Re: gEDA-user: Open hardware talk by IBM at NYLUG (New York, NY, USA)

[Karel Kulhavy <clock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Apr 29, 2006 at 07:42:21PM -0400, Stuart Brorson wrote:
> > 
> > On Fri, Apr 28, 2006 at 06:16:40PM -0400, Stuart Brorson wrote:
> > > GEDA users may find this talk of interest:
> > > 
> > > Please join us the first week of May for a special presentation by
> > > Dr. Juan-Antonio Carballo, of IBM Venture Capital.
> > > 
> > > "Spreading to the Edges: Growing a VC Ecosystem in a Multi-layered
> > > Open Model"
> > > 
> > > The open model for solutions development is quickly extending from
> > > software to other technology areas, such as hardware and
> > > services. Specifically, just as open source has spawned a revolution
> > 
> > What is the open hardware according to this gentleman? Such a definition
> > can be quite flexible, i. e. proprietary hardware implemented using
> > undocumented chips with open-source driver or documentation.
> 
> Come to NYC and find out!  ;-)
> 
> Anyway, I'd suspect that a VC from IBM will have a definition of
> open-hardware quite different from yours.  However, I shouldn't
> speculate.  
> 
> I will observe that I recently had to spend some time looking at a
> manual for an older Honeywell rotary recorder (like a strip-chart
> recorder).  I was very impressed by the fact that a good 2/3rds of the
> manual consisted of detailed schematic diagrams of the unit's
> circuitry, as well as mechanical drawings of most of its components.
> Also, I recall from my lab work 20 years ago that many instrument
> manufacturers would publish schematics of their stuff in the
> operator's manuals.  
> 
> Nowadays, I almost never see a schematic -- or any other hard
> technical information -- in any published operators manuals, even for
> extremely high-tech equipment.  (I *do* usually see 20 pages of hazard
> warnings in scores of different languages.)  I don't think it's a good
> thing that we no longer include schematics in manuals.  I think it's

Speak for yourself :) I include both schematics
http://ronja.twibright.com/schematics/
and manuals
http://ronja.twibright.com/tetrapolis/building.php

> part of the ongoing land-grab for so-called IP, a trend which I find
> disturbing, and bad for society in general (although perhaps
> beneficial for the individual companies who are grabbing the IP).
> That is to say, manufacturers are working to close their hardware
> designs as much as possible.  Perhaps Dr. IBM VC will argue that
> publishing info about your hardware's inner workings is a good thing?
> But I shouldn't speculate . . . .
> 
> In any event, I'll be interested to see what Dr. IBM VC has to say.  I
> *do* intend to give him a gEDA Suite CD as a way to welcome him to the
> revolution!  :-O

Revolution is a strong word for a program that has serious problems with
ergonomy and usability. gEDA has a potential for revolution, but whether
revolution is going to happen or not is dependent on the only thing in
software development that is impenetrably impossible to control - the
developers' will.

CL<
> 
> Stuart