You’ve heard of open-source software design, but what does it mean to apply the term ‘open-source’ to a physical product like a bicycle?

Here are some commonalities we share with open-source software communities:

• Geographically distributed participants working towards a common goal.
• A good cause. Whether it be breaking the monopoly of Microsoft operating systems, or improving the transportation and income-generating abilities of families in developing countries, the best open-source communities have a good cause that rallies participants to give their time to the group effort.
• Participants can use the community’s shared knowledge (source code) to accomplish a specific goal or project, then contribute their refinements back to the community.
• Knowledge is free for the download.

In a field like bicycle design, open-source design may seem a little awkward at first – how exactly do you download a bicycle? But actually, it’s a natural fit. Most bicycle designs have been patented long ago. So, with patenting out of the picture, the only reason to protect your design would be to raise a barrier for others trying to duplicate your work. But, as bicycle engineers and designers motivated to improve the lives of fellow bike people in other, poorer countries, we want to see our work replicated. And downloading a bicycle isn’t as hard as it sounds. Digital snapshots and blueprints go a long way. Open-sourcing the design process simply isn’t that hard to do.

What’s hard is open-sourcing the production process. Bicycles that sell in big box stores for $79 are made by the millions in huge factories in Asia. The massive economies of scale allow these producers to build and train robots to cut and miter the metal tubing and weld the frames together. To get the Worldbike concept to that level of production will require a significant leap from where we are now. And yet, without doing so, our customers will be forced to pay higher prices.

How will we secure the participation of factories who are motivated by profit? Will these factories set a lower minimum order and underwrite some of the fixed costs for a bicycle that helps people earn a living? Will the charitable nature of our work resonate with factory owners? Or will Worldbike.org and other NGO’s have to use donor funds to subsidize the new bicycles until volumes rise into the millions? Here is where the open-source analogy breaks down a little bit. But perhaps we can use the spirit of the open-source movement to freely exchange information about purchasing, shipping, and selling utility bicycles in developing countries.

With the advantages of load-carrying bicycles becoming clearer to international development organizations, we can pull together resources and work together as a community to achieve meaningful results. And that is the true meaning of open-source.