13 Jun 2013

Fairphone Open Design Bootcamp

The Open Design Lab of Waag Society and Fairphone organized in May 30-June 1st the "Fairphone Open Design Bootcamp" where 18 professionals related to design, business, sustainability, electronics and the phone industry worked in three parallel challenges: to design a phone that lasts, a DIY phone and a fair phone that feels fair. Several proposals came out of these intensive days (see links bellow).




Experiencing co-design as a practitioner, as opposed to 'silent' observer, gave me new insights for my own research, especially in relation to individual vs. shared work and the implications for innovation, efficiency, ownership of ideas and results, and well-being. Once the results are open and available online I wonder if these may be used by other parties with different purposes, providing an interesting case study of the processes of open design. We already know the importance of documentation to enable these processes, but I would add the need for tools that keep track of "organic" parallel developments that may occur from this point on. The possibility to map open design cases and their adoption, transformations or failure along time would provide researchers with very useful information to understand the multiple processes emerging from the model of open design.

Related links:
http://waag.org/nl/blog/fairphone-design-bootcamp-designer-s-perspective
http://www.fairphone.com/2013/06/12/design-bootcamp-results/
http://www.fairphone.com/2013/06/10/fairphone-design-bootcamp-a-designers-perspective/