The open source movement is starting to take baby steps out of the digital primordial soup onto the more deadly, and arid land of physical materiality. First of the primordial contenders is Open Cola. What had started as a simple demonstration of open-source principles has turned into a number or commercially sold beverages. Although the recipe is shared freely, the cola can still be sold for a profit, and to date, two companies have done so. The First was the originator, a software company in Toronto, Canada who pioneered the Open Cola as a marketing strategy to help promote their brand and to educate their clients that open source, although free to copy and distribute, can still generate profits. In fact, during this marketing campaign 150,000 cans of Open Cola were sold. In Central Bristol, UK, a small cinema, Cube Microplex Cinema, has used the freely available Open Cola recipe to create a cola to be sold to patrons and guests. No sales data has been released, however in the venue of a more traditional business structure it may be that this use of open source cola may not fizzle out so prematurely.
A riskier, bolder venture has also started to emerge from the open source model. The Open Source Car. A number of ventures have been prominent, but none so much as OScar, which envisions to ‘reinvent mobility’ in a similar fashion to how Open Source Software is created and managed. The originator and maintainer of the project, Markus Merz, originated the concept but has yet to take it from the conceptual stage. Also on the radar is a hot, new design that the company is touting as a Open Source vehicle. EDAG Light Car, is a high-tech, radical automotive design concept that was presented at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. Although it claims to be ‘Open Source’ it seems under further investigation of the company’s site that it uses this term very loosely. Instead it seems that the company is ‘open’ to partnering with other companies to help with the technologies involved under a secure section of their website. This is far from the true definition of Open Source.
It seems that the third project is the charm. A partnership between three universities in Holland, the bizarrely named and designed car, c,mm,n (pronounced ‘common’), has become the world’s first truly materialized open source car. Although the aesthetics and phonemics may not be pleasing to all, the car incorporates some serious technology that can be used to help alleviate some of our common, dire environmental concerns, since it uses hydrogen, not fossil fuels, to power its engines. And true to the actual spirit and meaning of Open Source, this project’s specs, blueprints and diagrams are all free for others to use, and even make money off, as long as the users release all improvements and further designs back to the community for free.
Providing creative solutions and innovative discoveries for all to freely benefit is true to what this new Giver Culture is about. These endeavors truly represent the beginning transition of moving from a culture of Takers (consumers) to a culture of Givers who freely give back to the world. And best of all, design and scientific/technological breakthroughs are gifts that keep on giving, thus solidifying Giver Culture values even more.
The question remains, when will material based open source endeavors will truly take off, creating a viable ecosystem for others to emulate?
My guess is that they will. The genie is out of the bottle and people will continue to experiment with and fund material-based open source projects until, like in the software economy, one will finally take off.
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