Difference between revisions of "Design Sharing Platforms"

Latest revision as of 12:13, 16 August 2016

This page is a brief review of online platforms that allow people to share hardware designs. Our interest lies primarily in platforms that help establish a hardware design commons, while there are also platforms that encourage people to sell there designs instead of sharing them.

Platforms that encourage people to organise in communities and share their designs in the form of a commons vary much. As a minimum one would expect a hardware design to be available under equal conditions to all, under a free license, and in an editable format (such as is common in that particular sector). If we really talk about a hardware design commons, the platform should facilitate replication and modification. Therefore it should cover decisions that went into the design of subassemblies, how these fit into larger systems, documentation of how to build and use the resulting object, source code etc. And provide appropriate licenses for each type of work: for the designs, documentation, software.

It is clear that most platforms today don't cover all of that, but some more than others. Some are dedicated to a specific domain, like electronics, or space development. Some platforms are controlled by one company while others are governed more like a commons. These aspects enhance or limit the users' freedoms.

In this page we seek to help users choose the platform that aligns best with ethical values and maximises user freedom. Therefore we build a list of the current platforms and indicate their main aspects. Read also other reviews and comparatives of design platforms, like the one by Matt Maier.

Platforms

As there are many different online platforms out there, dedicated to hardware designs, we first want to narrow it down a bit. We distinguish those platforms that encourage sharing designs and help people building communities around a hardware design commons, that cover Free/Libre Hardware designs and Open Source Hardware^[1]. And - as a reference. we also present a list of other platforms that build markets around the designs. For an explanation of the terms used in the tables, see the legend at the bottom.

Platforms for the Hardware Design Commons

Platforms for Design Marketplaces

Here follow just a few wellknown platforms that favour the sale of designs over commons-based forms of knowledge sharing.

To be added

• github
• Open Innovation Projects
• Piratebay
• grabCAD
• fab3ds
• sketchfab
• shapedo
• (http://fabshare.org/)
• ...

Legend

• Name and URL
• Slogan
• Ownership: private (company name), commons, informal community
• Sustainability model: how is the platform sustained economically? by membership fees, donations, freemium services, ... CBPP refers to the common model of commons-based peer production, based on voluntary contributions
• Platform software: Name & URL
• Platform software license
• Technical features:
  • Allowed CAD formats: STL, GCode, ...
  • online rendering
  • Is there a public API or another tool to open access the repositories data available? (Yes, No, Other (a non-free tool)))
  • version history: is there a versioning system included in the platform?: yes/no
  • friending: enables users to become friends/followers/contacts: yes/no
  • other features: groups/teams, collections, forum, wiki, ...
• Encourages sharing:
  • licenses: the license options for people to share their designs under
  • reputation features: like user profile, peer rating mechanisms, ...
• added value:
  • machining services: 3D print, lasercut, CNC, ...
  • marketplace: where users can sell and purchase designs
• Comments

Blogs, Artciles about this study

See a summary blog at the DiDIY.eu website.

References

1. ↑ Open Source Hardware (OSHW) is defined by the worldwide community at: http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW and organised in the Open Source Hardware Alliance (OSHWA)