A Kit Maker’s Manifesto

Rules for Creating an Open Source Community

1. Don’t make something you don’t use yourself.
2. Know who you are making it for.
3. Know what you want out of it.
4. Make projects, not platforms.
5. Respect the intelligence of the beginner.
6. Experts are not the best advisors when you want to make tools for beginners.
7. If nobody complains, you’re doing something wrong.
8. Everything is a spring (i.e., in mechanical systems, all parts will deform under load).
9. Including people is hard (but necessary).
10. Good hardware, good software, good explanations, and generous users make a great project.
11. If you’re not prepared to have someone adapt, improve, clone, or trash your work, don’t share it.
12. Open source software doesn’t necessarily translate into a business model. Open source hardware must.
13. Expect resistance … and conspiracy theories.
14. Don’t let the fact that you don’t know what you’re doing stop you.