A Peek At The Open Hardware Summit 2013

This weekend, in the wankel-shaped dome of the Kresge auditorium at MIT, nearly 1,000 obsessed and passionate people who believe in giving away their work came together. Known as the Open Hardware Summit, this was the fourth gathering of these peculiar and wonderful people who have gathered to discuss open-source hardware.

Lets first take a moment to describe what open-source hardware is. Many have heard of open-source software and regard it with a skeptical or curious eye, but most are unfamiliar with open-source hardware. This relatively new trend borrows many ideas from the open-source software movement, though it does have its own nuances due to the fact that some technologies used within a project may not be freely distributed.

Here's an excerpt from the definition, taken from the Open Source Hardware Association: