Open Design Magazine

Open Design Magazine (working title) is the world’s first community-created magazine about Open Design and Open Source Hardware. The magazine informs and inspires both insiders and a broader audience with case studies, interviews and background information about initiatives and practical results of what is currently being accomplished in Open Design.

Content of the magazine is published under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International license, as far as possible.

Open Design Magazine is digitally provided for free (gratis), the physical version can be ordered to print locally for a fee (TBD).

Why Open Design Magazine?

The Internet makes global sharing of knowledge and information possible at the speed of light. The development of cheap computer-controlled fabrication machines and design software puts R&D in the hands of many and makes local fabrication possible.

We believe that the combination of these two is very powerful, especially when collaboration and sharing are built in by design, using the principles of Open Source. For physical things we use the designations “Open Design” and “Open Source Hardware” in this context.

We see a growing grass-roots movement of pioneering communities using these tools and principles, actively working to solve real-world problems. We believe that there is a real opportunity here, with local communities becoming more resilient and more independent, providing in their own needs.

With Open Design Magazine we want to support this movement, by showing real-world results, letting people tell their stories, cross-polluting the in-crowd and inspiring a broader audience by showing a viable alternative.

Creation process

The magazine is created in 5 phases:

Phase 1. Determine Feasability (stealth mode)

The goal of this phase is to determine:

• If 6 authors can be found, willing to commit to writing an article about their (or a) comtemporary Open Design project
• If a magazine can be created with very limited resources (time and money), using a collaborative process and Open Source tools

Intermediate results:

• 3 authors have indicated their willingness to contribute an article:
  • Christian Villum, about the REMODEL program of Danish Design Center
  • Jérémy Bonvoisin, about the OPEN! Research Project
  • Vincent Muller, about the Pioneer’s House of WikiHouseNL
• Creative Commons and Open Knowledge Foundation have shown interest in the initiative
• A GitHub repository with GitBook Desktop and GitBook Web has been successfully set up, promising a way for asynchronous co-located collaborative writing, reviewing and version management
• Scribus has been found as the Open Source tool for Desktop Publishing

To do:

• Do a broad call for articles to find 3 additional authors
• Ask authors to ideate on name of magazine

In this phase the project is in ‘stealth mode’, not giving broad attention to the initiative.

For information about contributing an article (outline) see the wiki.

Time frame: February/March 2018

Phase 2. Get Traction

The goal of this phase is to determine if a large enough audience is actually interested in reading a magazine on Open Design, before actually creating the complete magazine.

To do:

• Create a landing page where people interested can leave their e-mail address. The page contains:
  • The (draft) cover of the magazine
  • Outlines of the 6 articles, with image, author profile, profile image and organization logo
  • E-mail submit form to receive the magazine for free when it is finished and receive occasional project updates
  • Logos of organizations supporting the initiative (if any and permitted)
  • Call for contributors (authors for future editions, editors, online marketeers, designers, …)
  • Time line for finishing the magazine
  • Donation option to donate to the project
• Write a press release kind of article, summarizing the initiative and process
• Reach out to ‘warm’ contacts in the OD/OSHW society to publish via platforms and Social Media, like:
  • P2PFoundation, Shareable, OSHWA, CC, OKDN, FKI, Wevolver, DDC, WikiHouse
• Decide on go/no-go, depending on a minimum number of sign-ups of 1000 (TBD)

Time frame: April/May/June 2018

Phase 3. Write and Create the Magazine

If phase 2 results in a ‘go’, then the goal of this phase is to create the actual magazine.

To do:

• Reach out to (sign up-) community to vote on the name of the magazine
• Write draft articles
• Review articles
• Finalize article copy (text and images)
• Design and lay-out draft magazine
• Review magazine
• Finalize magazine

Time frame: August/September/October 2018

Phase 4. Publish and Reach Out

The goal of this phase is to distribute and make available the magazine to the largest audience possible.

To do:

• Change the landing page into a website for getting the magazine, free with e-mail signup and (locally) printed for a price (TBD)
• Create a press release and communication toolkit with pre-cooked messages for various media
• Create a list of all channels
• Reach out to all channels, send the toolkit and link to the website
• Send 2 physical copies to each author and contributor for free

Time frame: November/December 2018, January 2019

Phase 5. Outlook for permanent establishment

The goal of this phase is to determine if the first edition has enough traction to create a permanent establishment, either as a new entity or under an existing entity/organization.

To do:

• Evaluate process and results with authors and contributors, using an online evaluation form
• Write lessons learned
• Finalize documentation about the collaborative process
• Reach out to potential organizations and brainstorm with Open Design Magazine community

You contribute?

Besided the contribution of the authors, the Open Design Magazine initiative is completely run and coordinated by Diderik van Wingerden at this moment, with Christian Villum as advisor.

Any help from you will be greatly appreciated. Also, with more people contributing, the time frame of creating and publishing the magazine may be shortened.

Help is welcomed in:

• Finding (or being an) article author(s)
• Reviewing
• Co-editing
• Community outreach and online communication/marketing
• Finding partnerships and funding
• Designing the magazine

Contact

You can contact Diderik, the coordinator of Open Design Magazine, via:

• Diderik’s website
• Twitter
• +31(0)621639148, Telegram, Signal, SMS, Whatsapp