Hackers Use Open Hardware to Solve Environmental Problems | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network

"[T]he second annual Open Hardware Summit on September 15 at the New York Hall of Science in Queens [featured, among other things]...Protei boats...originally designed to respond to BP’s 2010 Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Trailing oil-absorbing booms, the drones could sail even in a storm to help with cleanup, unlike human-crewed ships....Much like open software, the idea of open hardware is to freely share all the necessary knowledge for building usable electronics. This is not just for the balding, pony-tailed basement tinkerer; the European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known as CERN and as the operator of the Large Hardon Collider) is developing an open hardware license for some of its fancy bits...."