The University of São Paulo's intent to join Openmoko development
Dave Ball
openmoko at underhand.org
Sat Jul 18 02:16:31 CEST 2009
Hi Maddog,
>> it certainly sounds like an amazing opportunity, almost too good to be true - what's the catch! :-)
>>
> I hope that you will find there is no "catch". If you do think there is
> a "catch", please tell me.
>
Thanks again for bringing this to us, and the detailed responses. I
think this is a very positive opportunity, and I hope we are on track to
the university being in a position to help out with our little projects.
I think Werner is trying to catch up with Dr Zuffo - which in my mind
would be a very good thing to happen as Werner is definitely the point
man for the gta02-core effort.
> I certainly see the university as "sponsors" of the project, in the fact
> that it does cost money to run such an SMT line, to do some of the legal
> work, etc. I would like to find a way to help compensate them for this
> work, to make the project truly self-sustaining. Dr. Zuffo and I have
> discussed government grants and other funding ideas. Please see below.
>
<snip>
> In order to fund the Openmoko project, I would like to suggest that
> *all* the things that Openmoko made "open" *up to this time*:
>
> o circuit design
> o case design
> o circuit board layout
> o testing issues.
> o plans for future, etc.
>
> be completely open and published as before.
>
> But (for example) the "gerbers" be licensed with a small royalty (1-2
> dollars per phone, with a cap of 500,000 to 1,000,000 USD) only if the
> party will make *over* 5,000-10,000 phones
There are obviously some significant costs associated with developing
hardware that while HW development took place inside openmoko, were met
by Sean etal. You rightly point out that if we're to be successful
we'll need to find ways to meet those costs.
I'd very much like to hear others thoughts on the matter, but from my
point of view (and this may be wishful thinking), if there are
opportunities to fund this work through grants or corporate donations, I
think this would be preferable to licensing the end results (i.e. the
gerbers) for production.
In my mind, licensing the gerbers for production introduces restrictions
on the uses that a recipient may put those designs too - including their
ability to modify & redistribute those files. My preference would be to
encourage that redistribution, through Share-Alike / GPL style licensing
of all assets. If a manufacturer wants to adopt the design to a new
case, add extra buttons, changes components or invests additional
resources in increasing production yields, the rational for sharing that
investment with other licenses is less concrete.
Some potential sources for funding might be:
- phone fabs that would otherwise need to spend significantly more
money either developing their own designs or buying someone else's design
- government grants to seed phone production industries, or promote
telephony freedom
- universities or other research organisations that can use our devices
as a platform for learning or their own development.
If gerber licensing is believed to be the only realistic way to generate
the investment needed for prototype runs etc., I think there would be
benefit in any such ownership and licensing being conducted through a
legal vehicle independent of any one individual or organisation (I don't
know if LSITEC fits this description or not). Doing so would encourage
the involvement of multiple organisations, universities or individuals,
and would allow the team to select the most economic or timely method
for purchasing or prototype production - through one of our partners or
external commercial parties if they're able to deliver more effectively.
I don't want my comments to be taken negatively, I think LSI-USP has
fantastic potential for helping these projects, ensuring the longterm
viability of our dream and filling in some of the gaps that are apparent
in our efforts to-date. I think you're spot on that universities could
be excellent partners with many shared objectives in what we're trying
to achieve.
Can we do this without resorting to paid licensing of any of our assets?
I see a scenario where we, with USP, are in a position to generate
designs that they could take into small scale production (similar to
OM), selling those handsets to the community at small scale profits,
using the process for the benefit of their students and generating a
platform for them to grow in the future - while maintaining the SA style
licensing. If it's achievable, this seems the ideal outcome to me.
</$0.02>
All the best,
Dave
More information about the community
mailing list