Hardware and Connectivity: Sustainability and sovereignty over technological infrastructure

"... the purpose of science and technology is to develop useful information for humanity to help people live their lives better. If we promise to withhold that information - if we keep it secret - then we are betraying the mission of our field. And this, I decided, I shouldn’t do." - Richard Stallman

Introduction
The terms “free” and “open source” are equivalent words originally applied to software projects. Open-source software has become an important part of the software development process, where the software is distributed and licensed in a way that allows users to modify, improve, compile and further distribute its source code. A similar open-source culture movement, inspired by many of the same concerns, has taken shape among people involved in electronic hardware design efforts on a collaborative basis: the idea of Open Source Hardware (OSH).

Nowadays, it is being imperative to create and promote a sustainable society based on open source technologies. Since all fields and all industries tend to open source development (agriculture, construction, electronics, infrastructure biotechnology, among others), it is necessary to facilitate more effective, collaborative and communitary efforts, to create sustainable economic opportunities in the country.

Technological sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to persist. Moving towards sustainability is a social challenge that involves international and national policies, as well as the change of individual lifestyles. The development of technology, hand in hand with the adjustment of individual lifestyles, for instance recycling or energy saving, would increase the conservation of natural resources, thus achieving a technological sustainability.

Today’s technological advancements need more and more of rare earth elements (REEs). While more abundant than many other minerals, they are not concentrated enough to be, economically, easy to exploit. The United States was a self-reliant in domestically produced REEs. However, in the last 15 years it has become 100% dependent on imports, primarily from China, due to lower cost operations. Among the different applications of REEs we have:


 * Mobile devices: the key to mobility is reducing the size and weight of mobile devices while maintaining the highest level of functionality and computing performance. Advanced technology designers, engineers, and manufacturers could not achieve these goals without the use of rare elements.


 * Energy technologies: REEs play a key role in the expected growth of many emerging energy technologies. The next generation of wind and hydro power turbines, batteries, motors to power electric vehicles, motors for electric power steering, magnetic refrigeration, energy-efficient appliance motors and fuel cells are examples of applications that are expected to contribute significantly to the quest for energy independence.


 * Military officials: have stressed how rare earth elements form a currently irreplaceable part of devices such as lasers, radar, missile-guidance systems, satellites and aircraft electronics. Many military systems also rely upon commercial computer hard drives that use rare earth magnets.


 * Health and medical applications: including drug treatments, diagnostic techniques and equipment. They act as catalysts in biomedical and chemical research, being used in the trace of agents during imaging, and in laser and radioisotopic treatment for cancer.

World Resources
By 2010, world demand for REEs was estimated at 136,100 tons with global production around 133,600 tons annually. Nevertheless, by 2015 global demand for REEs may reach 210,000 tons per year. In the short term, Australia is expected to become operational to help the raw materials gap, and other new mining projects could easily take 10 years in order to reach production. Scientists had previously known that rare earth elements are also found in some kinds of deep-sea mud. High concentrations of them are in the eastern South Pacific, west of Peru and Ecuador, and the central North Pacific, near Hawaii.

While the raw materials exist in the ground in amounts that could meet many decades of increased demand, the challenge comes in scaling up supply at a rate that matches expected increases in demand. As is not possible to obtain an accurate figure for global rare earth resources, achieving echnological sustainability is a challenge where industries must ensure world’s needs for energy, transport, water, healthcare, among others, being aware of the limits of the environment. In order to create a technological model for sustainable development, an appropriate technology, supported by the “open source” definition should be implemented, with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political, and economical aspects of the community it is intended for.

''“The bottom line is not that we’re going to run out... but it’s an issue on which we need focus, to build the supply base and to improve those technologies which use and reuse these materials. It needs to be a focus of research and development”'' - Randolph E. Kirchain - Principal Research Scientist at MIT.

Building a Sustainable Hardware
The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) defines OSH as : ''“the hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware’s source, the design from which it is made, is available in the preferred format for making modifications to it. Ideally, open source hardware uses readily-available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure, unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximize the ability of individuals to make and use hardware. Open source hardware gives people the freedom to control their technology while sharing knowledge and encouraging commerce through the open exchange of designs”''.

The main reason for basing the sustainable development in OSH is the motivation behind the research, implying innovation and production. Innovation cannot be privatized and taken away from the benefit of collective humanity. Shared licenses for hardware designs insure that any innovation produced benefits the whole humanity and all the members of the open ecosystem in particular. In the case of production, open design communities do not only think differently about the product or service they are working on, but they also think differently about the production process. Localized production holds the promise of many savings in transportation costs, while losing none of the benefits of scale, as they can count on open and global innovation and research communities.

Problem Statement
Nowadays, there are a lot of problems concerning the adaptation of a sustainable hardware. One of the main problem is the high production costs commonly associated with the foreign technological dependence. The problem associated with costs, implies that not everyone can have access to the right technology, and thus, the consumer of the product must take the product offering the market, which usually does not meet the specific requirements of a particular consumer.

Concerning the foreign technological dependence, in hardware proprietary there is a lot of redundant design (reinventing the wheel). Instead of using the previous knowledge and innovating in new areas of research and production, there is a waste of time, avoiding researchers to advance more substantially.

Finally, hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders, and individuals use digital rigths (Digital Rights Management - DRM) in order to control the use of digital content and devices. This action retains the knowledge (privatization of knowledge) in large manufacturing industries, thus creating economic inefficiencies. With the reduction of costs for computing and networking, the enhancement of innovation is implicit as well as the freedom to chose.

Challenges
For a sustainable design, some key areas should be considered:


 * Renewable energy research and production: there are a lot of resources available for achieving sustainable energy, for instance: from solar, wind and hydro. The main focus for providing a reliable energy should be rural areas where the lack access to electricity is evident. Self-managed energy systems for rural areas and data-centers will require the help of local institutions to support the adoption and diffusion of the new technology.


 * Data connectivity: it would implies more affordable or higher-bandwidth services, as well as free networks.


 * Recycling: thousands of computers are discarded every day as people upgrade to newer models. The main goal of recycling is to provide free computer hardware and education to the community through the use of open source software.


 * Sovereignty: the main goal of adopting open hardware is the sovereignty over it. Through the use of open hardware, there would not be more systems controlled by external entities. This will breaks the technological dependence and gets the freedom that free hardware provides.

OSH Projects and Initiatives
Its historical antecedents include the open source and free software movements, from which it derived its principles. Despite the deep roots of these legacies, open source hardware only became know in the last decade. This was mostly due to the rise of the internet, which made sharing hardware designs possible, the commercial success of open source software, which gave it public visibility, and the decrease in cost of production tools, which made it feasible. There is a number of organizations and initiatives that have helped to stablish open source hardware, for instance TAPR OHL, OHANDA, OSHW, OSHWA, among others. Within these OSH communities, there are already information published regarding designs and the commercialization of parts in order to build an OSH prototype. Among the most representative products there are:


 * Arduino, an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple I/O board,
 * Beagle Board a single-board computer based on low-power Texas Instruments processors, and
 * Raspberry Pi a single-board computer developed in the UK with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools.

Open-source hardware can contribute to bridging the technological, educational and cultural gaps between developing and developed countries. Although, it is still a phenomenon in terms of market share, today there are about 85 research groups in 16 countries which aim to contribute to the open source “ideal”. At the same time, 71 countries are already commercializing it, among them, Ecuador. Despite the interest of reaching a technological sustainability through the implementation of OSH, there is no too much interest of applying it as a government policy. The only country that had considered the acquisition and use of it in public administration is Venezuela. It has being working since the beginning of 2010 with the project Pingüino Ve, which stimulates domestic production technology, by obtaining a comprehensive platform for design and development, in order to facilitate the sustainable manufacturing of electronic devices in the country.

Open source Hardware in the community
As stated before, many OSH projects have been already developed. Nevertheless among those with more positive impact in community we have the sustainable farming community (EEUU) where Marcin Jakubowski founded the Open Source Ecology (OSE). In the project, a network of farmers, engineers and supporters, have as main goal the manufacturing of the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). This GVCS consist on developing and publishing a complete set of machines (50) needed to build a small community cheaply and efficiently. [?]

At present, the compressed-earth block press machine is finished, which can make bricks of dirt and clay for constructing houses and other buildings. The Factor e Farm is the main headquarters in rural Missouri, where the machines are prototyped and tested. The farm serves as a prototype, and at the same time the residents grow their own food, collect rainwater, and produce all their electricity by solar panels. Another goal of the foundation is to teach people to build, use and maintain this open source machinery.

With the same focus, Britta Riley developed a system of urban farms (EEUU) using open-source designs. The system helps city-dwellers to grow their own food. It lets plants use natural light, the climate control of the living space, and organic liquid soil. The third technological revolution are the modular cars (EEUU) project called Wikispeed. Wikispeed is a car manufacturer that produces open source modular cars with high energy efficiency. It was founded by Joe Justice and his team is concentrated in Seattle, Washington. Last but not least, a radiation measurements (Japan) project called Safecast was developed after the 3/11 earthquake and the nuclear situation that was unleashed at Fukushima Diachi. Safecast consist of a global sensor network for collecting and sharing radiation measurements to empower people with data about their environments. The team is concentrated in Tokyo with support teams globally.

Conclusions
For sustainable technology, openness is the focus value. Innovation, collaboration and community are key words that must assist this implementation in order to rise a common and open knowledge. The acceleration of knowledge is one of the main goals of achieving a free and sustainable hardware, which means sharing it and educating community. There is an educational value in seeing how a design works, making people more aware and appreciative of how things work, which is good for society. Also, we can improve existing solutions, and towards and open research, to find experts to solve problems that we cannot. The open source products allow designers and manufactures to benefit from costumer’s consultation and testing for free, re-naming the costumers as "collaborators". The sum of an open source approach and a sustainable technology gives us the best of both worlds for the country development.