OVERVIEW

We all agree open sourcing hardware is important, and as practitioners, many of us have been involved in work, research and talks about it. To date, no universal "right solution" exists. While Creative Commons licenses are widely used for software, there is a growing number of groups using the licenses for hardware, without necessarily accounting for the difficulties and restrictions hardware imposes. In short, open source for hardware is not like open source for software, and thus cannot use the same legal tools.

The purpose of this workshop is to create a direct dialogue between Creative Commons and some of the most significant players in the Open Source Hardware Community . CC representatives will be sharing their perspectives while listening to the needs and perspectives of this community, in order to help form more appropriate licensing options for open hardware.

ORGANIZERS

This workshop was organized by Ayah Bdeir (littleBits founder, Eyebeam senior fellow) with John Wilbanks (VP Science, Creative Commons) and Thinh Nguyen (Legal Counsel, Creative Commons).

Additional support by Ted Ullrich and Celine Assaf

DOCUMENTATION

Download the event document

Please check back soon for video documentation.

Writted March 17 at EYEBEAM, this list is the result of a group discussion on defining the ‘norms’ of a potential open source hardware community, around which legal support could be built:

. no non-commercial terms
. source of hardware is available (in preferred form for modification)
. no intentional obfuscation of documentation
. freedom to use device for any purpose
. freedom to study, design, and modify device
. freedom to release improvements
. freedom to distribute design

This list includes and builds upon OHANDA’s (Open Hardware and Design Alliance) terms of their trademark tool. This list is open, is being shaped, and eventually intends to be adopted and supported by the open hardware community.

n-cha(n)t is an audio visual installation that allows participants to eavesdrop on or infiltrate the conversational patterns of a networked community of computers.  Inspiration for the work came from a strong and somewhat inexplicable desire to hear a community of computers speaking together: chattering amongst themselves, musing, intoning chants.  n-cha(n)t was exhibited as part of Prix Selection at Eyebeam Atelier.

Steina plays the violin,the video, and is the performer so that in intermediary ways the observer and the observed converge. The languages of the two media, music and video, are interconnected according to their abstractness where the sound creates the waveforms of the image. Music is visually explored as a medium developing temporal and spatial features: not only does the sound spread the scan lines so that they become horizontally visible thereby exploring temporal dimensionality, but Steina also uses the Scan Processor to modulate the soundwaves until they build up spatial forms of the image. Through the Scan Processor, brighter parts of the "image" are lifted so that the horizontal lines also vertically deflect and create sculptural pattern. This work was exhibited as part of the What Sound Does a Color Make? exhibition at Eyebeam Atelier.

Trevor (1999) features manipulated video footage of musician Trevor Wishart which is manipulated to electronically slur his words into unrecognizable stutters or stretched out abstract sound. Attempts to
understand what he is trying to communicate are frustrated as both he and the viewer are
subjected to digital control. The incomprehensible utterances begin to seem like a rhythm that highlights correspondences between seeing and hearing, while drawing viewers’ attention to their own expectations about performance and installation.  This work was exhibited as part of What Sound Does a Color Make at Eyebeam Atelier.