Challenges of Open Source Consumer Products

In the last few years Open Source has grown from an untested ideal into a thriving community. Every year more Open Source products are announced, and existing products reach a larger and larger audience. As our community has developed we are encountering new challenges created by our own growth and success.

One of these challenges comes from people who break the Unwritten Rules of Open Source. From exact clones through deceptively named derivatives, some bad actors just want to mine value from the community, rather than contribute.

About Bre Pettis

Bre Pettis is CEO of MakerBot industries which is setting the standard in desktop 3D printing. He’s also a cofounder of Thingiverse and can be blamed for the Brooklyn hackerspace NYCResistor. In the past he’s also been a puppeteer, schoolteacher, and videographer.