Over at the Make magazine blogs, Phillip Torrone looks at some of the unspoken, but largely heeded, rules of open source hardware. The rules have parallels in the open source software world that are interesting to consider, as well. "If you’re calling it open source hardware, release the files: schematic, source, BOM, and code. All under an open license. Don’t hide it. Don’t say you need to sign an NDA and attempt to obfuscate. Don’t be difficult. If you’re trying to be tricky, just don’t do open source hardware. A new thing I’ve seen, and I don’t think meets the spirit of openness: don’t use open source hardware or software as a “prize” if your Kickstarter gets funded. It doesn’t work like that. Open source hardware isn’t a marketing term — it means something specific. We’re doing open source hardware because we want to, not because we want to trick people." (Thanks to Paul Wise.)

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