Open Hardware Foundation

The latest information can on the Open Hardware Foundation (OHF) be found on it's website: Open Hardware Foundation). The information here contains discussions regarding the starting of the Open Hardware Foundation. As the foundation has since been formed this page been preserved for historical reasons.

Foundation Roles
T. Miller 31 May 06:I want OGF to serve a couple of roles:

1.Handle non-profit financial issues (be trustworthy)
2 Decide on where funds are spent
3a Represent the community TO Traversal
3b Represent Traversal to the community
4 Collect votes on elections and other community issues.
5 Empower the community in terms of giving them a unified voice with regard to open hardware (note that this committee should consider influencing more than just Traversal).
6 Act as a central resource for developers (alternate uses for OGD1, software graphics drivers, etc).
7 Be "business partners" with Traversal.
8 Concern itself with Traversal's dealings with the FOSS community (but not necessarily anyone else).

Lots of things will be shared between Traversal and OGF. The last thing we want is something adversarial. In some sense, we're separate organisations, legally for the non-profit stuff, demonstrating that Traversal does not want to manage donations (the community should manage their own), etc. In another sense, we're two sides of the same coin, because we are formed from the same group of people, and we need each other to prosper. If I say we're part of the same organisation, people might fear that Traversal is trying to have too much control, so I'll just say that we're very close friends. :) (My biggest fear is that OGF will decide that Traversal is making a bad decision and not be willing to compromise.)

I think that someone from Traversal should be on the committee (unless not elected so), but not necessarily in a leadership role. Similarly, someone from the OGF can be voted onto the Traversal board of directors.

Forum Suggestions and Comments
L. Veen 11 Jul 06 (A Hardware design) company could still be a good citizen. What if they added a whole lot of stuff to the design, published the combined work under the GPL (including all their own stuff) and then sold the hardware? I'd say they'd be an asset to the community, since they didn't violate any licences, and contributed themselves as well. So I think OHF should give them some kind of certificate then, to show that they're "community-friendly".

T. Miller 10 Jul 06: Our Foundation's job is to facilitate the development of open architecture hardware. That is, theirs is to debate, and ours is to build stuff. (...) I want this hardware to be usable with BSD or Windows or MacOS or AIX or whatever you like.

P. Mc Namara 12 Jul 06: about the OHF foundation providing "certificates" for hardware, I'd propose (...) levels.

• First, any company that pledges full and complete interface and behavioral documentation for a device, any docs necessary to make the device do everything it is designed to do, and makes it publicly available under nothing more cumbersome than the basic copyright that exists on all written works receives one certificate. Somebody else used "community friendly" or something similar. I don't know what to call it. Perhaps just "Open Documentation" (...)
• A company that contributes back to the community during the development of a device get labeled "Community Supporter" or something similar.
• A company that enters into a legal agreement to release the entire RTL and supporting information for a project at a given point in the future (far enough ahead to protect the companies commercial viability) can get the "Open Hardware" certificate.

Structure
P. Brett May 06: I would suggest that we set up the foundation so there are 5 people on the board:

- Chairman
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Two others, one of whom _must_ also be on the board of Traversal.

But employees of Traversal may _not_ hold any of the posts of Chairman, Secretary or Treasurer.

I think this would help make sure of the foundation's independence from Traversal not only in the eyes of the public, but also in the eyes of the tax man. ;)


Contributions and Developer Assistance
JB May 06:This is an important part of OGP. While the job will be relatively light, it will play a big part in helping OGP developers. (...) The open source community has in the past asked how they can contribute to the project. But, seeing that Traversal's goal is to make enough money to fund the very high expenses involved in making more boards, and pay a modest wage to it's workers - the company would prefer to have a measure of independence between its finances and the donations from the community. Traversal is already planning to assist by offering the development boards at a significant discount to OGP developers, but there is a limit to the discount it can give - remember its goal is to afford making new boards. Because the boards cost so much to make, it cannot afford to start giving them away. The Open Graphics Foundation, appears to provide a modest solution here. Your donations can directly benefit the project's developers and indirectly Traversal. The foundations job is to account for donations from the community and use these funds to assist proven OGP contributers who cant afford a development board.

What does this mean for you and me? If we are a proven contributor to OGP but cant afford the $600 for the OGD1 development board, we could apply to the foundation. They will likely ask how much can we afford and then how much assistance we are offered will often depend on how much money is in the kitty. Hopefully this will enable more developers to get development boards. Of course, if you can afford a board, by all means let the donations be used for those who have less, and if some of us decide to donate small but regular amounts (..we wont stop you donating larger amounts..) to this fund, they will be able to help even more of us.

Do you have the small amount of time necessary to help with this? Please join in. You will be working with the community by making recommendations to help developers buy development boards or possibly other tools, keeping a tally of the donations that have come in, and occasionally reporting to the community a tally of what came in, and what it went out on. It may be best if you are not one of those developers hoping to seek assistance with buying a board - as you cant submit a recommendation for yourself. As the project matures this foundation is expected to mature as well.

Ed. You could offer to assist with the foundation via the Mailing Lists.