Open Hardware Repository

The Open Hardware Repository (http://www.ohwr.org/) is a place on the web for electronics designers to collaborate on Open Hardware (OH) design. This effort was initiated by CERN's Hardware & Timing section and has since been joined by a number of other groups in and outside CERN. The talk will explore ways in which open software and hardware are different (although they certainly complement each other very well), and justify the choice of OH from the point of view of developers in public scientific institutions. It will then proceed to explore the applicability of the reasons in a wider context, with a stress on how Society can benefit from OH and what non-designers can do to help in the effort. We will also explore different licensing schemes and possible business models for companies. Finally, a real use-case, the White Rabbit project (http://www.ohwr.org/projects/white-rabbit) will be used to illustrate the advantages of this approach to hardware design.