2018-03-20
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Today I want to share an observation I have made over the past years.
There's a certain mindset present that is reluctant to share source
files. There are thousands of STL files on thingiverse[0] for
example. But hardly anyone does release the files these STLs where
generated from. In the aftermath of my word clock workshop I am still
asking around for the source files of the firmware and the innards of
the casing. Although it turns out the word clock grid and backplanes
have been documented[1] I almost accidentally have stumbled over it.

And I wonder why that is. I come from a SW hacker background and here
sharing your source code is ubiquitous. For HW tinkerers it seems
more natural to share compiled hex dumps or blobs.

Please do not do that. It is harmful. Not only do you leave the
people building your stuff in the dark about its innards, it
discourages the ability to repair the things you have built yourself!

Also the future you may forget the exact steps on how you created
your files, so documenting that and *sharing* that ensures that your
idea will still be alive tomorrow. With an open mindset this is at
least possible.

I am no free software zealot, but I do see the merits of licenses
like the GPL here. It prepares people to show their work for everyone
to see. Not just the finished thing but also the steps towards that.

So please build your things in the open. You are not the things you
build. Noone will judge you by your thing's source code.

Also if you use free software tools I will love you even more,
because that means I will be able to tinker with your creation in the
future as well.

Also there's the Right To Repair[2] movement that encourages
longlivety of devices and the ability of the owners to repair their
stuff.

Our current afairs could be so much better if we reclaim the ability
to fix our stuff ourselves.

And in the maker community I see no excuse to not follow this path.

___References________________________________________________________

[0]: http://thingiverse.com
[1]: http://wiki.fablab-nuernberg.de/w/Ding:Leuchtgitter (german only)
[2]: gopher://vernunftzentrum.de/0/ckeen/media/repair-manifesto.gif