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CERN Launches Open Hardware Initiative

Posted by Soulskill on from the leadership-by-example dept.

sfcrazy writes "CERN has launched version 1.1 of the Open Hardware License (OHL), a legal framework to facilitate knowledge exchange across the electronic design community. The alpha version was launched four months ago. In the spirit of knowledge and technology dissemination, the CERN OHL was created to govern the use, copying, modification and distribution of hardware design documentation, and the manufacture and distribution of products."

29 comments

  1. DIY LHC by meza · · Score: 1

    Finally I can build that large hydron collider I always wanted.

    1. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just say hardon and get it over with. It's spelt hadron! It's derived from the Greek word, hadros, meaning large. Lepton, its counterpart, comes from the Greek for light, leptos.

    2. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Super collider

    3. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You insensitive clod.
      It is spelled Hidron, not hydron.

    4. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You insensitive clod.
      It is spelled spelled, not spelt.

    5. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spelt on the other hand is spelled spelt, not spelled.

    6. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spelt is correct in (almost?) every dialect of English, except USA English (much like "learnt"). I only point this out from curiosity; most English-speakers that I've met pronounce the word as though it was spelt "spelt". Do you pronounce it with a "t" or a "d" at the end?

    7. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A new cable reality show "PIMP my LHC!"

    8. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you know the history of a collider you can actually build one at home, very small using vacuum tube tech.

    9. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now you got me all confused.

      Is spelt spelt spelt or spelled?
      I usually spell spell spell...

    10. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spelt is usually used by the British and those who learn British English. Americans use "spelled". Unfortunately, if we're questioning the quality of a nation's English, England/Britain wins every time.

    11. Re:DIY LHC by IrquiM · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately? I'd say it's a good thing!

      --
      This is blinging
    12. Re:DIY LHC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Leptos in Greek means "thin", not light. :-)

  2. This is KyÅma HÅÅin... by stonedcat · · Score: 1

    The organization is making its move.

    --
    You can't take the sky from me.
    1. Re:This is KyÅma HÅÅin... by zill · · Score: 1

      El Psy Congroo

  3. I want hardware, not a license by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd be more interested in an initiative to produce open hardware than I am in an initiative to produce an open hardware license.

    1. Re:I want hardware, not a license by Microlith · · Score: 1

      First comes the license, then comes the hardware.

    2. Re:I want hardware, not a license by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then the high quality devices in the baby carriage...

    3. Re:I want hardware, not a license by xanojsp · · Score: 3, Informative

      CERN and others have already designed Open Hardware in the OHR. See for example the SPEC board http://www.ohwr.org/projects/spec/wiki the 100 Ms/s ADC mezzanine http://www.ohwr.org/projects/fmc-adc-100m14b4cha/wiki and the Rhino http://www.ohwr.org/projects/rhino-hardware-01/wiki. All of these, and others, you can buy from a number of vendors, and more are in the pipeline. Have a look at the OHR projects page: http://www.ohwr.org/projects

  4. Will the lawyers starve? by apol · · Score: 1

    Clearly people at CERN have no compassion for the lawyers.

    1. Re:Will the lawyers starve? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most lawyers, being closely related to cockroaches will find a way to survive.

    2. Re:Will the lawyers starve? by JonySuede · · Score: 1

      does this mean that if there is a nuclear Holocaust we will be left with scorpion, arachnid, cockroach and lawyer

      --
      Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
  5. Open Medical Initiative?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hopefully we see a open medical initiative to facilitate the knowledge of medicine across the healthcare community.

    1. Re:Open Medical Initiative?? by brim4brim · · Score: 1

      No ironically medicine is the one area where they don't care about people. They think of them similar to how public transport workers think of their passengers, they don't :P Too much money in medicine and you know those chemicals be dangerous so we can't be trusted with them to apparently.

    2. Re:Open Medical Initiative?? by mspohr · · Score: 1

      Most medical journals lock up medical information and require subscription or individual access. It would be really useful to have open access to all of the medical literature. (There are some open access medical journals but certainly not the majority.)

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    3. Re:Open Medical Initiative?? by xanojsp · · Score: 2

      I am not an expert, but I think the big difference with Physics is that there is a lot of money involved (patents for new drugs, etc). In Physics, CERN and others had the vision of Open Access http://library.web.cern.ch/library/OpenAccess/ for scientific publications, a mode in which the editing expenses are paid by the authors so that readers can access freely. This was possible because the big publishers were not really given an option: if they said no, physicists would publish on already-existing free places like arxiv.org which give comparable (if not better) visibility. Since there are rarely any immediate money-making applications for Physics papers, an atmosphere of openness could develop and once Physicists got used to it there is no way back.

  6. Particle accelerators for the masses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's great news! Now I can finally build that particle accelerator under our house. Who would have thought the day would come...

  7. OHW vs OSHW by BillX · · Score: 1

    How does this license compare to the recent (similarly-named) OSHW license? Do these groups know about each other?

    --
    Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
    1. Re:OHW vs OSHW by xanojsp · · Score: 1

      OSHW hosts a definition, not a license. It tells you "if you want to call your license Open Hardware by our definition it needs to fulfill these points". CERN OHL is a license that complies with these conditions.