3 ms·

I think it's fairer than you state. The end results is that both cases give you a usable prosthetic, one at 50$, another at 42000$. Both required engineering,

I think it's fairer than you state. The end results is that both cases give you a usable prosthetic, one at 50$, another at 42000$. Both required engineering, fitting, assembly, but one was done using volunteers time and a new technique, while the other was built part of a lucrative activity using a different technique. They will serve the same purpose to the end-user, and the end-user will either pay 42k$ or 50$.

Retric 13y ago
volunteers time does not scale.
- efuquen 13y ago
  Really? So the Linux Kernel, Postgres, etc. haven't been able to scale? The only barrier that has been preventing an Open Source, volunteer run, approach from working in the physical world vs the software world has been the higher cost of entry due to materials and the machines you need to manipulate those materials. It's been pretty clear that those costs are coming down, both with 3d printing and electronics (raspberry pi, arduino, etc.) Volunteer time is just a function of how many committed people you can get together, software has proven it's most definitely possible to do this on a massive scale.
  - TylerE 13y ago
    The bulk of work done on the linux kernel is done by people paid to work on the linux kernel.
    - efuquen 13y ago
      And companies that want to take advantage of freely available volunteer run hardware/physical projects wouldn't want to commit their own resources to improve them for their needs? I don't see anything about this model that wouldn't directly translate into these sorts of projects. Why exactly couldn't physically based open source projects have both paid and non-paid volunteers, just like software projects do?
    - Xenmen 13y ago
      Yes. Today. This was not always the case. Consider this; at what point was the first person hired to work on the kernel? At what point were there a majority of patches submitted by paid workers? ^And then consider that up until that point, it was all unpaid. Just... think for a while, just think please.
    - pygy_ 13y ago
      This is true today, but it has not always been the case, and the FOSS ecosystem goes far beyond Linux. Publicly funded research may also contribute to open source, 3d printed prosthetics.
  - Retric 13y ago
    None of those are all volunteer organizations. There are plenty of old mostly volunteer organizations and a few large but short term ones. But, without a core of paid workers organizations don't last.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

Retric 13y ago

volunteers time does not scale.

efuquen 13y ago
Really? So the Linux Kernel, Postgres, etc. haven't been able to scale? The only barrier that has been preventing an Open Source, volunteer run, approach from working in the physical world vs the software world has been the higher cost of entry due to materials and the machines you need to manipulate those materials. It's been pretty clear that those costs are coming down, both with 3d printing and electronics (raspberry pi, arduino, etc.) Volunteer time is just a function of how many committed people you can get together, software has proven it's most definitely possible to do this on a massive scale.
- TylerE 13y ago
  The bulk of work done on the linux kernel is done by people paid to work on the linux kernel.
  - efuquen 13y ago
    And companies that want to take advantage of freely available volunteer run hardware/physical projects wouldn't want to commit their own resources to improve them for their needs? I don't see anything about this model that wouldn't directly translate into these sorts of projects. Why exactly couldn't physically based open source projects have both paid and non-paid volunteers, just like software projects do?
  - Xenmen 13y ago
    Yes. Today. This was not always the case. Consider this; at what point was the first person hired to work on the kernel? At what point were there a majority of patches submitted by paid workers? ^And then consider that up until that point, it was all unpaid. Just... think for a while, just think please.
  - pygy_ 13y ago
    This is true today, but it has not always been the case, and the FOSS ecosystem goes far beyond Linux. Publicly funded research may also contribute to open source, 3d printed prosthetics.
- Retric 13y ago
  None of those are all volunteer organizations. There are plenty of old mostly volunteer organizations and a few large but short term ones. But, without a core of paid workers organizations don't last.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]