Company-Community Collaboration for Open Source Development of products and services

Open source software (OSS) gave rise to a billion-euro economy by releasing software design from proprietary use and opening the way to feedback by the public at large. Its extension to open source hardware (OSH) and the creation of physical objects has not been as widespread among the non-institutional segments of society. OPEN_NEXT focuses on encouraging and supporting SMEs to unleash OSH’s potential through company-community collaborations (C3). It will use case studies to prove C3 feasibility, provide SMEs with needed infrastructure and business support to integrate the designs into marketable products, and, most important, it will invite and rely on the participation of consumers and citizens in a project that will lead to new user-friendly products.