http://www.nextbillion.net/blogs/2006/09/05/is-open-source-hardware-an-answer Comments for "Is Open Source Hardware An Answer?" en http://www.nextbillion.net/blogs/2006/09/05/is-open-source-hardware-an-answer#comment-25969 This sounds like a great initiative to help out developing nations.<br class="clear" /> Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:46:26 -0500 ip pabx comment 25969 at http://www.nextbillion.net http://www.nextbillion.net/blogs/2006/09/05/is-open-source-hardware-an-answer <p style="padding: 5px; float: right;"><a href="http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/images/4fx_bringup_modules.jpg"><img src="http://www.nextbillion.net/files/images/Rowetel Phone Boards.img_assist_custom.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image img_assist_custom" width="180" height="135" /></a></p>You have probably heard of Open Source Software - software developed by hackers and released into the community under licenses that freely allow copying and modification. Linux is a good example.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.rowetel.com">David Rowe</a>, an engineer from Adelaide, South Australia and a small team of hackers around the world are developing &quot;open source hardware&quot; - high quality, professionally designed hardware designs that are being released for others to copy and build on.<br /><br />The hardware (when combined with open telephony software such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk_PBX">Asterisk</a>) allows anyone to build advanced telephone systems at very low cost. The idea is to help close the digital divide by building telephone exchange (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_branch_exchange">PBX</a>) hardware for $200 with features matching existing PBX systems - that cost $10,000. This makes it possible for a small village to deploy and maintain a telephone system at very low cost. <br /><br class="clear" /><p><a href="http://www.nextbillion.net/blogs/2006/09/05/is-open-source-hardware-an-answer">read more</a></p> http://www.nextbillion.net/blogs/2006/09/05/is-open-source-hardware-an-answer#comment Telecommunications and IT Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:48:49 -0500 Rob Katz 3280 at http://www.nextbillion.net