As many of you might know, at the end of April, I’ve been the facilitator of a Jam in New York city: it was the First Open Source Hardware Documentation Jam – OSHW Doc Jam (see http://www.opensourcewarehouse.org/ for details): the event has been sustained by many Sponsors and Supporters and OSHWA supported the event from the beginning.
We held the event with the objective to start a fruitful discussion about how to share more documentation regarding Open Source Hardware projects.

One of the Jam groups at work – thanks to Bilal Ghalib for this amazing picture.

We had almost 40 people working along the three days to think about possible strategies and solutions, prototype (some times) and sharing them with the public in real time.

Two parallel Jams in Berlin and Amsterdam were held and we are now opensourcing the format to share the lesson we learnt and allow others to use this format for this or other application fields.

I just want to give you a short comment on the content we discussed, even if the oshwa will be following up in the next weeks with the discussion (we are thinking to use public hangouts, and Social Media. There are a bunch of good places online to discuss about open hardware and we will be posting the news there (eg: OSHWA mailing list, Ouishare Factory Facebook Group, The Open Manufacturing google group, etc…)

My mission as Int’l Branches Chair here at OSHWA is to help OSHWA grow internationally: I’ve also created this Facebook group called Open Source Hardware Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/194351110718598/ to trigger a contextual discussion on building a stronger OSHW community of users and creators worldwide so…please join!

The Results

Coming back to the Jam; let’s focus a little bit on the documentation we are releasing today. The discussion at the Jam was mainly related to three separate threads:

1) Standardization: Having a more interchangeable format, a shared information *standard*, and interconnected data among the different portals, platforms, companies and projects producing and/or hosting OSHW documentation

2) Experience: Identify user experience issues, challenges and gaps in the documenting process so that we can create tools that make documentation creation easier

3) Movement / Organization: mostly related to how to replicate the event in itself and create more handy, easy to replicate formats.

We had actually run nine sessions as follows

Standardization

• Remixing Derivatives Versions Components
• Websites Interoperability
• Taxonomy and Standards

Experience:

• How to document your project while building
• OSHW // OSS Parallels
• Connecting Makers Socially
• Accessibility of documentation

Movement / Organization

• How to replicate the JAM
• Ideas to create a Documentation Sprint

It’s not the objective of this post to going deep in the content since the discussion just started and we’ll keep you informed about the next steps and how to join. Here at this link you can find all the documentation available in a google docs directory https://drive.google.com/#folders/0BwJSOhVDu4bQSU1hZkhUc0cyMms. A zip file is also available. All documentaion is released in CC-BY. This will be hugely useful to anyone moving her steps in the OSHW industry with a product, a startup or even just a passion

The Metodology

Here’s a link to a PDF file describing the Jam Format so that you can use it on your own https://docs.google.com/file/d/1vFKpGmpyQGFEXrwxBk90AKIdRyIOowVPkONR9VPMtPLB0UDTI1gHdctLKzmde5ZD2xH9gy_mh0X_s66N/edit?usp=sharing

Here’s a Google Doc you can Download or Fork https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cxiXM7nl-ZsXUWCt-CPNwWZSeeMBdb2M-b2JCvOCqkU/edit#

Here Follows the methodology description in text.

Please get back to us for any comment or feedback!

How to organize a Jam Based on Open Space Technology (as implemented for the First Open Source Hardware Documentation Jam – OSHW Doc Jam, held in NY 26 to 28 of April 2013)

Version 1.0

Original Authors/Contributors: Simone Cicero, Catarina Mota, Marcin Jakubowski, Jay Cousins (with his unvaluable suggestions on destructuring the format)

License: Public Domain

How to organize a Jam Based on Open Space Technology (as implemented for the First Open Source Hardware Documentation Jam – OSHW Doc Jam, held in NY 26 to 28 of April 2013)

Pre – event activities

Infrastructure

To create the communication infrastructure, we used a wordpress theme dedicated to events. More in details we used eventor theme. You should take into account that your website features:

• A blog

• A page for Sponsors (paying to support the budget)

• A page for Partners (providing support, sending participants, other non strictly monetary suppor)

• A page for the Agenda

• A page for a bunch of hosts if any

Some lesson learnt:

• keep the message clear and explain to the people what is all about

• keep the message clear and explain to the people what is going to happen

• Put an evident call to action in the homepage for registration

Advertising the Event

Materials needed

• a PR kit with Event short description, Press contacts, Website, Host description, Event description, images to use. All should fit into one page.

• a blueprint for an Invitation letter people can use to invite communities. Imagine this being posted on a forum, mailing list, etc…

• A general text that you can use to explain about the event on emails/contact requests

Advertising the event is a bit tricky. Our strategy worked pretty well and was basically made of:

• Posting the information in relevant message boards and mailing lists (we did for OSHWA, OKFN, etc…)

• Ask for relevant blogs to cover the news

• Search for local meetups that could be interested and send the information to the meetup organizers

• Search for relevant people on Linkedin (or other social media) and contact them directly

Event Execution

The Production team: you should have a basic team of no less than three people if you’re aiming at an event of medium to big size (50-100 registered attendees). We used the Trello web application to keep track of the activities. Trello is a simple KanBan board. To get familiar with Agile methodologies and KanBan you can check wikipedia resources.

You should keep it simple for people that wants to join the team and contribute with the smaller effort possible (communication, recruit, logistics, others).  This shall be the more open possible. We basically included anyone seriously willing to contribute. Even from remote. Their contribution was decisive for the event success.

How we included people? By providing them with access to the Trello board and by hosting alignment hangouts.

The main responsibilities / contributions of the production team are:

• event design/adaptation

• communication: help to create buzz, awareness, cover the news on blogs and journals

• recruit: recruit people that could contribute with decisive contributions

• logistics: help with the event organization (location, food, etc…)

Each of this contribution shall have an accountable person. The use of RACI Matrix is suggested.

The Inspiring Methodology

Our Jam format was inspired to the principles of Open Space Technology. En excellent review and links about the methodology are available on wikipedia and we suggest you to read about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-space_technology

How we actually implemented it

Our event spanned on three days, kicked off on Friday at 6 PM, closed on Sunday at 6 PM.

Setup

• Session Proposals Wall: A piece of paper where you can hang proposed sessions (starting time – Ongoing/Closed)
• Ongoing Sessions Wall: A piece of paper where you can hang sessions (starting time – Ongoing/Closed)
• Closed Sessions Wall: A piece of paper where you can hang session reports in printed version
• A prototyping table: A place that is dedicated to prototyping (may feature: Paper, Scissors, Cardboard, Colours, Big Sheets of paper, a 3D printer , etc…)

Sessions move between the boards as they progress.

We had our personal interpretation of the format and we ended up with a mixed one with:

1. A first content focused phase in the form of short pitches. In our case it was about presenting initiatives dealing with OSHW Documentation. We planned it on Friday Evening

2. A second phase where we held the Open Space discussion with all participants in a circle and asked people to submit topics to the discussion. Each topic that was relevantly shared was picked as a Session Proposal

3. A short Session Agenda planning: we planned almost half of the proposed session session for saturday morning, afternoon or even sunday.

Here’s the detailed description of the phases

People can join or leave sessions at any moment. Sessions could be close or even cancelled at any moment. The session leader is responsible of the quality of the documentation.

Opting for only Digital Documentation

Even if the principles of OST asked for having documentation readily available in paper or visual format, ee opted for having only digital documentation.

We setup a Google Folder and created a Session brief Template to be used at each session kickoff.

• Session Leaders were asked to

• Create a folder named after the session, create a Session Brief copy for the session

• Add documents in the session folder

We also kept an excel file with ongoing session information and links to the session folder.

Ticketing

We used Eventbrite for ticketing, we priced the event at 10$ just to lower the no show rate respect a free to attend event. A slightly higher price may have helped with budget and lowering no shows rate.

 Video Documentation

Having a video operator to document the JAM will be a plus

 Food

Food is very depending on your budget, style and everything. Our lesson learnt on food is that you tend to underestimate no show rate (we had a no show rate, decreasing from almost 30% on day 1, to almost 50/60% on day 3) and overestimate people appetite. Whatever are you planning to cater for, divide by a three at least.

Requirements for the Location

• KEY Time availability – You need the location for all the event timespan plus 4/6 hours in advance

• KEY Possibility to attach Paper Sheets on the wall with tape

• KEY A plenary room for the number of people you are looking for (ideally a place where we you can put up to a number of tables for eight people in line with expected attendance – no show rate)

• KEY Chairs for all

• KEY A projector

• NICE2HAVE Amplified mike

• KEY Many Plugs and cables (each table shall have at least 5/6 plugs available)

• KEY Good Wi-Fi Network connectivity

• NICE2HAVE A dedicated space for Lunch (not on the working tables)

Materials to be provided

• NICE2HAVE Whiteboards with whiteboard markers

• KEY Few Sharpie magic markers for white sheets

• KEY Few Large white sheets for creating the session walls

• KEY Post Its

• NICE2HAVE Few sets of Coloured markers

• NICE2HAVE A printer available

• KEY Drafting Tape

Target Composition of the attendance before the event

Before the event, we had an attendee number and composition target. Ideal target was to have 75 participants with a composition made of:

• 35% Stakeholders of open source hardware community (OSHWA, OSE, others).

• 15% SW Developers (web/front end, backend/data, CAD programmers)

• 20% participants from the UX / Design realm

• 20% Facilitators, managers and reporters

• 10% mixed participants

We created separate tickets on eventbrite, asking people to pick one specific role and we made some relevant invites, especially from the open source hardware community and this helped having relevant insiders at the table. You can actually follow the same approach.

Facilitation

It’s highly recommended to have at least one experienced facilitator (at least in workgroup facilitation, better if also familiar with service design) per each 8/10 persons. We had only one at the Jam and it was pretty tough

Preparation Work

The preparation work can be shared through a Blogpost and a direct Email to registered attendees:

The objective of the info will be to:

1. Address potential ways for people to contribute

2. Linking attendees to materials and references:

1. Existing materials and definitions

2. Relevant UX design materials for people who don’t know

3. Great videos or articles

This should be published on the event blog at least a couple of weeks before and an extended version shall be sent via direct mailing one week before the event starts.

Lesson Learnt and Open Issues

1. People can’t stay focused for three days: we suggest to keep the event shorter. A good Idea could be meeting up on Saturday morning. Another possibility is to close the event on late saturday night
2. The subject should be broader/more loose: we had a bunch of good sessions but probably, a less focused epic would have helped to unleash more creativity and be more inclusive to non specialized attendees.

The power of open source hardware lies in the ability to build upon others’ work and good documentation is the key to making this happen. We believe that documentation best practices can increase contributions to open source hardware projects significantly. For this reason, OSHWA has partnered with Open Source Ecology and Everywhere Tech to host a collaborative event to arrive at an open source hardware documentation platform based on a set of shared standards. Read more about the event and register at opensourcewarehouse.org

Open product development has the potential to transform the economic system by making widespread collaboration possible. If there are easy mechanisms for viewing and updating open product documentation, products can evolve rapidly under the hands of many contributors. However, several obstacles often stand in the way of contributions and improvements. Below is a list of problems and possible ways to approach them.

• There are no unifying standards or best practices for creating high quality documentation. Beyond the excellent work done by Phil Torrone, David Mellis and Nathan Seidle for open source electronics, there is no clear description of what should be included in OSHW documentation in order to facilitate the replication, modification and repair of all types of OSHW. The internet has many disconnected pieces of open source hardware documentation, but much of it suffers in quality or clarity. Clear guidelines for taxonomy and structure can help address this. We propose an initial set of standards and guidelines to be debated and refined.
• Documentation for OSHW projects is dispersed across many platforms, websites, wikis and blogs. As the number of projects grows it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find them. We propose a taxonomy to identify both hardware and documentation modules, which may lead to an online OSHW repository.
• No clear definition of scope exists. While open source electronics has become one of the most visible facets of open source hardware, there is much more. The scope of open source hardware, and its best practices, should include items such as medical devices, houses, cars, and washing machines.
• Lack of standard formats, clear organization, and technical jargon makes it difficult for the layperson to understand existing documentation. The goal of an improved documentation platform is to enable anyone, at all levels of expertise, to study, reproduce and improve open source hardware.
• Language is a barrier for the dissemination of open hardware plans. We propose that all textual descriptions be linked to Google Translate and that a Visual Language for OSHW be developed to describe fabrication procedures – see The Noun Project and IKEA’s assembly instructions as examples.
• There’s no simple way to remix and mashup hardware. We propose a modular approach to open source hardware documentation that would facilitate remix, mashup and branching.
• Derivative work is difficult to track. Taking into account that OSHW is developed mostly by iteration and derivation, the number of branches of any successful OSHW project is significantly higher than what is typical of OSS projects. Given the proliferation of derivatives and lack of clear information about each, it has become difficult for users and developers to identify and decide what branch of a project to replicate or derive from. We suggest that a dashboard be adopted by all open source hardware projects containing essential information about each version or derivative, such as: name, brief textual description, hi-res images, hardware and software version, attribution, open source label (indicates which parts of the hardware are open source), status brief (honest description of the state of the hardware, software and documentation), changelog, dependency (what other hardware is required to run/use the hardware), compatibility (what it’s compatible with), genealogy (information on the hardware’s origins, derivatives and replications), etc. In addition to this overview about the hardware itself, we also suggest that adoption of a build dashboard containing information on difficulty level, cost, as well as time, tools, space and skills required.
• Lack of appropriate software for designing, displaying and sharing plans makes collaborative development difficult.
• It’s difficult to update and evolve open source hardware designs due to documentation dependencies – one small alteration affects several other components of the documentation.
• Documentation is time-consuming. A clean, easily accessible platform would facilitate this. If the barriers to contribution are low and a universally-understandable format is developed, then combined micro-contributions of numerous developers can make the arduous task of proper documentation tractable.
• Unclear licensing and fear of infringement of intellectual property (IP) rights discourage people from producing documentation. Documenting involves reuse of content from other sources. If people do not understand IP licenses or have little understanding of their own IP rights to use content, they may be afraid to contribute documentation. A clear how-to on open hardware documentation IP Issues, as well as a legal support framework, can mitigate this.

In February of 2012 OSHWA conducted a survey of the international open source hardware community. It received 2091 responses from 70 countries, which far exceeded our expectations. After an incredibly busy year, we finally got around to publishing the results in their entirety and are looking forward to reading your analysis of the data.

Check out the survey results.

Addie Wagenknecht completed a Masters at New York University as a Wasserman Scholar and shortly after held fellowships at Eyebeam Atelier, CultureLab UK and more recently at HyperWerk Institute for Post-Industrial Design as well as Carnegie Mellon University STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. She is currently a Mozilla Open(art) Fellow, an artist at Free Art and Technology Lab a.k.a. F.A.T. Lab as well as co-founder of NORTD labs who created the open source lasercutter Lasersaur. The Lasersaur Project is estimated to have around 1,000 active developers including New York University, Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University among others. Addie is a professor in robotics and open source computation at the institut für experimentelle architektur hochbau at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Wagenknecht’s research, collaborations and projects are documented in a number of academic papers, books and magazines such as the Economist, Forbes, Popular Mechanics, MIT Technology Review, Gizmodo, Slashdot, Engadget, Heise, ARTnews and Der Standard. She currently splits her time between New York City and Austria (but really just lives on the internet). Through her artistic and scientific practices she hopes to challenge the status quo and create a sense of bittersweet irony (preferably both at once). More information can be found at her website http://placesiveneverbeen.com and lasersaur.com

Jimmie Rodgers has been an open hardware developer since 2009, his most popular hardware project being the LoL Shield for Arduino. He’s been involved in organizing events of nearly every size, and his efforts at these events have led to over 40,000 people learning to solder. He was a founding board member of Artisan’s Asylum (world’s largest hackerspace in both size and membership), where he teaches and makes things full time as well as manages the Electronics and Robotics lab. He recently received an Awesome Foundation grant, with which he will be working on open source laser-cut quilts in the coming months.

We will be accepting applications until the positions are filled.

Treasurer – Officer position – approx. 5 hours per month – Volunteer basis until further notice

OSHWA is looking for the officer position of treasurer. In this position, you would be working with Nathan Seidle, who is our stand-in treasurer. Our main needs are working with our accountant on taxes, monitoring accounts and putting together a budget. Excel experience required. This position is currently a volunteer, but could turn into a paid position based on OSHWA’s funding.

Duties:

• Gather and submit documents need for taxes for 2014
• Monitor bank and paypal accounts
• Generate a report of finances each month
• Help Nathan create budget
• Attend quarterly board meetings
• Learn about financial accounting for nonprofit organizations

Publicity chair – approx. 3 hours per month – $50/mo.

OSHWA is looking for a publicity chair to use all forms of media and communication to build, maintain and manage the face of the organization with the membership and the public. The publicity chair will communicate OSHWA’s key messages, establish and maintain goodwill and understanding between the organization and the public. The publicity chair will report to the VP of the OSHWA board, currently the VP is Windell Oskay.

Duties:

• Circulate OSHWA’s video and other press
• Answer requests for press & interviews
• Create blog updates, tweets, and other social media
• Collate media coverage
• Prepare and supervise the production of publicity brochures, handouts, direct mail leaflets, promotional videos, photographs, films and multimedia programs
• Foster community relations through events such as open days and through involvement in community initiatives

International branch chair  - Volunteer  basis until further notice

Due to the popularity OSHWA has received in other countries, there is a need to set up an international infrastructure. The chair’s role would be in developing a plan to include international branches of OSHWA within the existing structure. The chair will need to communicate with other interested branches to create the best outcome for everyone. The chair will need to appoint a committee and lead meetings within that committee. This position will need someone who is self-motivated and can work throughout many time zones. This position though voluntary now, could turn into a paid position based on OSHWA’s funding.

Duties:

• Connect with current interest of international branches
• Develop framework to include branches in OSHWA
• Develop a committee to explore international expansion and relationships for OSHWA

To apply for these positions, please include your contact information and prepare two paragraphs:
1.Why you would like to assist OSHWA
2. What is your experience in the area you are applying for
Send those items to info@oshwa.org with the subject line as the position you are applying for.

We will be accepting applications until the positions are filled.

Through a member vote 20 to 1 the amendments to the bylaws passed, which included a corporate class of membership. The amendment also contained language that needed to be changed from New York standards to Delaware standards since we started incorporating in one place and ended in the other. Meeting notes from the member meeting on Jan. 10th are located under the file cabinet tab. Thank you to all members who participated.

Sign up for membership as an individual or a corporation on our membership page!

If you are a business that signed up early when we only had one class of membership and would like to change to the corporate class, please email info@oshwa.org

1. File for non-profit status. This will include writing the narrative of our purposes, we’re looking for help as we explain our organization to the IRS. If you’d like to help us write Part 4 of the 1023 Form, please email info@oshwa.org and we’ll add you to the list of editors.

2. Appoint treasurer and write Budget Plan.

3. Host 2013 Open Hardware Summit in the fall.

4. Fill seats for membership to chair committees and become officers. A call for open positions will be announced.

5. Add additional board members.

6. Build membership and fundraise.

  Following discussions about the Open Source and Open Source Hardware logos, the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) have worked together to compose a co-existence agreement on behalf of their representative communities.

We are pleased to announce that the co-existence agreement has now been approved and signed by both organizations. This agreement means that each group separately has control of their respective logo and in particular that the Open Source Hardware community will be able to continue to use the Open Source Hardware logo.

As per the agreement, OSHWA will (in the near future) publish guidelines for the use of the OSHW logo, designed to promote its use in compliance with the Open Source Hardware Definition. Until then, if you are using the OSWH logo, please make sure that you are following the OSHW definition. And, to use the OSI logo, please refer to OSI’s trademark usage guidelines.

Working with other organizations is just one of the ways we serve the community. Through your membership support, both OSHWA (join now!) and OSI (join now!) hope to continue representing your needs.

View the OSI OSHWA Agreement.

We have released a video to further education of open source hardware as a public service to the OSHW movement. Please share this video, spread it around and spread the education of open source hardware.

Thanks to the creative team at SparkFun Electronics for volunteering to produce the video on our behalf.