The Roles of Makerspaces for Facilitating Open-Source Hardware Development

While free and open-source software has become a mature concept, open-source co-creation and sharing of hardware comes with the need for organizing a much more diverse set of disciplines and capabilities. A steadily growing number of companies develop open-source hardware (OSH) products based on the existing body of free technological knowledge today, with many of them manufactured in their own vicinity which in turn improves resource productivity and social benefits. Fab labs/makerspaces as openly accessible facilities with local communities of makers have the potential to act as catalysts to mature and disseminate OSH development collaboratively. In the Horizon 2020 project OPENNEXT, 17 case studies were implemented in four clusters where makerspaces worked together with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for a limited time to provide new pathways for OSH co-creation and sharing. Various consumer goods industries, such as electronics, furniture, and mobility amongst others, were in focus. Different roles within the development process emerged from this SME-makerspace-cooperation for OSH that will need to be upscaled and elaborated by makerspaces.