Open Source Altruism
One of the most inspiring organizations I can think of, Architecture for Humanity, has recently launched the Open Architecture Network, an online platform for architects to collaborate on housing design solutions for developing nations. The site's FAQ outlines their mission:
"One billion people live in abject poverty. Four billion live in fragile but growing economies. One in seven people live in slum settlements. By 2020 it will be one in three. We don't need to choose between architecture or revolution. What we need is an architectural revolution."
The site contains tools, specs, and other documentation that allows architects from around the world to collaborate on open source solutions to designing housing and other structures for the developing world. Their work is quite often amazing - taking simple, local materials and building homes and clinics substantially more livable and beautiful than my New York studio.
As I understand it, the OAN represents a kind of return to the roots of Architecture for Humanity, which I once heard its founder Cameron Sinclair describe as the result of simply going out to the web and asking people to help solve the kinds of housing problems that traditional architecture had been unable to deal with.
There does seem to be a small but encouraging trend of open source ideas jumping from the digital to the physical world. One of the most promising that I've heard of recently is the Institute for OneWorld Health - to my knowledge the world's first nonprofit pharmaceutical company (about time). There is of course a difference between open source and simply nonprofit - as OneWorld Health's original drug product came from scouring databases of drugs whose patents had expired it does, in a sense, encompass both.
What gives me the most hope about these initiatives is only partially their direct benefit in terms of products. I am more excited by the fact that one of open source's main side-effects is education. If you need proof, how many of you learned HTML from hitting the 'view source' button? I don't think anyone can predict what kinds of revolutionary innovation will occur when millions of people in emerging economies are able to hit 'view source' on the institutions that hamper development.
