Wang believes open-source hardware will follow the popularity of open-source software, as people want to create more physical things.
These include the Raspberry Pi, which you all know very well, along with the Timesquare DIY Watch Kit and MintyBoost, the open-source hardware charger.
The resulting open-source hardware platforms bridge desktop and embedded development, allowing developers to design to their specification and collaborate with the open source community on creative new applications.
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OpenXC platform will transform the car into a plug-and-play platform where interchangeable open-source hardware and software modules that can be quickly and easily customized by developers for specific tasks.
There are free Android and iOS apps for those that just want to check their vitals and be done with it, but tinkerers can have a field day with the open-source hardware and upcoming API.
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But an open-source approach to hardware might decrease that difference.
It turned out there was a voracious appetite -- particularly among a growing class of DIY geeks -- for a cheap, easily-programmable, open-source piece of hardware that would allow them to let their imaginations run wild.
And just as open-source programmers collaborate by sharing software code, engineers are already starting to collaborate on open-source designs for objects and hardware.
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Peter Semmelhack, founder of an outfit call Bug Labs, wants to take open-source even farther--into hardware.
He doesn't have details as to when the OS will reach behind-the-scenes hardware, but he stresses that this is definitely not an open-source project: some parts of the OS will always remain confidential to keep ne'er-do-well terrorists (and governments) from undermining the technology we often take for granted.
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Since both the hardware and the software are open-source, anyone can change things to suit their purpose, which like most things at the fair is bound to encourage even more innovation.
To this end, members of the WEF YGL are creating technology blueprints, which use widely available commodity hardware and open source software as the building blocks of high-performing, cost-effective cloud solutions.
Aside from hardware manufacturer gripes, Torvalds goes on to discuss his work with open source development in greater detail -- the full talk is right after the break.
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