Considered both as a philosophy and a production methodology, ‘open source’ is a term that describes practices that promote access to a product's source materials, allowing freedom of modification and derivation. Originally, the term refers to open-source software, that is, the sharing of the source code so that it can be appropriated and modified by a community. This principle of openness extends to other domains of creative production considered potentially open. Such is the case of open design, which follows the same objectives and philosophy of openness, knowledge sharing, peer collaboration and do-it-yourself (DIY) or do-it-with-others (DIWO) methodologies.
Considering that, nowadays, “openness is more than a commercial and cultural issue. It’s a question of survival”, as stated by John Thackara, this project explores the confluence between open source and open design. It reflects my journey of introduction to the topic, primarily motivated by reading Richard Stallman's GNU manifesto, as a fundamental philosophical source for the open software movement.
Open > < Source > < Design is a website developed from a research and collection of concepts and tools on the topic, which provides an introductory lexicon and a set of resources. Following the principles of openness and co-creation, it assigns its users an active role in the management of the available contents. It seeks to introduce principles of knowledge sharing and peer collaboration, encouraging designers to become critically involved with the technologies and production methodologies of their craft.
