I see two big parts to the “why is there no open engineering ecosystem?” problem: sales and manufacturing.

The first (which is what I'm calling “Hackronym”) is a big web programming problem; make an online platform that can host and help people build online stores for open content engineering, and secondarily - once it has some clout - to throw its weight into providing easy access to open source software tools for engineers/architects (like OpenCAD).

This is the part I'm making. My background is primarily as a programmer (of various stripes). I know I can make this in both the software sense and the web startup sense (see the end of this email for more discussion on that front). Of course, once the startup launches, it needs a way to manufacture the things the customers want to sell. Which brings me to…

The second part - manufacturing - refers to the supply-chain problem; find ways to manufacture (or get others to manufacture) large amounts of extremely small-scale custom things for supercheap, and secondarily to provide easy access to open source hardware for homebrew hackers to build their own fabrication facilities.

They feed off each other. Having cheap manufacturing or personal fabrication capabilities are vital to the success of the online stores. Having online stores selling custom manufactured products makes a powerful incentive for people to make cheaper ways to custom manufacture or personally fabricate stuff.

In other words, I want to make a *bigger* market for the things Smari and Marcin are doing, and create an easier way for Vinay to get his products *to* market (or deployment).

The components:

• A “virtual garage” for each user who signs up, giving them disk space and software tools (CAD, simulation, etc) to create and host the files they need to create their inventions.
• Instructions and resources for building a low-cost personal fabrication facility, renting space and time at a nearby neighborhood shop, or starting/finding a “maker's coop” in the area so that users can have a physical garage as well.
• A “virtual workbench” for each project users create, giving them a space around which to gather and collaborate along with space to store project-related files.
• Instructions and resources for building a low-cost maker's collaboration space/coop or finding an existing space to work on physical projects in.
• A manufacturing & prototyping service through which people without access (or time) to fabrication facilities despite all of the above can get their inventions professionally fabricated and drop-shipped to their workshops… or to their customers.
• A storefront through which inventors can sell their own open-licensed inventions. Orders placed here would be manufactured through the previously mentioned drop-shipping service and delivered straight to customers - the inventor sets the price of their items, pays Hackronym the production cost for each item fabricated, and keeps the rest as profit.

By providing free tools for creating and selling open-licence engineering projects, we allow people to spend their time tinkering for good… and profit. Let's go through the components in more detail.

The Premise: Everyone should have access to space and tools with which to hack. People should be able to make for next to nothing.

As much as possible, use tools that automatically generate artifacts (read: software that creates digital files that can be shared, or things that record physical actions - such as webcams - and turn them into digital files that can be shared). Such tools don't cost money (read: open-source) and can be easily replicated and used. Every user that enrolls should have access to his or her own “virtual garage” which provides tools for creation, and every project that starts should have access to a “virtual workbench” which provides a space for development and collaboration.

Garages belong to individual people and provide scratchspace for ideas that haven't become full projects yet, as well as easy access to a suite of mature, cross-platform open-source online tools for designing. In contrast, workbenches belong to individual projects (which may have more than one collaborator) and provide easy access to tools for collaboration as well as collaborative design around that particular project. It's up to the people what projects they make.

User manuals, volunteer-run distance courses, self-guided classes, etc. for these tools will also be available. Note that we're not going to make all these tools, but provide an easy way for people and their projects to centrally access existing ones without the need for technical knowledge. (For instance, Sourceforge didn't invent CVS, but it automatically provides a CVS repository for every project it hosts without making the developers download, install, configure, etc. CVS themselves; similarly, Hackronym hosts - for free - the services that can be hosted, and provides clear directions for how to install software on user machines for the things that can't be hosted.)

Design:

• Numerical simulation (octave)
• Measurement & control
• CAD (architectural and engineering)
• Finite element analysis
• Circuit simulation
• PCB layout (eagle)
• IDEs (eclipse, scite, and so forth)
• virtual machines (qemu, etc)
• etc.

Collaboration:

• Project management / task tracking (activecollab, perhaps eventually Vinay's ultratask idea)
• Versioning / source control / filesharing
• Mailing lists
• Chat/irc
• Blogs
• etc

Collaborative design:

• Any of the software from the first list made multi-user - through the addition of a shared space, chatroom, etc. or otherwise.
• gobby or abiword - collaborative document-writing
• Thinkature (not open-source yet, but we can talk to the developers) - collaborative brainstorming, mindmapping
• Paint - multiuser whiteboard/drawing software (adapted from OLPC?)
• Wikis with various templates for different needs - documentation, manuals, webpage prototyping, etc.
• etc

Distributed engineering design work is becoming more and more common across the corporate world as international cooperation with rapid turnaround becomes the norm. As a result, the ubiquity, cost, and ease-of-use issues surrounding collaboration tools are falling like flies. Tools considered magical a few years ago are commonplace in the developed (and, increasingly, the developing) world, and more will follow - cell phones, voIP, videoconferencing, wikis, blogs, collaborative editors, mailing lists… no need to train people on how to use the individual tools, it's just a matter of showing them how to use them effectively together.

And we can do that. We have a growing body of best-practices research and case studies of how to work well on long-distance, ad-hoc collaborations for creating physical products. It's a way of thinking that's easier for people to learn and grasp now now than it's ever been before.

Ultimately, hackronym wants to fabricate as few of its users' projects as possible. We're just filling the fabrication gap for people who can't or don't want to make their own.

Sometimes you need to go beyond your computer screen. Hackronym provides easy to follow instructions on how to construct (or purchase) different varieties of compact, cheap workshops to fit any budget, space limitations, and lifestyle. Got room for a laser cutter and CNC mill? We've got a guide on how to set yourselves up on one. Only have a budget for hand tools? Just need a space for electronics fabrication? We have walkthroughs for those too.

If that won't work - if you're sharing a dorm room with three other people and don't have a spare drawer for a handsaw - Hackronym also provides a directory of workshops and fabricators in your area where you can rent or barter for fabrication tools and space (or if you're really pressed for time, hire a local student to do the machining for you). If there aren't any workshops in your area, Hackronym also provides a guide for how to start one (walking you through everything from obtaining space to purchasing tools to organizing a coop to care for them).

Once you've got physical tools, you need materials to tinker with. Hackronym has a handy directory of online and local suppliers for good, cheap materials to tinker with - everything from McMaster for steel tubing to the mom & pop hardware shop down the street for 2x4s. It cultivates relationships with those suppliers so that Hackronym projects and customers get discounts (by batching Hackronym orders together to make larger shipments), and a portion of the proceeds goes to sponsor Hackronym project scholarships and competitions for schoolchildren.

With enough interest in one local area, Hackronym can set up a craigslist/freecycle-like posting exchange (or alternatively, partner with the Craigslist/Freecycle for that area) where people can post materials they need to get or want to get rid of - a cheap source of supplies for initial tinkerings and proof-of-concept prototypes.

Seriously, think cafepress for more than t-shirts. Instead of handing Hackronym a t-shirt design, you hand us your CAD files and instructions for manufacturing. If we* can make it, we'll tell you how much (for what quantities) it will cost you to have it manufactured and shipped, and you can add the resulting product to your store and set a price for it. When a customer orders something through your store, the order gets routed to Hackronym, which manufactures and ships it directly to your customer. The manufacturing cost is automatically debited from the amount the customer pays and sent to Hackronym, and the remainder goes directly to the storekeeper.

*”we can make it” is actually a misnomer; there won't be a big Hackronym Mass Production Facility. Actually, what happens is that Hackronym subcontracts to local machine shops, engineering/vocational schools, and maker coops - the idea is to fabricate as locally as possible to avoid shipping things halfway around the world all the time. The subcontracting process is entirely transparent, so storekeepers can either choose to treat it as a cafepress-like black box, or peel back the lid and deal with their manufacturers directly… even without Hackronym as a middleman if they so choose.