wir hoffen, es geht Euch allen gut. Wir haben heute mehrere neue interessante Projekte. 1 Produktprojekt, 1 Klima-Forschungsprojekt, 2 Kommunikationsprojekte und 1 Bildungsprojekt mit Ausstellung. Auf geht’s.
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1 OPEN SHELVE NODES
Open Shelve Nodes ist eine Lösung, mit der sich flexible Regale herstellen lassen. Die Lösung ist in verschiedenen Varianten umsetzbar von Holz über 3D-Druck bis zu hin zu Pappe. Ein guter Teil der Lösungen ist fertig entwickelt und kann bereits heruntergeladen werden. Der Rest wird Stück für Stück in einem offenen Prozess mit euch entwickelt. Macht mit!
Unsere wöchentlichen Live-Streams aus der Werkstatt funktionieren und werden nach der Sommerpause fortgesetzt. Mit den Streams haben wir eine elegante Methode gefunden, Open Design- & Open-Hardware-Projekte zu dokumentieren! Dazu ein andermal mehr. Aber wer sich durchs Archiv klickt, ahnt schon, wie und warum.
Im Frühjahr hatte Mifactori zwei Praktikanten, die die Möglichkeit einer DIY Carbon Capture (Eigenbau CO2-Sammelanlage) erforscht haben. Die Ergebnisse dieser Forschung sind anschlussfähig aufbereitet auf unserer Webseite.
Unser Designentwicklungsprojekt und zugleich Bildungsprojekt “Bauhaus Klimafabrik 1.0” ist abgeschlossen. Die Abschlussausstellung dazu steht aktuell im Haus der Statistik in Berlin Mitte. Alle Ergebnisse und die Methode dieses Projektes sind auf unserer Webseite zu finden. Das Projekt und die gesamte Idee dahinter sind faszinierend und ein großer Erfolg. Wir sind bereits auf der Suche nach einer Gelegenheit für Version 2.0. Ideen dafür? Meldet euch.
5 LICENSING OPEN SOURCE-HARDWARE RIGHT – MEME CAMPAIGN
Im März haben wir eine kleine Kampagne gestartet zum Problem der Lizenzierung von Open Source-Hardware. Die wird nämlich leider oft falsch verstanden, wodurch das ganze Feld in seiner Entwicklung aufgehalten wird. Im Zentrum der Kampagne stehen selbstgebaute Memes, die ihr gern teilen dürft, wann immer ihr die Gelegenheit dafür findet. Lasst uns gemeinsam aufräumen!
Wie immer gibt es mehr. Wir haben in den letzten Wochen eine ganze Reihe von Prototypen entwickelt und dokumentiert. Wir werden sie den Sommer über Stück für Stück veröffentlichen. Folgt uns auf Social Media. Wir haben sogar einen TikTok-Kanal jetzt.
we hope you are all well. Today we have several new interesting projects for you. 1 product project, 1 climate research project, 2 communication projects and 1 educational project including an exhibition. Let’s get right into it.
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1 OPEN SHELVE NODES
Open Shelve Nodes is a solution to create shelves. The solution can be implemented in different variants from wood to 3D printing to cardboard. A good part of the solutions is fully developed and can already be downloaded. The rest will be developed step by step in an open process together with you. Join it!
Our weekly live streams from the workshop work well and will continue after the summer break. With the streams we have found an elegant way to document open design & open hardware projects. More on that soon. But if you look click through archive you’ll get an idea how and why.
Image for the DIY Carbon Capture Project – “Can you catch it?”
In spring Mifactori had two interns who researched the possibility of a DIY carbon capture solution. The results of this research are available to build upon on our website.
Our design development project and education project “Bauhaus Klimafabrik 1.0” has been completed. The final exhibition is currently on display at Haus der Statistik in Berlin Mitte. All results and the method of this project can be found on our website. The project and the whole idea of it is fascinating and a great success. We are already looking for an opportunity for version 2.0. Ideas for it? Get in touch.
5 LICENSING OPEN SOURCE-HARDWARE RIGHT – MEME CAMPAIGN
In March we started a small campaign on the problem of licensing open source hardware. Unfortunately licensing is often misunderstood which slows down the entire field in its development. The campaign shares self-made memes, which you are welcome to share whenever you have the opportunity. Let’s clean up together!
As always, there is more. We have developed and documented a number of prototypes over the past few weeks. We’ll publish them bit by bit over the summer. Follow us on social media. We even have even a TikTok channel now.
is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design.
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↑ The highlighted words are the 4 freedoms of Open Source. And look. It is verbs. It is about doing things. Or about enabling people to do practical creative things with objects.
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Circular Economy
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Let’s ask Wikipedia for a quick definition:
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“Circular systems…
employ reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling to create a closed-loop system.”
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↑ The highlighted words are also verbs! The circular economy is about doing things with things – differently! it wants to enable people to do all kinds of practical things with objects.
So. Like Open Source it is an idea about human interaction with products. The question is, how close are they?
Question → Look at the juxtaposition of the Open Source actions and the Circular Economy actions. Do you see where they are the same, where they support or complement each other? Can you draw connections?
(…)
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Open Source
study
modify
distribute
make
sell
Circular Economy
reuse
sharing
repair
refurbishment
remanufacturing
recycling
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↑
Ok. That is pretty interesting.
It looks like at least theoretically they can support and elevate each other!
But what about design? If you have heard about the circular economy you know that it is mostly about HOW to design things. The design of a product can make circular practices such as repair or recycling easy or impossible.
The question is: Does open hardware has anything to say about how a design should be made too? Yes. It has!
If you read on in the the definition of open source hardware you’ll find this:
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”… Ideally, open source hardware uses readily-available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure, unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximize the ability of individuals to make and use hardware.”
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What is this? It is design guidelines that want to make it as easy as possible to physically recreate a hardware object in different locations. Because if open hardware want’s to leverage some of the things that make open source software so great and successful it needs to be easy to manufacture on sight. Software you download install and run. But hardware?
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This is how ’shipping‘ software works, but not hardware.
The difference between software and hardware is striking. Computers are the same everywhere in the world. The same basic general purpose machine. So you can download Open Source Software from the other side of the globe and start using it and maybe contributing to it within minutes on your local machine. The computer it runs on is already built. With hardware it is different. You can only download the design files for a tractor. But the complex and expensive translation into atoms is still ahead of you.
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Here is → an extended list of differences between hardware and software. If you are excited about open hardware and the idea to make it as big as open source software the list will make you pretty humble. It shows why it is hard for open hardwareto activate the same effects that make open source software work so well. And this is mostly because software is a file that is easy to copy. Hardware is not.
So open hardware ideally makes an effort in the design to be easy to make. Make the translation into atoms quick, cheap and easy.
The question is: Are things that are easy and cheap to make also easy to repair, reuse, refurbish and recycle? Do the design ideals open hardware and design ideals of circularity have anything to say to each other?
Let’s compare them?
Question → Look at the juxtaposition of the Open Source Hardware and the Circular Economy design recommendations. Do you see examples where they are the same, where they support or complement each other?
Yes. If you look careful into this you’ll see that in some parts they basically ask for the same thing and in other parts they complement and potentially elevate each other – give each other hints how to achieve their design ideals even better. *
What does this mean?
It could mean, that when you combine the worlds of open source hardware and circular economy to an “open source circular economy” you might end up with design objects that are more open than the open hardware definition is able to describe right now and more circular than the current status of our circular design principles is able to describe right now.
At least in theory – on this level of abstraction.
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More depth please …
More hands on …
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But I am a designer. I like theory. But enjoy hands on stuff too.
So starting from the level of abstraction above our design studio → Mifactori – explores the combination of Open Source and Circularity for many years now. And we were always looking for descriptions that had the “open source circular economy” idea in its core but where a bit more instructive for real hands on design work.
And we ended up with an article and 9 strategies. How to make Open Circular Design? If we still have time, I can go through them and show examples. If not, I invite you to read the article and click through the design examples on our website.
.
… climate change? Which city is smarter? The „smart city“ with street lights that are technically sophisticated and networked? Or the city with open documented, accessible, easy to understand street lights? When a storm hits the city infrastructure – which lamps are easier to repair locally? When the coastline moves – which lamps are easier to dismantle, take away and put up in another region? Openness helps us to adapt!
→ This is why we study Open Hardware (Business Models) and Design for Open Source in this course.
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Thank you
I look forward to the discussion. You can find and follow my and Mifactori’s work here
I am Lars Zimmermann, designer, artist, activist and educator from Berlin. I run a studio for Open (Source) Circular Design called → Mifactori and I am happy about this invitation.
This talk is about “future impact” of open source hardware. Keep in mind that the future is unpredictable ;-). So this is just what I can imagine and hope to be the future impact of open source hardware.
Where to start? At the definition of open source hardware.
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”Open Source Hardware …
is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware’s source, the design from which it is made, is available in the preferred format for making modifications to it…”
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↑ This is beautiful. It is about a society that is enabled legally and information wise to freely perform all kinds of educative, creative and productiveactions with technical artifacts around us. You might see this as “democratization” of technology. It would make a great impact.
Let’s continue with the definition →
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”… Ideally, open source hardware uses readily-available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure, unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximize the ability of individuals to make and use hardware.”
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What is this? It talks about the design of the hardware itself. The first two sentences were about IP, documentation and source files. This is about how the designs are actually designed. Why is this important?
The difference between software and hardware is striking. Computers are the same everywhere in the world. The same basic general purpose machine. So you can download Open Source Software from the other side of the globe and start using it within minutes on your local machine. The computer it runs on is already built. The atoms that make the software come to live are already in front of you and properly arranged. With hardware it is different. You can only download the design files for a tractor. But the difficult and expensive part of sourcing parts and materials and putting them together is still ahead of you.
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This is how ‘shipping’ software works, but not hardware.
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If you want to leverage for open source hardware some of the things that are great about open source software you need to find a way to make it as easy as possible to create a physical copy of a design object everywhere.
This is the reason digital manufacturing like 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC milling goes well together with open hardware. But standard parts and methods, the usage of available tools and simple designs help a lot with this too, (which is why the definition asks for this ↑) . Open Hardware needs to be designed for the open! And needs to be designed to be easy to make.
So future impact?
When we have designs that are easier to understand and that educate and support us to work with them creatively we would all become versions of MacGywer.
And the key to MacGywer is → he survived! Because he was able to creatively work with his immediate surroundings he was enabled to survive the challenges his opponents had put in front of him. And we all face mighty opponents! → Climate change, biodiversity collapse and resource depletion.
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surviving
Climate Change?
Which city is smarter? The „smart city“ with street lights that are technically sophisticated and networked? Or the city with open documented, accessible, easy to understand street lights? When a storm hits the city infrastructure – which lamps are easier to repair locally? When the coastline moves – which lamps are easier to dismantle, take away and put up in another region? Openness helps us to adapt!
2030 it’s all of us?
Future impact? If we get this done right – if we prepare our infrastructures and product and production cultures for these crises leveraging the methods and approaches of open source hardware … surviving might become easier.
Openness and resilience look like a great couple…
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↓
I am convinced and a good part of my own work is dedicated to this – that Open Source can be used as an enabler for Circularity (Circular Economy & Circular Design).
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”Circular Design
or Circular Economy wants to spread new actions in dealing with products and production. Established actions like manufacturing, retail, consumption and littering are supposed to be joined by repair, reuse, repurposing and recycling. The more accessible these ”new” actions are, the easier and more likely they become.”
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↑ Look at this. Circularity or sustainability in general is also about (new/different/currently less common) actions with products!
And Circular Design can heavily benefit from the very same strategies the open source hardware definition just explained to us! Available and free documentation and simple designs made with standard parts and open tools will increase the chance that repair, reuse, repurposing and recycling actually happen.
So future impact of open source hardware? If we manage to get more on the road in the right way we will probably see a sustainable circular economy grow quicker than without open source hardware.
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A
Means
to an end
I just presented you view points that present you open source hardware as a means to an end. As tools to achieve democratization, answer the consequences of climate change and enable circular design.
If you are interested in these things than open source hardware might be the right tool and path for you.
And this brings up the question. If we want to spread it and make it grow – then who to invite to the party? How should this project – OPENNEXT – proceed its path into the future?
I wrote an article about it and I’ll present it / summarize it for you in last minutes:
(if you only read this go to the article the talk continued there.)
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OK.
Thank you. Looking forward to the discussion. If you like to see/hear more from me, my colleagues and our work on simple → open circular design you can find me here:
my Name is Lars Zimmermann, I am a designer + artist, activist and educator from Berlin. I run a design studio for “Open Circular Design” called Mifactori. It is more than a design studio. So this is not just an advertisement talk & workshop.
We are here at an academic conference. So I take the liberty to challenge you a bit – information overload incoming (◎o◎) !
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1. Open, bottom up, thinking from the point of consumption
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We think of Circularity as Open Circular Design. We aim for a redesign of the entire economic chain – from linear to circular. But we start from the point of consumption. We are looking for strategies to transform the whole chain from there. So not the other way around as others approach it.
Why & how? The circular economy primarily tells stories about new ways of interaction with products. In addition to purchase, consumption and disposal, there are new activities such as repair, reuse, (reduce) and recycling. These actions must be as accessible as possible to increase their likelihood. So we also give them into the hands of the consumers through design. –
– Customers do not shape the circular economy (solely) through their purchasing decisions. Rather, the products are built in such a way that the customers themselves (can) carry out “circular actions” themselves.
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2 Methods
What distinguishes our studio is that we not only use methods for this goal, but also actively find anddescribe them .
Mifactori has the half-secret goal of being a meta design agency. We want to inspire other design agencies and give them ideas on how to work effectively for circularity. We want to be copied! For the sustainable transformation of our economy, we need many, many design agencies!
Simple → Of course everything needs to be simple, or as simple as possible to invite customers to engage differently with design. We like construction toys and the aesthetic of our work is inspired by it. This helps to signal to people that this design is made to be “played” with. Let me show you one of our super simple designs → Ringbein.
Modular → You just looked at a very modular design. And almost everything we do has to do with modularity. Our lead vision is a world designed like worlds made out of Lego Bricks. Worlds where everyone can constantly reuse, rebuild and so on. I’ll show you one of our methods for this → 3erlinGrid.
Upcycling Friendly → To proof that you really enable reuse of materials don’t show me how your design can be reused. Show me a design that enables reuse of materials in high volume and effective mass production. Ringbein ↑ was a good example for an upcycling friendly design. Here is another one the → Schöneberg Stool
Recyclable → We try to use only materials that are recyclable and make sure it is possible to separate different materials quickly. The two designs I just showed you made this clear.
Open Licensed → Openness is the key to circularity. Things have to be designed to be open. But they also have to be licenses accordingly! – When circularity is about enabling new activities you have to make sure that there are no property rights that block these activities (closed source and property rights are means to STOP people from doing things). This means as a designer of sustainable circularity you have to think about licenses. So we use open licenses ourselves and → educate people how to do this. | We participate in the development of Open Source Hardware (which is a broader movement not just for circularity) for example by creating resources about the legal part of it, like our → FAQ to avoid misunderstandings and even → whole campaigns to clean some of them up through collective actions.
Support for the Biosphere → I skip this. Because we don’t really have a unique key methodology for this. We will at some point.
Education → Obviously the documentation of our → product designs are pretty educative. “Designs that teach” … But while we talk about “education”: I already mentioned that we work a lot in education. All the → workshops we develop are openly documented for teachers and we provide a → manual/manifesto for teachers to make art and sustainability education sustainable & circular in the means used.
Education II (Activism!) → But I want to use education to highlight another one of our interests – campaigns and activism. We are in the field of sustainability for quite some time now and one thing became clear: A shift to a more sustainable world will not happen without A LOT of activism. So naturally we became interested in campaigns and creative activism. We run & develop campaigns for the → online and → offline world. AND we invite other creative, strategy and design agencies to create → more activist companies out there!
PreUse → The last method in the picture that will guide us to the practical part of the workshop is → PreUse.
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3 Practical Part
The announcement promised a practical part. And here it is. Let’s make a litte exercise in PreUse – the method I just explained.
The Task → I am sure all of you have a little PreUse hack in your home. Go, find it. If you have none, create one. If you have time left, create one more.
You have __ minutes for this.
Then we will come together. And those of you who want to show their “DIY-Circularity-Hack” can show it. Then we will have discussion.
° ° °
work in progress
–
° ° °
Presentation → Show your work 🙂
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4 Discussion
Let’s have a discussion.
Do you have questions? Remarks? Do you think Circularity needs to be DIY?
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5 Thanks
Thank you for joining this workshop. Stay tuned. A lot will happen at Mifactori in 2021 and 2022 – for example we are building a “transparent factory” (° o °). The best way to do this is
Ich bin Lars, Designer, Künstler und Aktivist für Nachhaltigkeit.
Ich freue mich, dass Elena & Giulia mich eingeladen haben, damit ich euch etwas zu Nachhaltigkeit und Material erzähle. Die beiden haben mir 3 Fragen geschickt, zu denen ich etwas erzählen soll. Ich schreib die Fragen hier einfach mal hin und dann gehen wir da gemeinsam durch. Dabei zeige ich euch einfach ein paar Sachen.
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Frage 1:
Warum ist es wichtig, Materialien wiederzuverwenden?
3 Materialien und woher kommen sei eigentlich?
Wart ihr mal im Wald spazieren und habt gesehen, wie dort Holz “geerntet wurde”? … Benzingeruch im Wald …
Woraus wird eigentlich Plastik also Kunststoff gemacht? …. Tanker die mit Schweröl über den Ozean fahren …
Wie wird Aluminiumgemacht? … Strom in großen Mengen …
Alle Materialien haben eine Geschichte. Sie kommen irgendwo her. Sie gehen irgendwo hin. Aus ihnen wird irgendwas gemacht. Und sie fallen irgendwann als Müll an. Bei jedem dieser Schritte wird in der Regel Natur verdrängt und Umwelt verschmutzt – das Klima und die Biosphäre werden verändert.
Darum ist es wichtig, Materialien wiederzuverwenden. Dann müssen wir weniger Materialien neu aus der Natur ziehen und es entsteht weniger Umweltverschmutzung und -zerstörung.
Vielleicht rettet jede gesparte Aluminiumdose einen Käfer?
Oder sogar ein Kätzchen?
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Frage 2:
Was bedeutet nachhaltiges Material für Dich?
Nachhaltiges Material
verbraucht und zerstört weniger Umwelt beim Produzieren, Nutzen und Entsorgen,
ist langlebig und dabei schön,
lässt sich gut wiederverwenden bzw. recyceln.
ist vielleicht sogar biologisch abbaubar… Schneemann mit Hama-Perlen behängt …
Und es kommt auch darauf an, wo und wie es genutzt wird?
Kann man es gut trennen/herauslösen
Kann man das Objekt leicht reparieren?
Kann man es gut pflegen?
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Frage 3:
Wie können Materialien aus unserer Umgebung uns beeinflussen?
Ich weiß nicht, ob ich die Frage gut verstehe oder wie ich sie beantworten soll. Materialien beeinflussen uns ja auf viele Weisen. Z.B.
psychologisch dadurch
wie sie aussehen (Farbe, Formen)
wie sie sich anfühlen (warm, kalt, weich usw.)
wie sie riechen (geruchlos oder stark chemisch)
finanziell
Wenn der Pullover stabil und gut gemacht ist, dann kann ich ihn lange tragen.
Wenn ich die Kiste reparieren kann, dann muss ich keine neue kaufen.
wenn ich in meiner Freizeit mit Lego spiele, kann ich das immer wieder verwenden und hinterher sogar noch verkaufen. Wenn ich mit Klebstoff und Papier spiele – oder Graffiti mache –, muss ich immer wieder neues Material kaufen.
zeitlich
wenn ich die ganze Zeit Lebensmittel in Plastikverpackungen kaufe, muss ich ständig den Müll runterbringen
gesundheitlich
es wird zwar weniger, aber es gibt Materialien, die uns direkt krank machen (z.B. Asbest) – oder C8 aus der Teflon-Produktion … Dark Waters Film …
der Klimawandel macht es sehr heiß und irgendwann schwer – gesunde Lebensmittel anzubauen … Unwetter zerstören unsere Wohnungen … Nöte und Sorgen unsere Diskurskultur.
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Frage 4:
Wie beeinflusst Du durch den Umgang mit Materialien Deine Umgebung? Und wie könnt ihr das auch machen?
Z.B. euch, eure Lehrer und andere? Lebt ihnen einfach einen anderen Umgang vor. Ich zeig euch mal ein paar Projekte von uns aus der Bildung, die euch das zeigen:
Bringt auch ihr eure KunstlehrerInnen dazu, nachhaltiger mit euch zu arbeiten. Schickt ihnen einfach unser “Manifest” dafür. Dort stehen viele Hinweise und Anleitungen dafür drin:
Und wenn ihr mehr wissen wollt und auf dem Laufenden bleiben und vielleicht schon Social Media nutzt, dann sucht uns doch auf Instagram, TikTok und sogar Twitch. Wir sind überall zu finden unter:
↑ Video recording.The slides below ↓ have2 Updates though.
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Hello,
I am Lars Zimmermann, Designer+Artist, Activist and Educator from Berlin. .
☞ .
DISCLAMER 1 – I am not a lawyer – This is a talk about legal issues and licenses but I am not a lawyer. This is no legal advice. And I didn’t study this in university. I just tried hard to figure this out and hopefully I got it right.
DISCLAMER 2 – Different countries have different laws – The legal situation is different in every country. What I am going to share here should cover the legal situation in Europe pretty much. I did not look into other countries. But there are reasons to believe that this should somehow match the legal situation in a lot of other countries as well.
DISCLAIMER 3 – Just a fraction – Licensing and property rights is a complex issue and 20 minutes is not enough to give you the full picture. So I had to pick aspects here to focus on.
DISCLAMIER 4 – … – And, sorry, I think i need to state that this talk is somehow given in this mood. But someone IS wrong on the internet! And it is a problem. And I think not just for me.
Ok. Let’s start.
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Statement: Licensing open source hardware is messy and broken – compared to software.
I am an open source hardware activist and enthusiast. And from my point of view the legal/licensing situation in software is pretty sorted. At least in comparison to Open Source Hardware.
The reason for this is that software is governed by copyright law.
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1 Copyright Law
Software – like works of art, texts and images – is usually a subject of copyright law.
This makes everything somehow simple. Because you receive your copyright automatically and for free the moment you create something. This means everything copyright based is born closed. *
Software is born closed
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So the situation is clear at the beginning: The software IS closed. You need to get active toopen it. How? Just pick one of the many existing and ready to use (open source) software licenses or a creative commons license. Those licenses are copyright based. They allow you to make statements about copyrights you own. They make it possible that you allow others to use your work under the conditions you put into your license (for example attribution).
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2 Patents: Where Functionalities start Copyright ends
Copyright explicitly does not apply to anything that has to do with functionalities. Where functionalities start copyright ends – automatically. This means the moment we enter the realm of hardware we leave the realm of copyright. And this means we loose all copyright based licenses. Copyright based licenses don’t apply to hardware as hardware is mostly functionalities.
→ If you write a book about a time machine the book is protected by copyright law but the machine you describe in the book is not! Everyone can build it. Unless you have patents or design rights registered.
(We still need copyrightbased licenses for the documentation + design files – the source – of the hardware. But it needs to be clear that the creative commons licenses for example do not say anything about the right to work with the hardware itself.)
Patents are for all things that have functionalities. And patents are fundamentally different from copyright!
The key difference to copyright law is that all things with functionalities are born free → all hardware is born free. Why? Because you don’t receive a patent automatically when you create something. You need to take actions to close the hardware for example by getting a patent. Filing a patent comes with costs (while copyright was for free). You can file patents only for ideas that are new. You can’t patent anything that is already known to the public or was published before – those things are prior art. (But you can remix classic ideas in software or art and your work will be protected by copyright law.) *
Hardware is born free
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So the question is then: How to tackle the legal side of making hardware free and open then? It is very easy. Do nothing! Except publishing your work prominently (for example on the web). With this your work becomes prior art and this means it goes into the commons. Everyone can use it forever for free. And no one can patent or close it anymore – including yourself.
But then you can’t tell others what they can do
But this also means you don’t have any exclusive rights to it. And this means you can’t tell others what they can or can’t do with your hardware. There is no way for you to attach conditions to the use of your hardware.
Theoretically, yes, if your invention is new you could file a patent first to get exclusive rights. And then create a public license that allows everyone to use your invention under the conditions of your choice. But this doesn’t seem like something that makes sense – given that filing patents is costly. And to nobodies surprise there is no common public license to use in this situation.
UPDATE:There are two standard licenses you can use when you have filed a patent or design rights – the CERN OHL and the TAPR OHL. These licenses are made to make claims about those rights. I didn’t mention them in the talk because only a few people know about them so I did not count them as a “standard”. But the Open Source Hardware Certification process of the Open Source Hardware Association highlight them quite prominently which contributes to their notoriety and standard use. |
So it is easy. Publish it. And do nothing else. And embrace the fact that no one – including yourself (!) – can dictate to anyone if and how the hardware is used.
But the truth is. This doesn’t seem to be easy for people – to accept and therefor understand… I’ll get to it in a moment.
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3 Design Rights & Utility Models
I just want to mention that in Europe & Germany we have more property rights that apply to hardware – for example “design rights” and “utility models”.
Design Rights – protect “how something looks”
Utility Models – protect how something works/or what it does (= cheaper but weaker version of a patent)
They are both closer to the patent because: You have to file them actively and the invention needs to be new. So hardware is stillborn free (tiny exception: for design objects you have “unregistered design rights” for one year after the publication of the design. Within this year you can transform these unregistered design rights into registered design rights. So in a way the design is not really free during the first year after it was published.)
If you want to get deeper into those other property rights click here.
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4 Making Hardware open – it’s easy!
I said it twice already. Making hardware open from a legal point of view is very easy. Just publish it and do nothing else. This will do the trick. You don’t need a license to make the hardware open.
(Of course you still need a copyright based license to share your editable documentation/design files to make proper open source hardware and make it easy for others to use and build upon your work.)
?
How to deal with the fact that you can’t tell others what they can do with your designand what not? That there is no Copyleft for example? Simply live with it! And design your (business) strategy around this.
If people would do (understand) that we would have a healthy open hardware licensing situation. The problem is many people don’t.
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5 The problem is: For people it’s not easy
The problem is: People don’t like this. It just doesn’t click. Although it is so simple it seems not to be intuitive. So instead of things done right you find a lot of weird things out there. Things are broken – often.
I see two main issues:
1. People (think they can) use copyright based licenses for their hardware ideas.
2. They even use copyright based licenses with “Non Commercial” clauses and call their work “Open Source” (－‸ლ).
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5.1 Copyright based licenses for hardware
You probably have seen this yourself. People use copyright based licenses (usually creative commons licenses) next to their hardware documentation in a way that creates the impression that this license is actually protecting the hardware. (They are usually under this impression themselves.)
This is even an issue on so called “maker platforms” that should know better.
Tell me! As an outsider without any knowledge. Would you have thought that this whole technical design is protected by this license? How would you interpret this? You’d probably think – yes, it is, right?
If you upload a design on Instructables you will probably think that your “invention” is protected. But it is not.
I looked around on the Instructables website. There is only one source I could find where they actually explain that the creative commons license is about the documentation not about the hardware design itself. This bit of information is in the last paragraph of the article. The article is 11 years old. And collected 700 clicks since it was published. And it has 4 comments. And some of them show that the article was not really understood by the commenter.
! THIS IS A PROBLEM! Because it creates false expectations among content creators and more importantly fosters false motivations! People don’t understand how sharing hardware design solutions on the web really works and how the law supports it (actually quite strongly). And this means that a lot of its true and legally existing collaborative potential is locked right now! And not executed and nurtured.
These platforms need to be fixed! They need to communicate very clearly to their content creators and audience that the licenses are about the documentation – not about the shared design itself! Everyone must understand that the design is free for everyone once published (unless other property rights were filed which is usually not the case nor possible because the designs aren’t really that new.)
Maybe the platforms should write something like this and link to a short explainer about the basics of openness and licenses:
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*This documentation is shared under the CC-BY license. The hardware itself is not. (Explanation)*
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5.2 “Non Commercial” Open Source
And there is one very weird and highly problematic form of the thing above. Sadly you see this super often:
People publish and promote their hardware designs as “Open Source under a Creative Commons Non Commercial license”.
This is wrong on so many levels. And those levels start to interact with each other which creates bizarre and very harmful effects! I don’t know how this came to be but now it is widespread especially in the maker community or people close to it. Something needs to be done.
I created a couple of months ago an extended FAQ on this.
I’ll go with you through the intro and question –7– and question –8– to show you a bit of the magnitude of the problem.
(If you only read this and not listen to the talk jump to the → FAQ and scan the intro and read the answer to Question 7 and Question 8 – Scope Expl✹sion! – and then come back here.)
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These two things:
1. Misuse of copyright based licenses for hardware designs and
2. sharing as “Open Source under a Non Commercial license”
are creating really big and weird problems in the world of licensing open source hardware. You will barely find someone who knows what is really the case. The majority will believe in one or both of these issues I just presented. And this locks the potential of open source hardware. No one really understands what is possible and what not and how to design a working and satisfying (business) strategy for this. So…
Let’s do something about it. ◠(ツ)╯
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6. Join the campaign!
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Oh lord. This is broken. We need to fix it. We need open source hardware done right. Because we should care for open hardware. It could be a great tool to help us to deal with the problems of our future – climate change, biodiversity collapse and resource exhaustion.
I created a campaign and launched it this morning. It is a proposal for a collective action. We can work together decentralized to fix things. Let me show you the campaign:
If we did this (the campaign) successfully the problem with licensing open source hardware is still not solved completely. But an important step would have been made.
Why not solved completely?
As I explained above: The problem is that in software the situation is always clear – there IS copyright. And there is a standard way to deal with it and make it open – open source software licenses.
But in hardware it is not clear IF THERE ARE any property rights. The hardware could be free or not. You just don’t always have a way to know this. And regardless what is the case there is no standard way to signal to the outside world what is the case. There is no standard way to signal if nothing was filed. And there is no standard way to open something again that has received protection.
I don’t know how a standard way could look like though.
At Mifactori we do this in our own way – we published a “Public Promise” that we have not and will not register any special protection for our hardware design work. *
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But I am not sure if this is an idea for a standard way. What should we do?
UPDATE:2 weeks after I gave this presentation I saw a the tweet below ↓ by the Open Source Hardware Association with their attempt to solve this – the Open Source Hardware Facts Generator. It was launched just a couple of months ago and I had not seen it yet. Looks good. (This somehow works because the CERN OHL makes claims about any rights someone might have. You still don’t know if there are any rights registered which is the aim of our approach above. But you know that you can work with the hardware regardless.) Generate your SVG now! 🙂 |
The Open Hardware Facts generator creates an easy-to-read label containing your project's licenses, which can then be placed in your readme file or documentation. Generate yours here: https://t.co/53QlfvIQmJpic.twitter.com/plv9UJ0BAq
frohes neues Jahr von Mifactori. Es gibt viel neues von uns für dieses Jahr und die kommende Dekade!
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#1 AKTIVISTISCHE UNTERNEHMEN – METHODE
Wir haben eine neue Methode, die wir selbst nutzen und für die wir werben. Manche Unternehmen agieren bereits aktivistisch – sie werben für nachhaltigen Wandel und setzen dabei (kommunikative) Mittel ein, die über das produzieren, bewerben und verkaufen von Produkten hinausgehen. Wir brauchen davon viel mehr.
Der Artikel bzw. die Methode beschreibt, was aktivistische Unternehmen sind, wie sie handeln und hat eine längere Liste von Beispielen. Er lädt Kreativ-, Strategie- und Designagenturen ein, ihren Kunden dabei zu helfen, selbst aktivistisch zu werden. Wir werden keinen nachhaltigen Wandel bekommen ohne sehr viel Aktivismus.
#2 NO CONSUM & DIY GEOENGINEERING – METHODE/FORSCHUNG
Design wegdesignen! Mifactori hat noch einen weiteren neuen Forschungszweig. Let’s face it. Design tötet – das Klima, die Biosphäre und am Schluss dann uns. Es ist also an der Zeit, Design(s) zu töten. Eine gute Zukunft gestalten heißt eine Zukunft mit weniger Design zu gestalten.
Das Projekt/die Methode ist erstmal angekündigt. Praktische Ergebnisse werden folgen. Macht mit bei unserer Forschung. Und teilt eure Idee. Zeigt auf Möglichkeiten.
Je nachdem, wie man rechnet, hat am 1. Januar die neue Dekade begonnen. Ende letzten Jahres gab es ein paar Strategie-Sessions bei Mifactori. Wir haben viel vor. Dabei herausgefallen ist auch ein neues Mission Statement. “Mifactori will eine Meta-Design-Agentur sein (…) und erschafft die Kreislaufwirtschaft ausgehend vom Konsum”. #Open #interaktiv #DIY #BottomUp” +
Unser Designentwicklungs- und Bildungsprojekt “Bauhaus Klimafabrik” ist endlich angelaufen und erste Ergebnisse kann man sehen. Im Projekt entwickeln wir mit Kindern “einen universellen Baukasten aus dem sich modulare, nachhaltige, zirkuläre, klimafreundliche Möbel und Küchenhelfer realisieren lassen”. Es handelt sich um ein offenes Forschungsprojekt, wir freuen uns auf eure Beiträge und Kommentare.
Happy New Year from Mifactori. There is a lot of new from us for this year and the coming decade!
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#1 ACTIVIST COMPANY – METHOD
We have a new method that we use and promote. Some companies are already acting activist – promoting sustainable change using (communicative) means that go beyond producing, promoting and selling products. We need much more of this.
The article/method describes what activist companies are, how they act and has a longer list of examples. It invites agencies to help their clients become activist themselves. We won’t get sustainable change without a lot of activism.
#2 NO CONSUM & DIY GEOENGINEERING – METHOD/RESEARCH
Design away design! Mifactori has yet another new line of research. Let’s face it. Design kills – the climate, the biosphere and then us in the end. So it’s time to kill (some) design. Designing a good future means designing a future with less design.
The project/method is announced for now. Practical results will follow. Join our research. And share your ideas. Point us and others to possibilities.
Depending on how you do the math, January 1 marked the start of the new decade. There were a couple of strategy sessions at Mifactori at the end of last year. We have a lot of plans. Out of that came also a new mission statement. “Mifactori wants to be a meta-design agency (…) and creates the circular economy starting from consumption”. #Open #interactive #DIY #BottomUp” +
Our design development and education project “Bauhaus Klimafabrik” has finally started and first results can be seen. In the project we together with children “develop a universal construction kit from which modular, sustainable, circular, climate-friendly furniture and kitchen solution can be made”. It is an open research project, we are looking forward to your contributions and comments.
ich bin Lars Zimmermann – Designer, Künstler und Aktivist aus Berlin. Ich hab eine ganze Reihe von Projekten zum Thema nachhaltiges Design gegründet und mitgegründet. Dazu gleich mehr.
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#SDC
Ich bin wirklich froh hier zu sein und auf Leute zu treffen, die sich für die selben Dinge interessieren wie ich – Design umzudesignen. So lese ich den SDC bzw. diese Hoffnungen verbinde ich damit.
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#Nachhaltiges Design in Deutschland
Ich denke, es ist gut, wenn wir versuchen Design umzudesignen. Denn der Stand nachhaltigen Designs in Deutschland ist meiner Einschätzung nach eher schlecht. Ich war, wie andere SDC Mitglieder auch unter den Finalisten beim ersten Deutschen Nachhaltigkeitspreis Design (DNP) 2020. Und sie haben hinterher allen Finalisten ungefragt und unaufgefordert ein Paket zugeschickt. Darin war unter anderem:
ein solider Block Acrylglas auf einer Seite aggressiv beklebt und damit als Werkstoff unbrauchbar gemacht,
mit dem Logo des DNP versehene Atemmasken (Corona),
…
Es ware noch andere Dinge im Paket. Alles keine Vorzeiger für nachhaltiges Design. Die beiden Dinge oben stechen aber heraus.
Talk the talk.
Don’t walk the walk. : – (
Das ist nicht nur hier der Fall, sondern an so vielen anderen Stellen auch.
(Bei der Preisverleihung des DNP fragte der Moderator ein Jury-Mitglied – einen in Deutschland bekannten Designer – wie denn der Stand nachhaltigen Designs in Deutschland sei. Die Frage war so gestellt und aufgebaut, dass am Ende eine Antwort kommen sollte wie: “Ja, es entwickelt sich sehr gut”. Der Designer war aber cool beziehungsweise ehrlich und trotzdem irgendwie diplomatisch und sagte: “Sie meinen, wie weit wir sein könnten, wenn wir tun würden, was wir tun sollten?”)
Ja, es muss echt noch viel viel passieren.
Go #SDC. Go!
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#Meine Arbeit & Vorschläge
Ok. Ich geb euch mal ein paar kleine Einblicke in meine aktuelle und vergangene Arbeit.
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1 Projekt: Open Source Circular Economy Days (2015-2018)
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Das von außen größte Projekt, das ich bisher vorgeschlagen und dann erfolgreich mit anderen gegründet habe, heißt “Open Source Circular Economy Days”. Darin zeigt sich der rote Faden, der sich durch das meiste meiner Arbeit zieht: Open Source als Treiber für eine Kreislaufwirtschaft.
Die Kreislaufwirtschaft möchte im Grunde eine ganze Reihe neuer Handlungen einführen. Dinge sollen nicht nur produziert, gekauft, konsumiert und entsorgt werden. Nein, jetzt kommen Reparatur, Wieder- und Umnutzung, Refurbishing und Recycling dazu. Die Frage ist, wie können diese neuen Handlungen möglich oder wahrscheinlich gemacht werden – für Profis und Laien – durch Design. Transparenz ist ein Schlüssel. Aber was noch?
“Open Source Hardware ist Hardware, deren Baupläne frei verfügbar sind, so dass wir alle sie studieren, modifizieren, weiterverbreiten und umsetzen können – auch kommerziell.” Das ist die Definition von Open Source Hardware. Es geht hier im ersten und wichtigsten Satz explizit um Handlungen im Umgang mit Produkten. (Eine Einführung zu Open Hardware steht hier).
Die Kreislaufwirtschaft braucht neue kreative, produktive Handlungen mit Produkten und Transparenz. Open Source bietet neue Handlungen an und auch Transparenz. Ein perfektes Paar also?
Was ist Open Source Circular Economy? Explainer Video
Diese Frage haben wir damals in einem globalen Event gestellt. Und über die 3 Jahre, in denen das Projekt richtig lief, haben sich Gruppen in über 100 Städten weltweit gemeldet und lokale Events durchgeführt zu diesem Thema. Die Idee war es, dass all diese Events Hackathons sind, bei denen erste Open Source Circular Design-Produkte entstehen und dokumentiert werden, die dann die Basis für eine offene Weiterentwicklung zu einer “Open Source Circular Economy” sind.
(Leider ist die alte extrem umfangreiche und partizipatorische Webseite verschwunden. Aber das Forum steht noch online.)
Aber das Projekt ist gescheitert bzw. irgendwann steckengeblieben. Das hat viele Gründe. Ich nenne nur 2.
Grund 1: Aber “Circular Economy” hat zu diesem Zeitpunkt nicht Designer und Maker angezogen, sondern eher junge Consulter. Und die haben eher eine Plattform gesucht, um sich über Circular Economy auszutauschen. Viel reden, wenig bauen. Maker, Techies und Designer passten irgendwie nicht unter dieses Dach.
Grund 2: Open Source ergibt Sinn für eine Kreislaufwirtschaft. Ja, aber Menschen verstehen Open Source nicht. Sie sind davon abgeschreckt, weil es wie “die geheime Sprache einer Tech-Wizard-Kaste” wirkt, oder sie verbinden falsche Vorstellungen z.B. “alle ist umsonst”. Egal wie gut wir versucht haben, Open Source zu erklären und auch, wie man damit Business macht – wir haben einfach zu viel erwartet. Der Begriff stellt sich als ungeeignet heraus “Design umzudesignen”.
Die Idee ist aber gut, aber die Welt noch nicht bereit? Oder ist das einfach nur der völlig falsche Ansprachston?
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2. Mifactori
Heute geht meine Energie hauptsächlich in den Betrieb und Aufbau eines Studios für Open Circular Design – ja, “Open Circular Design” – so frame ich das jetzt/framen wir das jetzt mit diesem Studio. Wir lassen “Open Source” einfach fallen als Bezeichnung, nutzen aber die Technik zu 100%.
Das Studio arbeitet an und mit Circularity – es will also auch die Wirtschaftskette umgestalten. Von linear zu zirkulär. Wir gehen dabei aber von der Konsumstelle aus. Wir suchen nach Strategien, von dort die ganze Kette umzugestalten. Also nicht andersrum, wie viele andere das denken.
Kunden gestalten die Kreislaufwirtschaft nicht (allein) durch ihre Kaufentscheidungen mit. Sondern die Produkte und die damit vernüpften Prozesse sind so gebaut – so designt –, dass die Kunden selbst damit mehr echte „Kreislaufhandlungen“ ausführen (können). Oder die Lösungen erlauben es den Kunden direkt selbst, eine Kreislaufwirtschaft “herzustellen”.
Was unser Studio auszeichnet, ist, dass wir nicht nur Methoden für dieses Ziel nutzen, sondern sie auch aktiv (er)finden und beschreiben.
Mifactori hat das halb-geheime Ziel, eine Meta-Design-Agentur zu sein. Wir wollen andere Designagenturen inspirieren und ihnen Ideen geben, wie sie effektiv zirkulär arbeiten können. Es uns also gleichzutun. Für die nachhaltige Umgestaltung unserer Wirtschaft brauchen wir viele viele Designagenturen! Und das ist so ein bisschen das Ziel, andere mitzunehmen #DesignActivism.
Eine kleine Auswahl unserer Methoden für die verbleibende Vortragszeit:
Erstmal ist eine der Grunderkenntnisse des Studios, dass der Umbau zu einer nachhaltigen Welt nicht ohne sehr sehr viel Aktivismus geschehen wird. Wer sich wirklich für nachhaltiges Design interessiert, kommt also um eine Auseinandersetzung mit Aktivismus – als Mittel zur Umgestaltung – nicht herum. Darum bietet Mifactori auch kreatives Campaigning an bzw. hat das mit drin in der eigenen Arbeit.
Vor ein paar Tagen ist auch der Artikel zu “Aktivistischen Unternehmen” fertig geworden und ist jetzt unter “Methoden” zu finden. Der Artikel zeigt Beispiele für aktivistische Unternehmen und für Methoden, die sie nutzen. Und er erklärt, warum wir davon viel mehr brauchen. Er soll sich vor allem an Design-, Kreativ- und Werbeagenturen richten und fordert sie auf, ihren Kunden dabei zu helfen, so zu werden.
Im Herbst habe ich eine kleine Design-Aktivismus-Kampagne versucht namens SELF. Die ist aber krachend gescheitert bzw. hat genau gar keine Resonanz erzeugt. Ich zeig sie euch trotzdem mal.
Ok. Und das wäre jetzt meine Frage an den SDC. Das würde mich interessieren. Wenn wir nachhaltiges Design in Deutschland voranbringen woll(t)en, wie machen wir das? Glaubt ihr, dass man vielleicht Aktivismus machen sollte, der sich an DesignerInnen richtet? DesignerInnen zu Aktivisten machen? Wenn ja, wie? Falls nicht, wieso und was dann? Falls doch, wie spricht man sie an? Was nimmt sie mit? Was schlägt man vor?
Und kann der SDC dazu für ein Vehikel sein? Wie kann man so einen Verein nutzen? Welche Möglichkeiten hat er? Haben wir?
4. Danke & Newsletter
Danke für die Aufmerksamkeit. Bleibt gern dran. Es wird viel passieren bei Mifactori 2021 und 2022 – z.B. bauen wir eine „gläserne Fabrik“ (°o°) . Der beste Weg dafür ist
Ich bin Lars, Lars Zimmermann, Designer, Künstler & Aktivist und seit vielen Jahren im Feld von Nachhaltigkeit, Openness, Design und Kreislaufwirtschaft aktiv. Aktuell geht der Großteil meine Zeit in unser Studio für Open Circular Design→ Mifactori. Ich zeige heute ein wenig, was da so passiert. Das ist sehr viel. Ich könnte deutlich mehr Zeit füllen. Ich hoffe, ich hab das Richtige ausgesucht.
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1. Kreislaufwirtschaft
→ Open, Bottom Up, vom Konsum aus denkend
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Wir arbeiten für eine nachhaltige Kreislaufwirtschaft bzw. Circularity und unser Ansatz dafür ist Open Circular Design. Das heißt, auch wir wollen natürlich die ganze Wirtschaftskette umgestalten – von linear zu zirkulär. Wir gehen dabei aber von der Konsumstelle aus. Wir suchen nach Strategien, von dort die ganze Kette umzugestalten – also dort wesentliche Drehmomente anzusetzen. Also nicht andersrum, wie viele andere das denken.
Warum von dort?
Die Beschreibungen zur Kreislaufwirtschaft erzählen vor allem Geschichten über neue Umgangsweisen bzw. Handlungen mit Produkten. Zum Produzieren, Verkaufen, Konsumieren und Entsorgen kommen Handlungen wie Reparatur, Umnutzung, Wiedernutzung und Recycling dazu bzw. werden gestärkt. Diese Handlungen müssen so einfach undzugänglich wie möglich sein, dann werden sie wahrscheinlich. Also geben wir sie durch Design möglichst allen in die Hand.
KundInnen gestalten die Kreislaufwirtschaft also nicht allein durch ihre Kaufentscheidungen mit. Sondern die Produkte und Strukturen um sie herum sind so gestaltet, dass die KundenInnen selbst damit mehr echte “Kreislaufhandlungen” ausführen (können). –
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2 Methoden
→ open +
Was unser Studio auszeichnet, ist, dass wir nicht nur entsprechende Methoden für dieses Ziel und unsere Projekte nutzen, sondern sie auch aktiv finden, erfinden und weitergeben.
Mifactori hat das halb-geheime Ziel, eine Meta-Design-Agentur zu sein. Design (um)designen. Das heißt, wir wollen andere Designagenturen inspirieren und es ihnen leichter machen, effektiv zirkulär und für einen nachhaltigen Wandel zu arbeiten. Für die nachhaltige Umgestaltung unserer Wirtschaft reicht nicht eine Designagentur, wir brauchen viele viele Designagenturen!
Eine kleine Auswahl unserer Methoden für die verbleibende Vortragszeit:
Das interessiert sicher einige, wie verdienen wir unser Geld. In diesem und letztes Jahr kam der Großteil des Geldes über Bildungsprojekte für SchülerInnen rein (mehr als 50%). Bildung bietet besondere Freiräume und zugleich ein gutes Wirkungs- und Forschungsfeld. Der Rest setzt sich durch kleinere Aufträge zusammen, auch Erwachsenenbildung spielt eine Rolle – 2019 hatten wir beispielsweise eine Gastprofessur im Design an der HBKsaar.
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4. Danke & News
→ Newsletter, Social Media, Streaming +
Danke für die Aufmerksamkeit. Bleibt gern dran. Es passiert viel bei Mifactori 2021 und 2022. Der beste Weg dafür ist:
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