Join "Design for Freedom" Online Open-source Design Workshop now!

"We are proving not only that we can do better software[and design!], but that joy is an asset" Eric Steven Raymond

Hello everybody. My name is Stasiek Ploski and i come from Warsaw, Poland. I study Product Design (currently 3rd year). I would like to invite you to participate in an Open-source Design Workshop i have chosen to organise as a school project. I am inspired by the idea of open-source which has been succesfully applied to software development since the birth of Linux, and the principles of free software/free culture movements which gave us the GNU/GPL and Creative Commons licenses (among others). I invite you to join the online forum and work together on a project.

What will we design (ideas to choose from - add yours too!)
- a power drill
-digital camera
-led torch
-laptop computer
-gps receiver
-video projector
-2way radio

Timeframe
max. 4 weeks

How will we work?
Democratically. Participants will post ideas, scanned sketches, renderings, pictures of paper/foam sketch models, and 3d models to the online forum. We will discuss all the ideas and choose the best solutions and work on improvements together, while I will be coordinating the whole project. The final outcome and all the material in the forum will be licensed under GNU/GPL or Creative Commons license, and available on the internet as a free download. I am also planning to make a model of the final product on a ZCorp 3d printer we have at school, if that will be economically reasonable.

Software
Although it is not free, i recommend to use SolidWorks as it is possible to download someone's model, non destructively introduce changes, and re-upload it. By using a parametric system wo could have flexibility similar to software developers uploading source code of their projects (here - the feature tree). You can also use Sketchup, Rhino or whatever is available to present your ideas. Every form of contribution is welcome. Maybe you can suggest some free and useful software?

Why would one want to participate?
Because it's fun to work with other people! You can show others what you can do and learn from them as well. If we succeed with an interesting final design, we could also get some publicity on the internet. Join "Design for Freedom" and feel the joy of doing something meaningful, jus because you want!

Please DO post your all your ideas connected with this project and open-source design practice.

designforfreedom.blogspot.com - project blog
freedesign.forumer.com - project forum <<<<<< REGISTER NOW!
Please do register and introduce yourself and show examples of your work in the "introduce yourself" topic.

Join the projects and invite your friends now!

Best Regards
Stasiek Płoski