen when a bunch of fiercely independent makers got together for the first time. But for the moment the clock was ticking away on the remaining hours left before that first summit. Then at 6 a.m. on September 23, the morning of the event, they received an email from someone at the venue.

**01:49** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Today's open source hardware is a fascinating branch of the larger open source movement. A branch that touches the fields of design and art, as much as it does engineering. In fact, this branch is a continuation of the early days of the hobbyist computer movement. Remember the Homebrew Computer Club world in episode 3? Hardware hacking didn't disappear after personal computing went mainstream. Even as computing became a big and a proprietary business, that love for tinkering with hardware and circuitry, that love for sharing your creations with other hobbyists, it never really went away. People never stopped tinkering, and today's open hardware culture has a lot in common with those early hobbyists. But at the helm of this particular branch of the open source movement is a whole new generation of developers and thinkers. People like Alicia Gibb and Ayah Bdeir. And a little later on, I'll introduce you to a third leader of the movement, Limor Fried. I'm Saron Yitbarek, and this is Command Line Heroes, an original podcast from Red Hat.

**03:09** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Back in the mid-2000s, the open source hardware community wasn't really much of a community. There were hackerspaces, sure. There, you could find people with a mind towards open source hardware. More and more of these spaces started to pop up all over the world, and one was located at MIT.

**03:32** - *Ayah Bdeir*

My name is Ayah Bdeir. I am the founder of littleBits. The group was really almost like a group of misfits from the Media Lab, where it was like artists and designers and activists that came together to use technology to make an impact in the world.

**03:54** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Ayah was part of this next generation of multidisciplinary makers, empowered by new hardware. Ayah is an engineer and interactive artist. She graduated in Beirut, with degrees in computer and communications engineering and sociology in 2004, and then from the MIT Media Lab in 2006.

**04:15** - *Ayah Bdeir*

I negotiated with my parents that if I had a degree in engineering, I could then do design, which is what I wanted to do. That was the deal.

**04:25** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Engineering tech was starting to make its way into non-engineering fields all over the world. In 2008, Ayah received a fellowship at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center. That's where she invented littleBits. littleBits are pre-engineered magnetic electronic bricks similar to Lego, except they contain lights, sound sensors, motors, solar panels.

**04:51** - *Ayah Bdeir*

And so you snap a light, an LED, to a battery—a light comes on. You put a light sensor in between. Now you've made a nightlight. You put a motor and two wheels on it, now you've made the light-activated car. You can put a BLE Bluetooth module on it. Now you can activate it with your phone, so you don't have to be an engineer. It takes you seconds to do it. They snap with magnets, so they're magical, and they sound beautiful when they snap.

**05:22** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Ayah had 2 goals: to make littleBits a company, and to make it open source. She wanted the engineering concepts to be accessible to everyone.

**05:32** - *Ayah Bdeir*

A lot of the work that existed at random IT was around open source software. There were a few people that were really interested in how does open source apply to architecture? How does open source apply to hardware? How does open source apply to electronics? It made sense that the world is full of these incredible ideas, incredible effort.

**05:51** - *Ayah Bdeir*

If everybody is always closing off their inventions and their IP, the world suffers. So for me, it was always interesting figuring out a way where you can be supporting yourself, and sustainable, and create strong businesses, but also be sharing knowledge.

**06:15** - *Saron Yitbarek*

But littleBits also had to function as a business. Manufacturing, distribution, investment—each area had costs associated with them. How could she combine business objectives while at the same time making her hardware, the crux of her operation, open source? To help her figure this out, Ayah did a fellowship with Creative Commons, and used littleBits as a case study. That's when she decided to hold that workshop, Opening Hardware, back in early 2010.

**06:46** - *Ayah Bdeir*

We did a workshop where we were like, "What are the things that are important? Should we have a definition? Should we have a place where we meet? Do we need a website? What works? What doesn't work?" And around the same time, Alicia had been doing similar work as part of being at Bug Labs, another startup that wanted to be open source.

**07:08** - *Alicia Gibb*

I'm a big proponent to make sure that you're emotionally prepared to open source your hardware before doing it, because it kind of means that you're giving away your baby.

**07:17** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Alicia Gibb was working at an open hardware supplier called Bug Labs, as a researcher and prototyper. She had started out as a librarian.

**07:28** - *Alicia Gibb*

Through getting my masters in library and information science, I ended up tripping down this weird path that led me to electronics. And I found that I really loved it and really enjoyed that feeling of when you light up an LED and you understand that you're making electrons do stuff. It's a little bit like you control this tiny part of the universe and it feels really powerful, and I just love that.

**07:51** - *Saron Yitbarek*

As different as library science and open hardware may be, for Alicia, they share the same ethos.

**07:58** - *Alicia Gibb*

You are not a gatekeeper as a librarian. You are there to help people find the information they need. And so those roots really kind of paved the way for open source to be just obvious to me really.

**08:13** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Companies like Alicia's employer Bug Labs, were starting to understand the business opportunities that open source hardware could offer. Smaller companies could tap into a broader group of makers, a.k.a. customers, by going open source. Larger companies could open source designs to competitors, and still profit by supplying them with related components.

**08:39** - *Alicia Gibb*

My boss ended up asking me, "Look, there's got to be more people trying to do open source hardware than us. Do you think you can find those people and get everybody together?"

**08:49** - *Saron Yitbarek*

The seed for the future summit was planted with that conversation. So as Alicia started searching for other open source hardware makers, Ayah received the Creative Commons fellowship, and hosted the workshop.

**09:03** - *Alicia Gibb*

So this was the first time that I would get to meet Ayah in person. And I was pretty excited about it, because I had read her research and used it in my research when I was doing my thesis on Arduino. A lot of the people in the field I had either met or been on email lists or whatever.

**09:20** - *Saron Yitbarek*

The people that Ayah gathered around the table at her workshop have gone on to become leaders in the open source hardware movement. Members of the Arduino team, founders of SparkFun and MakerBot, as well as one very interesting individual who named her hardware company after the world's first computer programmer.

**09:49** - *Limor Fried*

Hello, welcome.

**09:50** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Hello Limor, how's it going?

**09:52** - *Limor Fried*

Hi Saron, it's good to meet you.

**09:54** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Nice to meet you as well. I went to visit Limor Fried in downtown Manhattan. Not only was Limor part of Ayah's workshop, she and Ayah were classmates at MIT when Limor was an engineering student back in the early 2000s.

**10:09** - *Limor Fried*

I like to take things apart. I never really had an urge to, for example, play music, right? Despite what my parents wanted me to do, which was practice violin. But what I really did like to do was play with electronics and computers and technology. Not so much put them back together. But as I got older, I learned a little bit more engineering and I would put things together, and not just take them apart. There's all these gears and motors and yeah, these are very beautiful, intricate dances of technology.

**10:37** - *Saron Yitbarek*

At MIT, Limor learned not just how things are put together, but how to do it over and over again with consistency and precision. At the same time, something cool was happening. The advent of hardware hacking.

**10:53** - *Limor Fried*

In the decades before, you would take individual chips and you would wire them up, and you could build stuff, but it was extremely large, expensive and time consuming.

**11:03** - *Limor Fried*

...and then people kind of came to this idea of like, "Whoa, you can write code on a computer. Why don't we write code for electronic components?" I was starting to tinker around with electronics right at the same time when these very low-cost MAC controllers that were reprogrammable were coming into the market.

**11:20** - *Saron Yitbarek*

The game changer was a microcontroller called the Arduino board created by an Italian guy named Massimo Banzi. He was researching new approaches to interactive design on an older device called the BASIC Stamp, but it was expensive and had a relatively weak computing power. It also wasn't MAC compatible, so Banzi and his team built a cheaper, more powerful microcontroller, which you could plug into any computer. They based the programming on a graphics language called Processing and they named their new board after King Arduin, a ruler of Italy in the 1000s. The Arduino was an inspiration for hardware hackers like Limor Fried.

**12:07** - *Limor Fried*

Really, really powerful stuff because you can make your own products, which was something that was really not available. There's a lot of people out there who are software engineers, or who want to be software engineers, or want to be hardware engineers. And they may have a little bit of familiarity with computers' technology, but they don't realize, wow, you can actually make physical hardware. And I think for people who do a lot of typing in and like make boxes move on screens, which is a wonderful thing and I've done plenty of it myself, they're eventually like, "I'm really tired of just moving the CSS box on my screen. I want to make something that I can hold up, that can share it with other people."

**12:43** - *Saron Yitbarek*

At the time, this concept was so new, it wasn't being covered in Limor's engineering classes at MIT. So she taught herself on the side.

**12:53** - *Limor Fried*

I think I learned a lot from both. I'm glad I know how to take a Fourier transform, but I'm also really glad I stayed up late making a Parallel Port Pick programmer. Right? It's not something that was taught. Now it's actually in the course.

**13:07** - *Saron Yitbarek*

So in 2005, instead of working on her thesis in her dorm room, Limor procrastinated, and she did that by tinkering. She surrounded herself with circuit boards and started making DIY MP3 players and portable video game players. Each time she finished a project, she shared the schematics online. Now get this. Her online tutorials became so popular that other makers started asking her if they could buy her custom microcontroller kits. At first, she refused. But then she realized she was onto something. So from her MIT dorm room, Limor started selling her circuit boards and schematics to other hobbyists. She was inspired by the Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

**13:58** - *Limor Fried*

Freedom to modify, freedom to reuse. Just like you can buy tools at a hardware store, they don't say, "Here, sign this license agreement. You can only use this hammer to put up a painting and you can't use it to build a house. You have to buy the pro hammer for that." But yet, that's kind of where we're at with software, that we're very aware that this was a future that was going to happen if we didn't give people freedom to use the software that they wrote and other people wrote together in a communal fashion.

**14:26** - *Saron Yitbarek*

What they were doing for software, she wanted to do for hardware. She wanted to champion the kind of hardware you could make with the Arduino board, the kind of hardware you can make in your dorm room. But to push that vision forward, Limor needed to be open, needed to attract and teach other makers. And soon, there need to be protections for all that open hardware. Back to my visit with Limor.

**14:56** - *Limor Fried*

Well, we're here in downtown Manhattan at our 50,000 square-foot facility where we do manufacturing, production, testing, programming, design, and of course, a little bit of command line as well.

**15:09** - *Saron Yitbarek*

So yeah, it's a far cry from that tiny dorm room where she started her company in 2005. Limor's business selling kits to hobbyists has grown massively into Adafruit Industries. It's named after Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician who conceptualized the world's first computer program back in the 19th century.

**15:31** - *Limor Fried*

We are producing and manufacturing open source hardware that has open source firmware and software inside of it. This is like an open source Willy Wonka Wonderland.

**15:41** - *Saron Yitbarek*

It's like a Disneyland.

**15:41** - *Limor Fried*

Yes. People say that.

**15:42** - *Saron Yitbarek*

The Disneyland for hardware. The Adafruit factory opened in 2012. As we toured it, Limor showed me her stenciling machine, which outlines where on the board the various components will go.

**15:56** - *Limor Fried*

So your cell phone, your laptop, any piece of electronic or GPS, little toys you're going to give away in the holidays, a lot of those contain electronics, and they're manufactured on a pick-and-place line. And what a pick-and-place line does is they pick up very small surface mount components and they place them. Thus, the name pick-and-place.

**16:33** - *Limor Fried*

Yeah. So this is a thin piece of metal, and you can see the little laser cut holes in it.

**16:38** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Yeah.

**16:39** - *Limor Fried*

They look quite beautiful like lace.

**16:41** - *Saron Yitbarek*

It's really pretty.

**16:42** - *Limor Fried*

Yeah. There, again, the pattern that you see here on a circuit board matches that lace on the stencil. So after the pick-and-places, all the components are placed down on the circuit board. They go through this oven.

**16:56** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Okay.

**16:56** - *Limor Fried*

Which is basically just like those bagel conveyors at the deli.

**17:00** - *Saron Yitbarek*

It's kind of like a little city, it looks like.

**17:01** - *Limor Fried*

Yes. This is...

**17:03** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Limor sees the nature of hardware as historically open in general. Unlike software, hardware has always been more open to a point. Schematics were routinely included when you bought mechanical products, even electronic products, in case you had to repair them.

**17:20** - *Limor Fried*

We didn't really have open source hardware then, but everything, you could just pop it open with a screwdriver. So in case, it was sort of self-documenting. You wouldn’t be able to fix your Apple II floppy disk drive without the schematics, so digging schematics. And nowadays, it's not true anymore. Nowadays, your hardware comes in a beautiful sleek glass rectangle. And so that's why I think we had to come up with something that allowed people to share hardware because the era of sharing hardware voluntarily was sort of ending.

**17:53** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Limor, Ayah, Alicia and the other open hardware devotees at that Creative Commons workshop came together at a crucial time when access to how hardware was put together was drying up. If they wanted to ensure the future of an open source hardware community, one that could move beyond hobby hacking to become a sustainable movement, they would need to come together as a more focused collective with rules, definitions, and standards.

**18:22** - *Limor Fried*

Open source communities are like precious delicate jewels. A little tick and they can just shatter. It's made of people, people. We write the code, we support it, we use it, we document it. Releasing code is a very personal thing. You're showing people, here's how I think, here's how I work, here's how my brain is organized. And if it's not a healthy place to do that, people aren't going to be free to express themselves through the code that they release.

**18:51** - *Saron Yitbarek*

What happened next? What happened when a generation of open hardware makers left their dorm rooms and hackerspaces and met each other would lay the groundwork for a movement. It's early morning on September 23, 2010. In a few hours, Alicia Gibb and Ayah Bdeir would welcome attendees to the first ever Open Hardware Summit. They managed to create and plan a brand new event for a whole new generation of makers in 3 short months. But would they come? At 6:00 that morning, they received an email from their contact that the venue, to their surprise it said...

**19:37** - *Alicia Gibb*

There's a line out the door already of people waiting to get in. And the event doesn't start till 9:00 or something and it was 6:00 AM and people were already there.

**19:48** - *Saron Yitbarek*

At that inaugural summit in 2010, 320 people crowded the hall.

**19:55** - *Alicia Gibb*

We were absolutely unaware of how big the community was. And it still floors me how international the community is. At one point, somebody wanted to send us a donation from Thailand. And so they sent us cash, a note from Thailand. And it's like wow, people in Thailand believe in us so much that they're going to send us cash through the mail.

**20:16** - *Ayah Bdeir*

And I kind of looked around the room and I was like, "Oh, this is a moment." There is something going on in this room that is going to be a historical moment and I felt it at the time. And just the kind of support we got during and afterwards from people that wanted to sponsor, people that wanted to speak next year.

**20:34** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Before its first year, Alicia and Ayah knew their main goal would be to develop a working definition of open hardware.

**20:42** - *Alicia Gibb*

There were really two reasons that we needed a definition. The first was to get the community on the same page so that people weren't assuming that you can put something out there as open source hardware, but then say, "Oh, but you... There's a noncommercial clause to this." You have to be able to resell the hardware, especially because hardware takes money to mine the parts out of the ground. So there were disagreements on whether or not people needed to share their routing traces, or if just the schematic was enough, or if you needed to open the board file and things like that. "Wait, does this fit with open source hardware or not? Because we control the chip, but we don't open source the chip."

**21:23** - *Alicia Gibb*

And then the second reason it was important is that with hardware, it's different than software where you don't instantly get copyright on it the second that you create it. So hardware is actually kind of born free until you patent it, until you decide to close it down with a monopoly. So we wanted there to be some kind of definition as more or less a tiny little legal hinge, that really it becomes a community norm, which can be held up in courts.

**21:55** - *Saron Yitbarek*

This wasn't actually the first attempt at a standardized notion of open hardware. In 1997, a guy named Bruce Perens created an open hardware certification program. Perens was a notable open source figure because he had helped create the original open source software guidelines around the same time. Those are administered by an organization called the Open Source Initiative, OSI. But not much happened around Perens' hardware certification program in 1997, and with a new generation of makers entering the scene, it made sense to refresh the principles. At that summit, they'd get everyone to agree on a standardized definition and best practices for open source hardware. Just getting everyone together, sharing ideas and projects seemed to kickstart the community. But then discussions turned toward defining what open source hardware meant.

**22:57** - *Ayah Bdeir*

There were the purists who believed that you couldn't call it open source hardware unless the entire toolchain was open source. Others would say, "No, that's not realistic because some of the circuit design tools or the 3D printing tools that I use are not open source, but they're accessible and there are free versions of them." Well the software at least. And so that's enough for you to replicate and modify the invention. So why does a toolchain have to be open source?

**23:27** - *Ayah Bdeir*

Then there were conversations around attribution. In many open source software licenses, attribution is not as important. In this case, there was a lot of discussion about it because hardware is expensive. So the person who's created it has not only just put in time in a garage with a laptop, they've put in dollars, actual cash into physical things that moved from country to country oftentimes, and were made, and those things need to be recouped in some way.

**23:58** - *Saron Yitbarek*

One of the summit's keynote speakers was Ayah Bdeir's old classmate, Limor Fried.

**24:04** - *Limor Fried*

So one of the debates we had was, does the CAD file have to be in an open format? I remember there was a big round table and everyone kind of had their say and some people were like, no. And some people said yes. And we eventually said, "Well, let's change it to say it has to be in the original format that's like a reasonable... Like we have to come up with something." So we kind of came up with a little bit of a middle ground saying, "If you can release the files, it doesn't have to be in an openly documented format, but has to be in a format that can be read by a person with reasonable access to tools."

**24:40** - *Saron Yitbarek*

They even brought in a few lawyers from Creative Commons to help iron things out.

**24:44** - *Limor Fried*

And they said, "Look, if you are going to court over open source hardware, it's already over." So we said that the thing that a lot of licensees and communities have that fractures them is mismatched expectations or people not communicating their expectations. So what the definition does is, it's not really a legal framework, because there's actually no legal protection for a lot of these, but it's a framework for people to express their expectations, how they want and expect their hardware and firmware and designs to be used.

**25:17** - *Limor Fried*

And so far that's actually worked out really well. The more people are open about what they want people to use their hardware for, the better off everybody else is, because there's no devolution of communication where people are like, "Well, you said this, but legally I can do that."

**25:35** - *Saron Yitbarek*

The debate over what defined open source hardware continued for a year. Meanwhile, a contest was held to create a logo to go along with the definition. In 2011 at the second Open Source Hardware Summit, the intention was to ratify the definition, but this is where things hit a bit of a snag. The winning logo raised some issues because it bore a resemblance to the Open Source Initiative’s logo.

**26:04** - *Alicia Gibb*

I was still sort of like, "Oh, everything's like rainbows and unicorns and everybody likes everybody." It was sort of a wake-up call to like, oh, even in the open source community, I guess there can be mistakes that happen and disagreements that happen and people who want to come after you legally.

**26:22** - *Saron Yitbarek*

A compromise was eventually reached, but the experience galvanized the new movement. In 2012 Alicia, Ayah, and the team founded the Open Source Hardware Association, also known as OSHWA. At long last OSHWA had its definition.

**26:41** - *Alicia Gibb*

So the open source hardware definition is more or less that you are agreeing to put your hardware out there as open source, making it available for people to study and learn from, to remix, to remake, to remanufacture and to resell your design and your hardware. And then you can ask for attribution on your hardware and you can ask people to follow a license that you attach to your hardware.

**27:11** - *Saron Yitbarek*

From all those dorm rooms and garages and dining room tables, from a thousand makers around the world, a community standard was finally emerging.

**27:22** - *Limor Fried*

No matter what license you use, people can point to and say, "If you're calling your thing open source hardware, here's the definition, here's what you're basically saying your expectations are. If that's not true, call it something else." And then on top of that, another thing that came across a few years ago was an actual, like, directory for registering open source hardware. When you go there you basically kind of check a little pledge that says, my design I'm releasing abides by this definition. So the definition kind of is the rock and this is sort of the building on top of it, so that people get a little logo and an identifier and they can say, "Yes, this is open source hardware and the Open Source Hardware Association is standing by me."

**28:07** - *Saron Yitbarek*

This year the Open Source Hardware Summit celebrates its 10th anniversary, and these days it's even creeping into consumer products.

**28:16** - *Alicia Gibb*

So there are an entire line of computers out there that are from System76 that are open source hardware, 3D printers like LulzBot, and there's other 3D printers that are also open source hardware. I think right now we're sort of on the cusp of more consumer products coming out.

**28:35** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Over the last 10 years, open hardware has set a new bar for openness and diversity in tech culture.

**28:43** - *Alicia Gibb*

One of the things that really turned me off from the open source software communities is going to a couple meetings and being asked where my boyfriend was, or who I was there with, or whatever. This assumption that, as a female, I wouldn't be there by myself. Because I could see that the open hardware community was very young and that we were just building. And so myself and Ayah were both like, "Okay, this can't happen in our community."

**29:11** - *Saron Yitbarek*

At the first summit, there were a couple of 10-year-old makers in attendance. There were people of color in the room. The organizers were women, and the face of the open hardware movement is literally female. Limor Fried was the first woman engineer to be featured on the cover of WIRED Magazine in 2011, and according to Ayah Bdeir, the accessibility and diversity that open hardware thrives in, is something we should all care about these days.

**29:43** - *Ayah Bdier*

When I was growing up, technology was a thing that existed. It was a discipline. You could live your life saying, "I'm not technical," and that would be fine. It's no longer the case. Technology is the foundation of everything that we do. It's how we eat, how we drink, how we communicate, how we travel, how we predict, how we publish. They affect democracy, they affect mental health, they affect social impact, they affect environmental impact. The mission is important because if we don't have creators of technology and decision makers and technology representing the demographic makeup of the world, then we are making decisions that are biased or discriminatory, that are non-inclusive and that are dangerous.

**30:39** - *Saron Yitbarek*

Command Line Heroes is an original podcast from Red Hat. Check out our research on open source hardware at [redhat.com/commandlineheroes](https://www.redhat.com/commandlineheroes). And while you're there, sign up for our newsletter. I'm Saron Yitbarek. Until next time, keep on coding.

### Further reading

[ Hackerspace Culture: An Interview with Alicia Gibb of the Blow Things Up Lab](https://manifold.umn.edu/read/hackerspace-culture/section/7d67d87e-587c-4c0c-b6f8-d9eca1aeac72) by Georgie Archibald

[ Drones, Chumbys, and big business: the Open Hardware Summit](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2010/09/drones-chumbys-and-big-business-too-the-open-hardware-summit/) by John Timmer

### Bonus episode

Ayah Bdeir, Alicia Gibb, and Limor Fried were early proponents of building diversity into the open source hardware community. Hear how they set the tone.