In February of 2012 OSHWA conducted a survey of the international open source hardware community, which received 2091 responses from 70 countries. These are the aggregate results.

Section 1: Intro
Section 2: Use
Section 3: Development
Section 4: Licenses & Logo
Section 5: Business
Section 6: Open Hardware Summit
Section 7: Comments
Section 8: Demographics
Section 9: Feedback

Bryan Bishop has kindly provided a master file with all the survey results. You can download it here.

SECTION 1: INTRO

Q1. Do you consider yourself a….

OHSurvey2012_Q1
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q2. Are you a member of a hackerspace/makerspace?

OHSurvey2012_Q2
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q3. How did you first find out about open-source hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q3
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q4. I have…

OHSurvey2012_Q4
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

SECTION 2: USE

Q5. What do you use open-source hardware for?

OHSurvey2012_Q5
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q6. Why do you use open-source hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q6-1

OHSurvey2012_Q6-2
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q7. Tell us more about your use of open-source hardware: which hardware you use, what you use it for, and how you take advantage of the fact that it’s open-source.

[click to download the source spreadsheet]

SECTION 3: DEVELOPMENT

Q8. Do you develop (design or redesign) open-source hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q8
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q9. What year did you first begin developing open-source hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q9_graph1

OHSurvey2012_Q9_graph2
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q10. Why do you develop hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q10
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q11. Why do you develop open-source hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q11
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q12. Which of the following have you done?

OHSurvey2012_Q12
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q13. On average, how many hours per week do you spend developing open-source hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q13
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q14. Tell us more about your relationship with other open-source hardware projects. Do you draw on their designs? Do they draw on yours? Do you suggest improvements and changes to each other? How would you explain the nature of the relationship between your work and that of others?

[click to download responses]

Q15. Tell us more about your process for developing open-source hardware: who you work with, how you collaborate, your role, what tools you use, etc.

[click to download responses]

Q16. What open-source hardware projects do you work on? (we won’t associate your other answers with the name of the projects you work on, but we would like to publish a list of the projects from which we got survey responses)

[click to download the list]

SECTION 4: LICENSES & LOGO

Q17. What licenses have you used to release open-source hardware files? (check all that apply)

OHSurvey2012_Q17
[click to download the “other” responses]

Q18. Do you use the Open Source Hardware logo on your hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q18
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

SECTION 5: BUSINESS

Q19. Does any of your income come from working on open-source hardware? Or do you develop open-source hardware for/at a company (as a founder, partner, owner, employee, contractor, freelancer, etc.)? Or do you make and distribute open-source hardware?

OHSurvey2012_Q19
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q20. How much of your income does your work on open-source hardware represent? (if you develop open-source hardware for/at a company, please include that income)

OHSurvey2012_Q20
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q21. In the past year what was your total personal income resulting from work on open-source hardware? (if you develop open-source hardware for/at a company, please include that income)

[click to download responses]

Q22. Do you or your company… (check all that apply)

OHSurvey2012_Q22
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q23. If you work on open-source hardware within a company, what’s your role in the company? (check all that apply)

OHSurvey2012_Q23
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q24. If you work on open-source hardware as a business, would you be willing to tell us the name of your company? (we won’t associate your other answers with the name of the company you work for, but we would like to publish a list of the companies from which we got survey responses)

[click to download the responses]

SECTION 6: OPEN HARDWARE SUMMIT

Q25. Did you attend the Open-Hardware Summit in 2011?

OHSurvey2012_Q25
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q26. Did you attend the Open-Hardware Summit in 2010?

OHSurvey2012_Q26
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

SECTION 7: COMMENTS

Q27. Do you have any comments, thoughts or stories about open source hardware you’d like to share?

[click to download the responses]

SECTION 8: DEMOGRAPHICS

Q28. How old are you?

OHSurvey2012_Q28
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q29. Where do you live?

OHSurvey2012_Q29
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q30. What’s your gender?

OHSurvey2012_Q30
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q31. What’s your marital status?

OHSurvey2012_Q31
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q32. Do you have children?

OHSurvey2012_Q32
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q33. What’s the highest level of school completed or the highest degree you have received?

OHSurvey2012_Q33
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q34. The Open Hardware community is made up of many creative individuals coming from diverse backgrounds. Which fields would you consider your areas of experience? (check all that apply)

OHSurvey2012_Q34
[click to download the source spreadsheet]

Q35. What’s your profession?

[click to download the responses]

SECTION 9: FEEDBACK

Q36. Do you have any feedback or comments about the survey?

[click to download the responses]

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to answer these questions!

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12 thoughts on “OSHW Community Survey 2012”

  1. Great information. Something it would be nice to see in the next survey is a question regarding where people get their open source hardware news/info.

  2. I am just starting this OSHW/Make stuff, but I dont have any expirience with any thing really. So, I was wandering if anyone could give me any tips.(P.S. I am just about to go into High school; and if there is any good websites for getting started in OSHW/Make.)

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