<div dir="ltr">I didn't know about that site, so I took a look. At my initial glance, it looks like it is horribly out of date, like 8 years or so at least if I'm not mistaken.</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 9:38 AM, Joshua Pritt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ramgarden@gmail.com" target="_blank">ramgarden@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Just wanted to make sure everyone knew about this site: <a href="http://www.osalt.com/" target="_blank">http://www.osalt.com/</a><div>In case you didn't already have this one bookmarked. It lets you find the open source version of most popular software applications.</div>
<div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 4:48 AM, Mike Dupont <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jamesmikedupont@googlemail.com" target="_blank">jamesmikedupont@googlemail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 8:24 PM, Ethan Chew <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:spacefelix@gmail.com" target="_blank">spacefelix@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I would definitely appreciate the chance to discuss such guidelines. It will be a learning experience for me as I am more of an atomic/dirt hacker than a bit hacker (I work with gardens, airplanes and rockets) and it would be interesting to see how FLOSS translates from software into hardware.</blockquote>
</div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Well the open source hardware definition is a good stab in that direction. Of course you have layers and layers of things once you get down to the physical. Not everything is protected by copyright that is the basis for FLOSS licenses. But wikis can be used to describe howtos. If you look at the open source ecology wiki you will also notice that many file formats are an issue, cad and otherwise. <br>
<br>As a software developer I see everything as a nail to hit with the software hammer. So many times it might be possible to use free software graphics or cad systems, but people dont know how to use them. So comfort or training is one big issue for users doing designing. <br>
<br>On the other side as a software developer, we need exact specifications, and the hackerspace community could do well to produce exact problem specification for developers to work on, these can be turned into software solutions. As people have pointed out, cad software is generally a problem, I am
working on different cad tools once in a while for openstreetmap. I
tinker for example with libredwg to read autocad dwg files, and there is
a google summer of code project to help improve it. So maybe we can find funding to solve your problems as well and promote sharing.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br>So I would say that in the interest of sharing, we should avoid having to pay for licenses because they are barriers for sharing. I cannot share my work with you if you cannot read the file. Then it gets into having to install a certain operating system to read the file and we get into the many other issues. If you live in a third world nation, you cannot afford to buy all this software. <br>
Even if you are a non profit in some other country does not make you a non profit for tax purposes in USA. This might be another barrier. Otherwise why would public schools all over the world not have free copies of these non-free applications? Even if they do have some limited licenses, there are limits, and why not use Free/Libre software that has no restrictions and allows for customization, translation and improvement. <br>
<br>If we as a group can agree on the principle of sharing, and for example agree to share our work on the hackerspace wiki + some git repos for code then we will also want to agree on using open data formats that can be read by using open software. <br>
<br>This gets to be more important for visually or otherwise disabled people. It is not enough to produce pdf files because many time they cannot read them using screen readers, because the text is jumbled and not accessible. You need to put in extra effort that many do not to make text accessible in pdfs. So again if the source of the program is available it can be customized and its output can be made readable and usable. <br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_extra">All of these should be arguments that to truly share knowledge in the deepest way about hackerspace projects with the whole world we need to use open data formats and lacking those formats and standard at least we need to use open source software to read and write those files out of respect of the poor, the disabled and those who would like to remain free of license restrictions. <br clear="all">
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">I can imagine that <a href="http://hackerspaces.org" target="_blank">hackerspaces.org</a> could come up with a list of tools used in all the spaces/projects and then we can classify/analyse them for reuse and replication. That might be a great project to work on as a group, a common tool kit, and instructions to build them. Like the open source ecology project, we need a toolchain of dependent to build hackerspaces. Access control solutions, Security cameras, power and water measurement, power supplies, motors and gears, door locks and the like. All these are candidates for creating schematics describing to the detail for someone to make them themselves, not just 3d printers, pcb board printers, routers and laser cutters. Also hackerspaces statutes, project management software, disclaimers and waivers, sign up sheets, membership software, payment portals, meeting and voting systems are also candidates for a hackerspace toolkit that I can imagine, there are many more. <br>
<span><font color="#888888">
<br></font></span></div><span><font color="#888888"><div class="gmail_extra">-- <br>James Michael DuPont<br>Member of Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova <a href="http://www.flossk.org" target="_blank">http://www.flossk.org</a><br>
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