Over the past two decades, open design-understood both as an open-source design process and, in a more inclusive form, as the collaborative design of open-source products has progressively become a possibility to materialize product solutions. These solutions can be accessed by end-users who can customize, produce, and use them. The users of these solutions may have design or production skills, or they may only have the need to use these products for a purpose, because for various reasons they do not have access to craft or industrial goods or because these products do not meet their needs. Open design today concerns various product categories, including objects that must perform important or delicate technical functions such as work tools, musical instruments, measuring instruments, medical instruments. To be used safely or in compliance with the laws in force in one or more countries, these instruments should be certified. What is the state of the art of open design processes about this issue? What are the main certification processes that those who design, produce, or use open-source products need to be aware of? And, in general, what can, or should designers, makers and independent innovators do to design increasingly high-performance and secure open-source products? This thesis proposes a research path that aims to provide useful guidance to designers, makers and independent innovators on how to navigate the path of designing open-source products. The result of the thesis is a small guide, a handbook, for designers and makers, which provides useful information on the open-source protocols that must be followed in the design process of open source hardware products, what rights and responsibilities must be respected, and how to obtain relevant certifications, methods and paths. Chapter 1 introduces the context of open-source design culture. Digital transformation, from the development of the Internet onwards, has progressively fostered the spread of open-source culture, first in software, then in hardware and design. Therefore, the open-source culture of the maker movement has gradually spread from software to hardware. As far as design is concerned, the maker movement and the digitization of design have become an opportunity, the decentralized production mode of distributed design is seen as a complement to current industrial mass production and gradually returns a more socially inclusive approach to design. The open-source culture was initially seen in total opposition to patenting, as the patent monopoly on knowledge is not conducive to knowledge reproduction and prosperity while a collective innovation model is seen as a more effective model overall. But this framework, as well as the relationship between mass production and distributed production is slowly changing towards a possible coexistence of the two models. Chapter 2, starting from the issues highlighted in the previous section, presents a mapping of cases relating to the design of open-source hardware products, trying to understand how the process takes place, which involves: the preparation of design source files for the software and hardware parts of the product, the documentation of the project and the tools used to implement the product's hardware. This mapping aims to systematize an initial set of knowledge about the methods and tools used by designers to develop this process. Chapter 3, complementarily to the previous chapter, identifies the main certification processes of open-source products, including the self-assessment tools used for certification and the smart contract system model. This mapping also includes the thematic categories of product certification, including hardware, software, and documentation. Chapter 4 combines the knowledge from the previous two chapters and identifies the main critical issues and opportunities related to the design processes of open-source products and the topic of their certification. The chapter explains that the design and certification of open-source products has more complex characteristics than software, but the certification of the design is still important, not only for the copyright protection of the creator, but also for downstream users who are interested in using the open-source project. The result of the thesis is a small manual or 'breviary' containing the main guidelines and recommendations for the design and production of open-source products that can then be certified by users.
Negli ultimi due decenni, il design aperto è stato inteso sia come un processo di progettazione open source sia, in una forma più inclusiva, come la progettazione collaborativa di prodotti open source è progressivamente diventata una possibilità per concretizzare soluzioni di prodotto. A queste soluzioni possono accedere gli utenti finali che possono personalizzarle, produrle e utilizzarle. Gli utenti di queste soluzioni possono avere capacità di progettazione o produzione, oppure possono avere solo la necessità di utilizzare questi prodotti per uno scopo, perché per vari motivi non hanno accesso a beni artigianali o industriali o perché questi prodotti non soddisfano le loro esigenze . L'open design oggi riguarda diverse categorie merceologiche, tra cui oggetti che devono svolgere funzioni tecniche importanti o delicate come strumenti da lavoro, strumenti musicali, strumenti di misura, strumenti medici. Per essere utilizzati in sicurezza o nel rispetto delle leggi vigenti in uno o più paesi, questi strumenti devono essere certificati. Qual è lo stato dell'arte dei processi di progettazione aperta su questo tema? Quali sono i principali processi di certificazione di cui devono essere a conoscenza coloro che progettano, producono o utilizzano prodotti open source? E, in generale, cosa possono o dovrebbero fare designer, maker e innovatori indipendenti per progettare prodotti open source sempre più performanti e sicuri? Questa tesi propone un percorso di ricerca che mira a fornire indicazioni utili a designer, maker e innovatori indipendenti su come orientarsi nel percorso di progettazione di prodotti open-source. Il risultato della tesi è una piccola guida, un vademecum, per progettisti e makers, che fornisce informazioni utili sui protocolli open source che devono essere seguiti nel processo di progettazione di prodotti hardware open source, quali diritti e responsabilità devono essere rispettati, e come ottenere certificazioni, metodi e percorsi pertinenti. Il capitolo 1 introduce il contesto della cultura del design open source. La trasformazione digitale, dallo sviluppo di Internet in poi, ha progressivamente favorito la diffusione della cultura dell'open source, prima nel software, poi nell'hardware e nel design. Pertanto, la cultura open source del movimento maker si è gradualmente diffusa dal software all'hardware. Per quanto riguarda il design, il movimento dei maker e la digitalizzazione del design sono diventati un'opportunità, la modalità di produzione decentralizzata del design distribuito è vista come un complemento dell'attuale produzione industriale di massa e restituisce gradualmente un approccio al design più socialmente inclusivo. La cultura dell'open source è stata inizialmente vista in totale opposizione alla brevettazione, poiché il monopolio dei brevetti sulla conoscenza non favorisce la riproduzione e la prosperità della conoscenza mentre un modello di innovazione collettiva è visto come un modello complessivamente più efficace. Ma questo quadro, così come il rapporto tra produzione di massa e produzione distribuita, sta lentamente mutando verso una possibile coesistenza dei due modelli. Il capitolo 2, partendo dalle problematiche evidenziate nella sezione precedente, presenta una mappatura dei casi relativi alla progettazione di prodotti hardware open source, cercando di capire come si svolge il processo, che prevede: la preparazione dei file sorgente di progettazione per il software e hardware del prodotto, la documentazione del progetto e gli strumenti utilizzati per implementare l'hardware del prodotto. Questa mappatura mira a sistematizzare una prima serie di conoscenze sui metodi e gli strumenti utilizzati dai progettisti per sviluppare questo processo. Il capitolo 3, in modo complementare al capitolo precedente, individua i principali processi di certificazione dei prodotti open source, inclusi gli strumenti di autovalutazione utilizzati per la certificazione e il modello di sistema degli smart contract. Questa mappatura include anche le categorie tematiche di certificazione del prodotto, inclusi hardware, software e documentazione.
Designing（for）open-source products : limits and opportunities for open and distributed design in implementing usable open-source products
XU, CHANG
2021/2022
Abstract
Over the past two decades, open design-understood both as an open-source design process and, in a more inclusive form, as the collaborative design of open-source products has progressively become a possibility to materialize product solutions. These solutions can be accessed by end-users who can customize, produce, and use them. The users of these solutions may have design or production skills, or they may only have the need to use these products for a purpose, because for various reasons they do not have access to craft or industrial goods or because these products do not meet their needs. Open design today concerns various product categories, including objects that must perform important or delicate technical functions such as work tools, musical instruments, measuring instruments, medical instruments. To be used safely or in compliance with the laws in force in one or more countries, these instruments should be certified. What is the state of the art of open design processes about this issue? What are the main certification processes that those who design, produce, or use open-source products need to be aware of? And, in general, what can, or should designers, makers and independent innovators do to design increasingly high-performance and secure open-source products? This thesis proposes a research path that aims to provide useful guidance to designers, makers and independent innovators on how to navigate the path of designing open-source products. The result of the thesis is a small guide, a handbook, for designers and makers, which provides useful information on the open-source protocols that must be followed in the design process of open source hardware products, what rights and responsibilities must be respected, and how to obtain relevant certifications, methods and paths. Chapter 1 introduces the context of open-source design culture. Digital transformation, from the development of the Internet onwards, has progressively fostered the spread of open-source culture, first in software, then in hardware and design. Therefore, the open-source culture of the maker movement has gradually spread from software to hardware. As far as design is concerned, the maker movement and the digitization of design have become an opportunity, the decentralized production mode of distributed design is seen as a complement to current industrial mass production and gradually returns a more socially inclusive approach to design. The open-source culture was initially seen in total opposition to patenting, as the patent monopoly on knowledge is not conducive to knowledge reproduction and prosperity while a collective innovation model is seen as a more effective model overall. But this framework, as well as the relationship between mass production and distributed production is slowly changing towards a possible coexistence of the two models. Chapter 2, starting from the issues highlighted in the previous section, presents a mapping of cases relating to the design of open-source hardware products, trying to understand how the process takes place, which involves: the preparation of design source files for the software and hardware parts of the product, the documentation of the project and the tools used to implement the product's hardware. This mapping aims to systematize an initial set of knowledge about the methods and tools used by designers to develop this process. Chapter 3, complementarily to the previous chapter, identifies the main certification processes of open-source products, including the self-assessment tools used for certification and the smart contract system model. This mapping also includes the thematic categories of product certification, including hardware, software, and documentation. Chapter 4 combines the knowledge from the previous two chapters and identifies the main critical issues and opportunities related to the design processes of open-source products and the topic of their certification. The chapter explains that the design and certification of open-source products has more complex characteristics than software, but the certification of the design is still important, not only for the copyright protection of the creator, but also for downstream users who are interested in using the open-source project. The result of the thesis is a small manual or 'breviary' containing the main guidelines and recommendations for the design and production of open-source products that can then be certified by users.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/191847