(Circuit designed in the context of the Open Hardware License (OHL) and the Repository Open Hardware (OHR). Image: OHR.)

Four months after launching the first version, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Today released version 1.1 of the Open Hardware License (OHL, For short), a legal framework inspired by the free software designed to facilitate the exchange of knowledge among the community of electronic design used in particle accelerators. With this initiative, in line with the ideals of “open science”, CERN hopes to improve the quality of hardware designs through peer review and ensure that users, including businesses, freedom to study, modify and manufacture .

In the spirit of the dissemination of knowledge and technology, the initiative to open hardware at CERN has been created to direct the use, copying, modification and distribution of documentation about hardware design, production and distribution. The hardware design documentation including schematics, layouts, circuits or circuit board design, mechanical drawings, flow charts and descriptive text and explanatory material.

Version 1.0 of the OHL at CERN was published in March 2011 in the Repository Open Hardware (OHR, For short), created by electronics designers working in experimental physics laboratories who felt the need to allow the exchange of knowledge across a broad community and consistent with the ideals of “open science” to promote organizations such as CERN.

“For us, the momentum toward open hardware was motivated largely by a well-meaning envy of our colleagues to develop drivers for devices that operate with Linux,” says Javier Serrano, an engineer at the Department of the CERN particle beams and founder of the OHL. “They are part of a large community of designers who share their knowledge and time to achieve the best operating system possible. We felt that there was no intrinsic reason why the development of hardware should be different. ”

The OHL CERN provides a framework for knowledge sharing which combines the principles of open design with traceability along with a clear policy for managing intellectual property.

“The concept of ‘open source hardware’ or ‘open hardware’ is not yet well known or widespread as the concept of free software or open source, “says Myriam Ayasse legal advisor Knowledge Transfer Group at CERN. “However, it shares the same principles: everyone should be able to see the source code (the design documentation in the case of hardware), study, modify and share.”

“The OHL CERN is an achievement exciting, with the potential to be the main license for new hardware projects, such as GNU GPL is Free Software, “says Alessandro Rubini, free software developer and co-author of” Linux Device Drivers’.

“Version 1.1 incorporates the feedback from the community to follow the generally accepted principles of free movement and open source,” continues Ayasse “and aims to make the OHL at CERN more easily usable by other entities” .

“By sharing designs openly,” said Serrano, “CERN hopes to improve design quality through peer review and provide its users, including commercial enterprises, the freedom to study, modify and manufacture, resulting in better hardware and less duplication of effort. ”

“CERN’s efforts to build an ecosystem of open hardware are certainly bodes well for greater freedom in the digital space,” said Carlo Piana, a lawyer specializing in digital initiatives open and General Counsel of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE).

On October 9, 2011 will be held in Grenoble (France) a workshop on open hardware during the 13 th International Conference on Accelerators and Large Physics Control Systems Experimental.

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MORE INFORMATION:

CPAN Web

Link to an article about the Open Hardware License at CERN Courier: http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/46054

Link to the Repository Open Hardware (OHR) http://www.ohwr.org

Link to Open Hardware License (OHL): http://www.ohwr.org/cernohl

Link to workshop on Open Hardware: http://www.ohwr.org/projects/ohr-meta/wiki/OHWorkshop

Source: CPAN / CERN