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The study aims to add to the body of knowledge of open source tangible product management (also called open design). The objective is also to develop a guideline for efficient open source tangible product development and adoption.

The exploratory research design using secondary data (like newspapers, magazines, research articles, bogs, papers, etc.) is used to analyze open source tangible product design challenges and enablers. The success stories of Open Source Software projects (OSS) were studied for identification of critical success factors and further their relevancy was tested in the two popular cases of open source drug discovery (malaria and tuberculosis)

Open innovation has become a part of competitive strategy of current businesses. It requires an efficient intellectual property protection regime for its implementation. However, in a market dominated by proprietary benefits, the open source technology development can serve as remedy for innovation needs of neglected sectors. The OSS literature revealed managing two classes of factors, namely technology sponsor level factors and environmental factors for efficiency and effectiveness. The case study analysis in the context of applicability of these OSS critical factors showed their limitations in open source tangible products, and highlighted understanding additional challenges and remedies.

Open source innovation is a collaborative effort involving inputs from various/diverse players, hence monitoring the effort and motivation level of the contributors is a cumbersome task. Only the information that is available online and in print media is taken as research inputs in this work. Also the data taken were from two case studies; a lot more case studies in the open design domain can progress the theory. The implications of this study are far-reaching in the areas where profit motivated proprietary efforts lack in addressing societal need. It provides guidelines for addressing those unmet needs by developing products in a collaborative way without intellectual property hurdles.

The essence of open design is becoming more vital, and there is a pressing need to build theory to support it, which still is elusive and dispersed. The study fills the gap using secondary data and case study approach.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transferability of the open source principles of product development from the realm of software to the realm of physical products.

Based on the inherent differences between software and physical products, a theoretical discussion of the challenges that face the implementation of open source principles in the physical world are provided. A multiple case study methodology is adopted to provide insights into the applicability of the open source concept in product development outside software.

Many of the challenges identified theoretically are actually encountered in practice. To cope with these challenges effectively, hardware design activities can be translated into software development tasks, using programmable hardware. When dealing with open source projects in the physical realm, it is useful to distinguish between projects driven by commercial firms and those driven by individuals, as each project type can impose different conditions on successful implementation.

Although much scholarly attention has been devoted to open source software, the issue of transferability of the identified principles to other industries has undergone little in‐depth research. This paper provides a solid foundation for further investigation of this topic based on theory and empirical case examples. It derives recommendations for industrial experts wishing to benefit from the open source model in new product development.

This paper aims to introduce the concept of open-source hardware to the library professionals and gives a brief of the outlook of its current and potential application in libraries

The paper is based on a literature review.

Open source already aids libraries and has great potential but is hobbled by its intrinsically technical appeal.

The paper makes first observation towards the concept of open-source hardware with a slant towards librarianship.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an action research project with two emergent micro-businesses that explored how their business model connected with the principles of open source.

The authors first gained initial qualitative data to establish the core values of each micro-business, which the authors then explored in the context of open source and business models in two design workshops with each organisation.

The authors developed the open source guild business model, which has the elements of: building a focal micro-business with resources secured through the guild, promoting learning and development through apprenticeship, promoting shared values through a commons of experience and capturing value by protecting key intellectual property.

This research was undertaken with two emergent micro-businesses in the North West of England. Further research will be needed to establish the wider applicability of the open source guild model.

The open source guild model can be a mechanism for an emergent micro-business to create a community around their values and grow their business without conventional external investment of resources.

This research contributes to the literature on business models based on open source and how these models can be sustainable in terms of the quadruple bottom line, which extends the triple bottom line to include personal values and meaning.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a case study of the development, features and evaluation of a rich internet application for libraries. It aims to demonstrate best practice in the use of software standards, development processes and evaluation.

Web 2.0, open source design methods and usability testing were used within an agile framework.

The adoption of agile software development methods, coupled with usability testing, would enable the library community to take full advantage of the techniques and principles inherent in Web 2.0 open source software.

A major component of the evaluation of OJAX was a series of usability tests. As is the nature of most usability studies, the results are not generalisable.

Aspects of agile software development methods, such as usability testing and iterative design, are recognised in the literature as contributing to the usability of library software. However, exploration of the use of a full agile framework plus usability testing to facilitate Web 2.0 open source software is rare in library‐related literature.

The purpose of this paper is to present novel modifications to a RepRap design that increase RepRap capabilities well beyond just fused filament fabrication. Open-source RepRap 3-D printers have made distributed manufacturing and prototyping an affordable reality.

The design is a significantly modified derivative of the Rostock delta-style RepRap 3-D printer. Modifications were made that permit easy and rapid repurposing of the platform for milling, paste extrusion and several other applications. All of the designs are open-source and freely available.

In addition to producing fused filament parts, the platform successfully produced milled printed circuit boards, milled plastic objects, objects made with paste extrudates, such as silicone, food stuffs and ceramics, pen plotted works and cut vinyl products. The multi-purpose tool saved 90-97 per cent of the capital costs of functionally equivalent dedicated tools.

While the platform was used primarily for production of hobby and consumer goods, research implications are significant, as the tool is so versatile and the fact that the designs are open-source and eminently available for modification for more purpose-specific applications.

The platform vastly broadens capabilities of a RepRap machine at an extraordinarily low price, expanding the potential for distributed manufacturing and prototyping of items that heretofore required large financial investments.

The unique combination of relatively simple modifications to an existing platform has produced a machine having capabilities far exceeding that of any single commercial product. The platform provides users the ability to work with a wide variety of materials and fabrication methods at a price of less than $1,000, provided users are willing to build the machine themselves.

The purpose of this paper is to present TalkBox, an affordable and open-source communication board for users with communication or speech disorders. Making and tinkering methods are combined with community engagement and participatory design to create a democratic and accessible approach to assistive technology design.

The authors employed a community-engaged participatory design methodology where we incorporated input from stakeholders into the design of the interface. Close collaboration with our community partner allowed us to make informed decisions on different aspects of the design from sourcing of the material to testing the prototype.

Through describing TalkBox, the paper presents a concrete example of how assistive technology can be designed and deployed more democratically, how collaborations between academia and community partners can be established, and how the design reflects different aspects of the methodology used.

This paper explores the question of how can open-source technology and making methods contribute to the development of more affordable and inclusive designs through a concrete example.

The purpose of this paper is to chronicle new user experience (UX) design approaches being pioneered in an international, multi‐institution, multi‐sector, cross‐project initiative called the Fluid Project, covering the strengths and shortcomings of these approaches and the lessons learned about design and development in distributed communities.

Open source and community source software development projects have not fulfilled their promise of innovation and natively optimized tools and applications in large part due to a lack of integrated UX design and development processes. Fluid has developed a UX approach that aims to address the need to accommodate the huge diversity of users and contexts in academic communities as well as the critical need to improve the user experience.

It has been found that the Fluid approach challenges common or traditional notions integral to teaching in higher education, software design, user interaction design methods, usability research and accessibility strategies. It proposes greater individual control over the UX than most users may be ready to assume despite obvious benefits. An unexpected UX challenge is creating tools and applications that prompt and support users in configuring their systems to their personal needs and contexts.

Fluid has designed and prototyped new UX design methods, pedagogical practices, and usability and accessibility approaches to suit the context of distributed academic communities and open source development, while at the same time producing a UX system of benefit to the mashup or integration of any set of disparate tools.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of awareness and use of open source integrated library system (ILS) by the library and information science (LIS) professionals in India. Further, it examines whether qualification, experience of using open source ILS and participation in open source community/mailing list by the LIS professionals affect their level of awareness and use of different open source ILSs.

An online survey was conducted to assess the level of awareness and use of open source ILS by LIS professionals of India. In total, 408 responses were collected from LIS professionals in India, and the collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Chi-Square.

The findings of the study reveal that the level of awareness and use of open source ILS, namely, Koha (Mean = 2.69, SD = 0.944) and NewGenLib (Mean = 2.19, SD = 0.703) are high among the LIS professionals in India. Koha is the most favoured open source ILS. The results reveal that educational background, experience of using open source software (OSS) and participation in open source community/mailing list affect their level of awareness and use of open source ILS.

The paper will help decision makers to adopt and use popular open source ILS in their libraries.

This paper is the first of its kind that explores the level of awareness and use of open source ILS by LIS professionals in India in a broad manner.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of online leadership in open collaborative innovation success by extending functional leadership theory in the context of open source projects.

This study uses negative binomial regression models to empirically test the proposed hypotheses with samples of blockchain open source projects on GitHub.

The results indicate that task-oriented leadership behaviors in forms of technical contributions have little influence on open collaborative innovation success; relation-oriented leadership behaviors embedded in internal social capital and external social capital contribute to open collaborative innovation success prominently. Furthermore, the joint effects of technical contributions, internal social capital and community commitment with openness orientation are positively significant on open collaborative innovation success, respectively.

For leaders and participants of open collaborative innovation projects, they should attach importance to both leadership behaviors and the joint effects with openness orientation so as to make informed decisions.

This study offers a new fine-grained framework of open collaborative innovation success by investigating specific dimensions of task-oriented and relation-orientated leadership behaviors, as well as their joint effects with openness orientation.