HF_DJimage_081311
Seems like you can't go anywhere these days without hearing about open source something. In particular, hardware is breaking out on the open source scene -- the second Open Hardware Summit is happening next month in New York, and though I can't make it this year, it promises to be a huge happening. But along with the increased visibility has come an increased urgency for the open hardware community to find out how they will make money off of these designs. The question usually goes something like: If you share your designs, won't you just get undersold by someone who can make your design for cheaper? Isn't protected IP the only way to make money off of an idea in the marketplace? These are good questions, so I thought I'd chime in with my take. Basically, the idea is that market knowledge is more valuable than design knowledge.