Open Hardware Summit 2012

* * * Please Redistribute * * *

The Open Hardware Summit (OHS) invites submissions for the third annual summit, to be held on September 27, 2012 at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in New York City. The Open Hardware Summit is a venue to present, discuss, and learn about open hardware of all kinds. The summit examines open hardware and its relation to other issues, such as software, design, business, law, and education. We are seeking submissions for talks, posters, and demos from individuals and groups working with open hardware and related areas. Submissions are due by May 31, 2012 BY 11:59pm (EST). Notification of accepted proposals will happen by July 8th, 2012.

Submission topics
Topics of interest for the summit include, but are not limited to:

• Digital fabrication
• DIY bio
• Soft circuits
• Wearables and fashion tech
• Quantified-self hardware
• Means of supporting collaboration and community interaction
• On demand and low volume manufacturing
• Distributed development and its relationship to physical goods
• Software design tools (CAD / CAM)
• DIY technology
• Ways to share information about hardware that’s not captured in source files
• Business models
• Competition and collaboration
• Sustainability of open hardware products (e.g. how to unmake things)
• Industrial design
• Open hardware in the enterprise
• Specific product domains: e.g. science, agriculture, communications, medicine
• Legal and intellectual property implications of open-source hardware
• Open hardware in education
• Addressing the gender imbalance in the open hardware community
• And any other topic you think relates to openness and hardware. We want to hear all about it!

Types of submissions
To increase the chances that we can include your work in the Summit, feel free to submit a proposal in one or more of the following formats. Keep in mind if you submit for only one category and are not accepted, there will be no resubmissions to different categories because the acceptance notification is after the submission deadline passes.

Talk

• Expected duration for talks is between 5 and 20 minutes, depending on the number and quality of submissions.
• All talks to be plenary (i.e. presented to the entire summit audience).
• Talk submissions primarily containing marketing for a product, non-profit, or company, will not be accepted. However, talks that share knowledge and insight derived from work on commercial products or organizations are welcome.

Poster

• This is a casual show and tell session that will take place at the end of the day together with the demo session.
• Poster submissions could be about an organization, an initiative, a project, a platform, a process, a research project, a work-in-progress. For example, if your project is now beyond the “demo” phase and has scaled up, a good way to share your results is the poster session. Also, if your product is too big or complicated to be physically brought to NYC, you should submit it as a poster and not a demo (see one example here).
• A poster session is also a great way to receive focused feedback from the community, as opposed to a talk.
• You are encouraged to include pictures and links to videos as part of your poster submissions.
• Each poster will be given a vertical mounting surface. It will be your responsibility to print/carry/mount/unmount your poster. We cannot provide any support for the receiving or storing of posters before the event.
• If you have a physical product to show, use the demo track.
• Poster submissions primarily containing marketing for a product, non-profit, or company, will not be accepted. However, posters that share knowledge and insight derived from work on commercial products or organizations are welcome.

Project Demo

• This is a casual show and tell session that will take place during the end of the day.
• You are encouraged to include pictures and links to videos as part of your demo submissions.
• Each demo will be given table space and one outlet. Please bring your own power strip if you need to plug in more than one device. Keep in mind this is an informal project demo, and complex requirements/constraints (light/sound conditions, etc.) will be difficult to accommodate.
• All demos will be required to also produce written documentation for reference and archival purposes and to communicate the intention of the demo to Summit attendees.
• It will be your responsibility to carry/assemble/set up/disassemble your demo. We are unable to receive shipments or provide storage for demos. There will be time the day before the event for you to set up, or from 8-8:45am the day of the event.
• Note: If submitting a project demo, your project MUST be working by the time of the summit.

Submission format
Submissions should be formatted as plain text of no more than 1,000 words in length and include ALL of the following:

• The type of submission (talk, poster, or demo)
• Name/title for submission
• The name, bio, and email address of the author(s). If more than one author, designate one as the contact person.
• What you intend to talk about, the topic for your poster, or a description of your demo
• An explanation of the importance of your submission to the open-hardware community
• A maximum of TWO photos that help explain your topic of submission (optional)

Keep in mind that we’ll be deciding what to accept based primarily on the submissions themselves. Be sure to give us enough information to make a good decision. Don’t assume we know you or your project. Documentation of accepted submissions WILL BE PUBLISHED on the OHS website.

Submissions should be emailed to the respective chair with the subject line “Open Hardware Summit submission” followed by the type of submission in parentheses (e.g. “Open Hardware Summit submission (poster)”). Please place the submission text in the body of the email, not a separate attachment.

Talks: Review Chair, David Mellis, at summit-talks [AT] oshwa.org
Posters: Poster Chair, Paulo Blikstein, at summit-posters [AT] oshwa.org
Demo: Demo Chair, Charles Pax, at summit-demos [AT] oshwa.org

Funding
Unfortunately we can’t guarantee travel or accommodation funding for speakers, poster presenters, or demo presenters. Accepted speakers will be exempt from the event registration fee. Poster and demo presenters will still be required to pay the event registration fee.

For more information
For more details about the Open Hardware Summit, see the website at summit.oshwa.org, especially the FAQs section.

Please direct questions about submissions to the respective chair. Please direct other questions about the summit to General Chairs Catarina Mota and Dustyn Roberts at summit [AT] oshwa.org

We’re happy to announce that the Open Hardware Summit 2012 will be held on September 27 at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center.

Thank you Eyebeam for partnering with us for this event!

Thank you Sparkfun for being this year’s first generous sponsor and getting us started!

Thank you NYC Resistor for being our fiscal sponsor!

Stay tuned for the call for submissions and more details about the 2012 summit.

In an effort to better understand who we are as a community, as well as why and how we use/make open-source hardware, a few of us* created a survey. Please participate so that we can promote open-source hardware and serve you to the best of our abilities!

The survey will be up until April 15, and the aggregate results will be made publicly available in the form of a report consisting of graphics, percentages, and anonymized quotes. By publishing your (anonymous) responses, we hope to provide the public with insights into the practices and experiences of the people involved in open-source hardware.

Take the survey!

*Catarina Mota, David Mellis and John De Cristofaro