[Open Design] [OpenDesign] Questions about the Open Design Definition

Thu Feb 28 14:53:09 UTC 2013

I know this is cheating a little, as by now I haver read not only Massimo's mind, but also his answers .... but let me have a stab at it as well
On 26 Feb 2013, at 15:38 , Massimo Menichinelli <massimo.menichinelli at aalto.fi> wrote:

> Hi all,
> I've finally had time for getting back to our discussion about the Open Design Definition. I've published a blog post about it (including the presentation of the workshop held during the Open Knowledge Festival, and few analysis that I did about our discussion) here:
> 
> http://www.openp2pdesign.org/2013/open-design/working-on-the-open-design-definition/
> 
> http://design.okfn.org/2013/02/26/working-on-the-open-design-definition/
> 
> In the post I've highlighted few questions regarding the Open Design Definition, it would be great to have your comments about them here in the mailing list or on the blogs. Let's start the discussion about the definition again!
> Here are the questions:
> 
> 1. Are we focusing only on Product Design (i.e. something physical, and that may be 3D printed) or are we talking about any kind of design? Personally I’m trying to having a discussion on all the fields of design, since there are already many different cases of Open Source in Design in many fields (see the presentation above), but of course this means that we have to describe a generic enough definition of Design, or a definition that makes references to the different Design fields.

When I speak and write about (open) hardware I usually mention, that hardware covers a broad range including such nonrelated things as integrated circuits, home furniture and ship-to-shore container cranes.  All these "things" are results of design processes ... and I've not yet included fashion, or letter types, or games.
And there are even such things as "organisation design" and "service design"  (which to my knowledge have so far eschewed any "open" aspirations ... so by this answer I claim authorship of "open organisation design" and "open service design" ... leaving it open (!) for the moment if the openness is in design, or in organisation or service, respectively).
Having said that, I would advocate to have a more focused discussion to start with, maybe around anything tangible (including media of all kind) that does not fall primarily under engineering but under "aesthetic" ... essentially the stuff that's taught at industrial design schools and design academies, the stuff that from an "IP" point of view would fall under "design" (= the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian) when we speak about the product (see 4, below).

Because ....

> 
> 2. Shall we start from what Intellectual Property (IP) laws consider Design, or from what designers consider Design? This choice would lead to two very different definitions, so we have to decide this together: starting from the IP laws viewpoint, it will be easier to define licenses and IP strategies; starting from designers’ viewpoint will make the definition easier to be understood by the Design community at large

... limiting to the (generic) legal understanding of design helps us to avoid confusion.  We've seen it with copyright, and the recent whitepaper on 3D printing and protection mechanism talks about a few of these fallacies:  broadening the scope of design beyond what legally is design makes people think everything that falls under that extended scope of design behaves legally the same, while it does not.

> 
> 3. And, related to this, shall we leave the discussion about licenses out, or shall we include something in the definition?

In the first, place, however, I'd leave licensing out of the discussion.

> 
> 4. What about the “source files” of a design project? Shall we consider, in the definition, to ask about publishing also the source files (i.e. vector drawing and not only the exported picture, CAD files and not only the rendering pictures)

Now we are entering territory that has nothing to do with the design "product" (of which I suggested to keep the scope close to the legal definition) but with the design process.  If we seek analogy -- or: alignment -- with open source software, then the whole *point* is to make the "source" open, and probably even more than that.  In software, good source code *documents* design decisions/design rationale.  I've yet to see a CAD file that tells me, why a certain radius is 4.7 mm ... but that's exactly what I expect form open design.  It's completely useless to publish CAD drawings without the reasoning WHY it is like it is

I guess there is a challenge for designers, though ...

> 
> 5. Shall we clarify and distinguish about the definition being about Openness and/or Freedom? Or shall we include both in the definition?

Another minefield (remember the OSS vs FLOSS wars?) ... what is the concept of Openness? what is the concept of Freedom?

> 
> 6. Shall start preparing a draft of a definition, in order to start the discussion to be more focused? From which existing definition should we start?

I would do two things
- collect examples of OD definitions
- establish a list of characteristics / items / topics that we want to address

> 
> What do you think about these issues?
> 
> Br,
> Massimo
> 
> -- 
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> Massimo Menichinelli
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