Following the successful adoption of the open source model in the software realm, open source is becoming a new design paradigm in hardware development. Open source models for tangible products are still in its infancy, and many studies are required to demonstrate its application to for-profit product development. It is an alluring question why entrepreneurs decide to use an open model to develop their products under risks and unknowns, such as infringement and community management. The goal of this paper is to investigate the motivations of entrepreneurs of open source hardware companies. The leaders and founders of twentythree companies were interviewed to understand their motivation and experiences in creating a company based on open source hardware. Based on these interviews, we generated a hierarchical framework to explain these motivations, where each level of the framework has been defined, explained and illustrated with representative quotes.The motivations of open source action are framed by two categories in the paper: 1) Intrinsic Motivation, which describes the motivations of an entrepreneur as an individual, who needs personal satisfaction, enjoyment as well as altruism and reciprocity; 2) Extrinsic Motivation, which describes motivations of an entrepreneur whose identity is as a for-profit company leader.
In product design courses, prototyping offers a way for students to develop physical intuition about materials while practicing techniques used by professional designers. A web-based platform was developed to explore the use of multimedia to provide students with additional support for prototyping activities. The result is Designy (www.productdesigny.com), a platform containing a series of photo- and video-based resources meant to help students prototype effectively. Students in two product design classes — 2.00b Toy Product Design and 2.744 Product Design — were given access to Designy to aid in their project work. To better understand whether the platform was utilized by students and if access to the platform contributed to student learning and project work, researchers analyzed website activity data and interviewed students (n = 19) to collect data regarding their experiences with the platform. A core group of 24 students (27%) in 2.00b and 29 students (35%) in 2.744 generated the most activity on the platform. Interview data indicates that students used the platform to answer prototyping-related questions when designing, to better understand the landscape of prototyping tools available to them, and to increase a feeling of confidence working in a prototyping shop. Overall, results suggest that while in-person interactions with staff members can better help students in situations where the support students need is poorly identified, Designy was shown to provide efficient support in situations when students could clearly identify the type of support they needed.
Online education is becoming more prevalent in every field, especially with the advent of MOOCs and initiatives such as Coursera, Edx, MITx, Khan Academy and more. Product design education involves open-ended problem solving and prototyping with physical materials, so it presents a number of interesting challenges in an online educational setting.This paper describes an initial study to better understand the value proposition of offering hands-on product design education using different delivery methods, ranging from hands-on residential to fully online, and combinations inbetween. A series of two-day workshops were used to teach students typical introductory product design coursework including opportunity identification and early-stage prototyping. Students attended one workshop session that was taught with one of three content delivery types: traditional (n = 9), online (n = 9), or hybrid (n = 8). Each student worked individually to identify a product opportunity and produce a preliminary prototype. The performance of the students was compared to elucidate any differences based on workshop delivery method.Based on the comparison of student work, as evaluated by academic product design experts, there were no statistically significant differences in performance between groups. This result suggests that all delivery methods have potential for successfully transferring knowledge to students. Furthermore, this preliminary evidence warrants more detailed investigations of the effects of delivery method on product design education. Interesting observations regarding workshop attendance identify motivation to complete courses as a point of interest in both residential and online settings. A number of insights gained and possible directions are discussed.
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