DCAWD.com

Among the OSHW baker’s dozen are names that we’re familiar with. We’ve long admired MakerBot and their 3D printing prowess, BugLabs’ modular approach to electronic gadgetry is top notch, and we’ve seen Arduino enabled projects do some amazing things. Most of the other companies mentioned are equally interesting. What really impresses me, however, is how quickly this industry as a whole is growing. Just five years ago, there were only a handful of OSHW projects actively supported. Now there are more than 200. And these million dollar companies are still expanding...

Add to that list research and development communities we’ve seen such as Willow Garage, ROS, OpenWetWare, Pearl Biotech, Pranav Mistry (Sixth Sense), and more. Together these groups are part of a large trend that is re-examining the way that intellectual property is managed and developed. Share your work openly and innovation is accelerated. Give your consumers rights to their goods and they will help develop them (and stay loyal to the brand). As the open source community continues to expand it may not only change the way we conceive of ownership of technology, it may also foster the growth of that technology with unparalleled success…and you still might be able to get rich while it happens.