Open Hardware Summit Call for Submissions (due Friday)

Don’t miss your chance to submit a talk, breakout session, or project demo to the Open Hardware Summit 2011:

The Open Hardware Summit (OHS) invites submissions for the second annual summit, to be held on September 15, 2011 in New York City. The Open Hardware Summit is a venue to present, discuss, and learn about open hardware of all kinds. The summit examines open hardware and its relation to other issues, such as software, design, business, and law. We are seeking submissions for talks, breakout sessions, and demos from individuals and groups working with open hardware and related areas. Submissions are due by June 24, 2011. Notification of accepted proposals will happen by August 1st.

Since the first Open Hardware Summit in 2010, we have seen the open hardware movement continue to flourish. The Open-Source Hardware Definition was announced, the OSHW logo was selected by a popular vote, an open source oil spill cleaning robot got more than $33,000 in crowd funding, Google adopted the open hardware movement’s biggest success story, Arduino, as its platform and our very own keynote speaker, Limor Fried, was featured on the front page of Wired Magazine – to name a few. Needless to say, open hardware is getting BIG.

Submission topics

Topics of interest for the summit include, but are not limited to:

• Lessons learned from past projects
• Legal and intellectual property implications of open-source hardware
• Means of supporting collaboration and community interaction
• Manufacturing
• Distributed development and its relationship to physical goods
• Digital fabrication (e.g. laser cutters and 3D printers)
• Software design tools (CAD / CAM)
• DIY technology
• Ways to share information about hardware that’s not captured in source files
• Business models
• Manufacturing on demand
• Competition and collaboration
• Sustainability of open hardware products (e.g. how to unmake things)
• Industrial design
• “open-washing” (green washing for open source)
• Open-hardware in the enterprise
• Specific product domains: e.g. science, agriculture, communications, medicine

And any other topic you think relates to openness and hardware. We want to hear all about it!

Submissions are due this Friday (extensions by special request). The Open Hardware Summit will take place at the New York Hall of Science just days before World Maker Faire NY.