Oshwa education survey 1 2012 09 15

Open Source Hardware Association
Education Survey #1
2012 09 15

OSHWA Education Survey #1 2012 09 15

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

• Egypt
• India
• Ukraine
•
•
•
Switzerland
USA
Ireland
Countries of Respondents
• New Zealand
• USA
• France
• Mexico USA
• USA
• New Zealand
• USA
• Australia & China
• Canada
• France
• Usa
• USA
• Portugal
• USA
• Chile
• USA
• Canada
• UK
• United Kingdom
• USA
• USA
• United States
• USA
• USA
• Usa
• Australia & China
• USA
• USA
• Australia

Cities of Respondents
• Giza • Viña del Mar
• BANGALORE • Boulder
• Kiev • Ottawa, Ontario
• Little Ferry NJ • Cambridge
• Miltown Malbay • Liverpool
• Wellington • Austin, TX
• Athens, GA • Houston
• Juarez / El Paso • Fort Wayne, IN
• Boston, MA • Milwaukee
• Columbia, S.C. • Seattle
• Canberra & Shanghai • Pasadena
• Toronto • Canberra & Shanghai
• Paris • Somerville
• Portland, or • Hollis, NH
• Port Matilda • Perth
• Lisbon • Colorado
• Hanover, NH

Only Half of Respondents ‘Totally Agree’ an Education
Program would add important membership value

The total number of survey respondents (44) also seems low when measured against
previous surveys and conference registration and attendance

The Top 10 ‘Very Important’ Topic Responses Focus on Arranging for
Manufacturing, and Commercialization of Finished Products
Starting A Business Design Manufacturing Commercialization Topic
Arranging Manufacturing for a complete product
31
from 3d models, board designs, and parts lists
what are the laws and regulations around
26
importing products for sale? (in country y...)
26 testing of manufactured product prototypes
How do I organize a distribution channel? (in
24
country x...)
How do I set up an efficient customer support
24
channel?
23 How do I organize a sales channel? (in country b...)
23 Designing packaging prototyping in 3d tools
21 How do I handle product returns and warranties?
what are Hardware-oriented Incubators like
19
Haxel8or and Lemnos and how do they work?
submission of Eagle Board Designs to
19
manufacturing
Total respondents = 44

Commercialization topics comprise 50% of top 10 topics, outweighing topics
concerning Manufacturing, Design, or Starting a Business

Content Delivery Via Wiki is Favored in Survey
Question Responses
• Showing 10 text responses
• recorded webinars
• maybe video tutos...
• IRC
• Didn't know about Udemy, looks really
nice; have you checked Udacity?
• I've never used Udemy but I like the
idea on an online learning
environment; Wiki would never work
for a kinesthetic learner like me :(
• Normal websites and onine video I can
consume whenever is convenient.
Maybe find a way for hackspaces to
run learning groups?
• Have these classes quarterly in
different cities that are not expensive
to get to or stay in.
• The more ways the better... However
initially we might run pilots in a more
controlled environment and post
media online that is accessible to
everyone. Aka: could run it in a
classroom and document via video
that is then posted to a learning center
online.
Mentor Programs and Member <-> Member activities are • This is one of the reasons I think this is
a bad idea.
favoured in the extended comments (see response data) • khan academy (or maybe at least it
learning tree representation)

Hypothesis based on Survey Results
• Education programs are a concern for a minority of those
interested in OSHWA
• Information regarding commercialization challenges:
– reliable suppliers,
– import and commercial regulations, and
– business operations such as supply chain management and
customer relationship management,
are most relevant to the members interested in education
• Some members are concerned about the tension between
commercialization interests and ‘free and open’ philosophy
• Members seek credible information from other members
who have already encountered and overcome these
challenges

OSHWA Education Survey #1 2012 09 15

RESPONSE DATA

Topics Ranked by ‘Very Important’ Responses

• Modern desing practice like Matlab-
>HDL synthesis
• Less interested in Eagle than in geda
and KiCad
• KICAD KICAD KICAD :)
• using open tools instead of eagle.
• Sorry my opinion is here very
specifically useless :)
• Mining expired patents for open
source hardware ideas.
• I think it's important to focus on
training which is relevant to the
Open hardware goals. Bear in mind
there will be better/other training
opportunities available in other
specialist areas! I come to OSHWA
for open hardware, not for business
advice, etc.
• Printing external packaging
prototypes using 3D printers.
Seriously? Why only Makerbot
there?
• Mechanical Design - 3D CAD,
Machine Design, Torque, Gearging,
Welding, etc... more ME stuff and
less EE stuff
• Kicad
• Eagle is being replaced by Kicad -
time to switch!!!
• you need to have a column "I already
know this”

• greate themes
• I swear I'm not just checking
them off - they really are all
important
• Certification - what are the
different types, which do I
need, how do I get it?
• How to minimize manufacturing
costs and run lean without
compromising quality
• Way too much focus on
venture/angel funding, must
increase emphasis on OTHER
funding sources - eg loans,
crowdsourced (and the MANY
ways (ways are not all
commercial web based) to
crowd source

• recorded webinars
• maybe video tutos...
• IRC
• Didn't know about Udemy, looks really
nice; have you checked Udacity?
• I've never used Udemy but I like the
idea on an online learning
environment; Wiki would never work
for a kinesthetic learner like me :(
• Normal websites and onine video I can
consume whenever is convenient.
Maybe find a way for hackspaces to
run learning groups?
• Have these classes quarterly in
different cities that are not expensive
to get to or stay in.
• The more ways the better... However
initially we might run pilots in a more
controlled environment and post
media online that is accessible to
everyone. Aka: could run it in a
classroom and document via video
that is then posted to a learning center
online.
• This is one of the reasons I think this is
a bad idea.
• khan academy (or maybe at least it
learning tree representation)

• as many as possible!
• English is necessary, other languages
would be a great addition, but I can't
really answer this question in an
objective way… I'd just say Spanish
because it's my native language and
Japanese because I'm currently
learning it, see? too subjective for my
taste.
• the more the merrier but from
personal experience - it's hard to juggle
a lot of translations
• check languages of actual interested
parties nearer the time. probably many
learners won't be on the list yet
because they will be NEW to OSHWA!
• Klingon
• as many as possible!
• Well, I only speak English, but
obviously as many as possible would be
great.

Additional Comments
• Delivering trainings/sessions on OSHW would help spreading the making culture and the OSWH across the Middle East.
• Very interesting project. Can help in local country - Ukraine. Most important things, imho: International themes with practice
background. Examples of masterpices from working specialists. Practice work in classrooms. Friendship creative hackspace.
• Try a mentor program to connect experience with enthusiasm
• We are based in New Zealand and UK, so online resources would be of the most value to us. I am mostly interested in
gaining the industry knowledge that is less accessible to the average maker/tinkerer - ie: understanding venture capital/angle
investment, and laws and regulations. I'm especially interested in learning more about licensing, trademarks, and patents,
especially within the scope of open hardware projects. Also, perhaps less more off-topic, the networking opportunities
offered by oshwa memberships would be especially interesting to me - for example, the ability to find potential business
partners or mentors. Thanks for this survey! - tiago. diatom.cc
• The questions above seem to be focused on money (e.g. "lean" startups... whatever that means) and proprietary EDA
programs (e.g. eagle). I think that's the wrong direction. It should be focused on FREEDOM, community, and sharing.
Educational programs should include using open source EDA software (gEDA, Kicad, etc) to create, share, and improve
designs.
• Make a magazine like publications!
• Formal training would be nice to have, but interacting directly with other people who have experience would be far more
useful for me.
• Having workshops dealing with the technical and administrative processes dealing with open-source ideas would be
beneficial. Either host these by varying members or have them integrated into existing conferences/trade shows, e.g., maker
faire, sxsw, etc...
• There needs to be quite a bit on sourcing (it's hard), plus good to discuss all the different ways to do fullfullment, and
decisions about making it yourself, with friends or going comemrcial AS well as steps to do differently as you scale (and
designing your approach to scaling). There is already lots of stuff about funding/startups, but far less about mass production
for makers - concentrate on that!
• VHDL courses!

Additional Comments Continued…
• Infortunately, my opinion should not be very interesting, although I very much like OSHW, it is just as a spectator ...
• Do not depend on Google services for an infrastructure.
• I'll just tell about myself. I wouldn't call myself a 'maker.' I work as a mechanical engineer for a design consultancy, and I want to direct
my work and efforts towards eliminating barriers faced by makers and user innovators. I want to learn as much as possible about the
community: who they are, what they do, and what I can do to help.
• Drop the lean startup stuff. There's already way too much content on those topics out there, and there is a high likelihood that you
would be terrible at simplifying it. You should focus on open source hardware, open source hardware collaboration, how to collaborate
on existing open source projects (RepRap, etc), and how that works.
• Thanks for all this hard work
• This may be covered in one of the over-arching topics above but going through example financials (not a company's actual values)
would be really helpful. I think it's hard to grasp how much money is spent on things like payroll, overhead expenses, etc. I know it
helped me when Susan did this as a Lunch&Learn.
• I know they're intended to be tongue-in-cheek options, but next time you do a survey please word the "Not
Important/Interesting/Interested" options as such. You aren't kidding, you haven't lost me, and they certainly wouldn't be a waste of
my time. They simply aren't important or not of interest to me right now; I have interpreted them as such instead of picking the middle
options.
• Focus on what's special about OSHWA. There may be value in training/education in peripheral areas but people will come to OSHWA
for open hardware first and foremost. Without good training in key open hw areas, there's no point in trying to offer other things.
Other and better providers will exist for those, so until there's a key open hw offering, stick with making that good. Then add other
courses later on if there's demand. (Note that I am suggesting this from a community point of view. If you are trying to run paid
courses to earn money to generate surplus for OSHWA activities things are a little different of course, but then if that's the case the
survey should go to potential fee paying course takers, which probably isn't the OSHWA list :) Also if you are serious about going into
online courses, think about partnering with existing providers - whether that's coursera or udacity, or P2PU, or whatever.
• For many of us, the classes suggested aren't needed - I have filled out what I think others would need. Of particular concern is the
heavy focus on the "Lean Startup" specific ideology, having been through a few startups that follow this, similar, or other ideologies
and patterns, it would be more valuable to educate on the many different forms of startups, rather than inculcating one particular one.
I have selected classes based on what I think others would appreciate, not necessarily based on what I would like to attend.

Additional Comments Continued…
• I have trouble taking this survey very serious with the way it is put together. It also feels like someone is pursuing an agenda
instead of legitimately looking for answers.
• I love where the idea for an education program is going. Focusing on blending "How to Make it" and "Achieving Entrepreneurial
Pursuits" is a powerful combination. Perhaps even more value can be added by creating a way for members to more efficiently
network with one another and understand each other. Universities garner a lot of value based on the network that you gain as an
student/alumni, OSHWA should be striving for the same.
• I think there are already a LOT of resources about funding and electronics and microcontrollers etc. To me, the BIG gaps are in how
to source, manufacture and how to scale, support, disribute, support. How to find and manage your partner companies and
sourcing are really big challenges and need a lot of effort. Even just creating lists of companies used by/supportive of
manufacturing and fullfilment etc would be a HUGE step! The other big gap is consolidating all of those educational resources. Of
course all the above are my own hobby horses and one core part of what I am supposed to be doing on my web site (see
http://usabledevices.com/category/about/) - there is a bit there, I really need to get back into that!
• I think educational programs are a pretty bad idea for a small, resource-strapped organization like OSHWA. I don't think we have
the resources to offer educational programs of decent quality. For comparison: we don't have enough money for a professionally-
designed website or logo. Why would we be able to provide educational programs?

Oshwa education survey 1 2012 09 15

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Oshwa education survey 1 2012 09 15