I was excited last month at the Open Hardware Summit in Philadelphia when OSHWA president Michael Weinberg unveiled the first version for the Open Source Hardware Certification:
Open Source Hardware Certification Version 1
http://www.oshwa.org/2015/09/19/open-source-hardware-certification-version-1/
Primary Goals
- Make it easier for the public to identify open source hardware.
- Expand the reach of open hardware by making it easier for newer members to join the open source hardware community.
Michael also wrote a follow-up:
What OSHWA is – and is not – Trying to do with the Open Source Hardware Certification
What the Certification is Not
The OSHWA certification is not designed to place restrictions on the use of the term “open source hardware” or to restrict how people use the open source hardware open gear logo. Nothing in the proposal requires anyone to use the certification, or gives OSHWA the power to sanction a project that decides – for whatever reason – that the certification is not for them.
What the Certification Attempts to Do
the certification was the result of OSHWA trying to find a way to give both creators and users of a piece of hardware a degree of certainty that hardware that called itself open source hardware actually complied with a commonly understood definition of open source hardware. That is, while anyone can call themselves open source hardware, only hardware that actually complied with the rules set out by OSHWA could call itself OSHWA-certified open source hardware.
cheers,
drew