Open-source appropriate technology (OSAT) is

appropriate technology Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by locals, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable, and locally ...

developed through the principles of the

open-design movement The open-design movement involves the development of physical products, machines and systems through use of publicly shared design information. This includes the making of both free and open-source software (FOSS) as well as open-source hardw ...

. Appropriate technology is technology designed with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political, and economic aspects of the community it is intended for. Open design is public and licensed to allow it to be used, modified and distributed freely.

Benefits

Open source is a development method for

that utilizes distributed peer review and transparency of process. Open-source-appropriate technology has potential to drive

applied sustainability Applied sustainability is the application of science and innovation, including the insights of the social sciences, to meet human needs while indefinitely preserving the life support systems of the planet. Note that this is a significant differenc ...

. The built-in continuous

peer-review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

can result in better quality, higher reliability, and more flexibility than conventional design/patenting of technologies. The free nature of the knowledge provides lower costs, particularly for those technologies that benefit little from scale of manufacture. Finally, OSAT enables the end to predatory intellectual property lock-in. This is particularly important for relieving suffering and saving lives in the

developing world A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. In an article published on

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massach ...

'','' Vasilis Kostakis and Andreas Roos argue that the "open-source" model can act as a driver of

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

, since it enables localization for communities that do not have the resources to tempt commercial developers to provide local versions of their products, thus minimizing the need to ship materials over long distances and organizing material activities accordingly.Kostakis, Vasilis. Roos, Andreas
New Technologies Won’t Reduce Scarcity, but Here’s Something That Might
''Harvard Business Review'', 2018. Local manufacturing would also make maintenance easier and encourage manufacturers to design products to last as long as possible. The technology can be free as in "gratis" as well as free as in "libre", an important consideration for developing communities. According to the lateral scaling concepts of

Jeremy Rifkin Jeremy Rifkin (born January 26, 1945) is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist. Rifkin is the author of 23 books about the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, ...

, it thus optimizes the sharing of knowledge and design as there are no patent costs to pay for.

Ethical considerations

For solutions, many researchers, companies, and academics work on products meant to assist

. The ethics of information sharing in this context has been explored in depth.

Support in the literature

* It has been investigated how open sharing of designs, specifications, and technical information can enhance effectiveness, widespread use, and innovation of appropriate technology. * OSAT has been proposed as a new model of enabling innovation for

. * OSAT has been claimed to assist in development of medical technology particularly for the developing world. * It has been claimed that the sharing of design processes, appropriate tools, and technical information enables more effective and rapid development of appropriate technologies for both industrialized and non-industrialized regions. In addition, it is claimed that this sharing will require the appropriate-technology community to adopt open standards/licenses, document knowledge, and build on previous work. * OSAT can be used to generate

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

* OSAT in ICT * OSAT and

peer production Peer production (also known as mass collaboration) is a way of producing goods and services that relies on self-organizing communities of individuals. In such communities, the labor of many people is coordinated towards a shared outcome. Overview P ...

In education

The Apropedia Foundation is a non-profit organization running Apropedia, the largest

wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...

documenting schematics, ideas, observations, experimental data, deployment logs etc. about patent-free appropriate technology,

permaculture Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principle ...

and related subjects. At the university level, the use of open-source-appropriate technology classroom projects has been shown to be successful in forging the connection between physics and social benefit. This approach has the potential to use students' access to resources and testing equipment in furthering the development of appropriate technology. Similarly, OSAT has been used for improving

service learning Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs. Service-learning involves students in service proje ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

studied the usefulness of

in education and its relation to OSAT. It has been proposed that the evolution of the open-source

3D printer 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the Manufacturing, construction of a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design, CAD model or a digital 3D modeling, 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is ...

s can enable a new method of development for OSAT. Fracture mechanics, ergonomics/ user friendly design, and user centred design; All factor in to create a high quality, new and improved product not to mention the use of smart materials like

graphene Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure.

Evaluation

Appropriate technology is designed to promote Decentralization, decentralized,

labor-intensive Labor intensity is the relative proportion of labor (compared to capital) used in any given process. Its inverse is capital intensity. Labor intensity has been declining since the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, while its inv ...

, energy-efficient and

environmentally sound Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that clai ...

businesses. Carroll Pursell says that the movement declined from 1965 to 1985, due to an inability to counter advocates of agribusiness, large private utilities, and multinational construction companies. Recently (2011), several barriers to OSAT deployment have been identified: * AT seen as inferior or "poor person's" technology * Technical transferability and robustness of AT * Insufficient funding * Weak institutional support * The challenges of distance and time in tackling rural poverty

Notes

References

* {{refend

External links

* Appropedia Technology by type Survival skills Sustainable technologies Appropriate technology Simple living