Technology is not just about making and inventing, it’s about connecting knowledge; across tools, materials, workflows, and contexts. But to enable real interoperability, we need more than repositories; we need linked, structured data that can flow between systems without being centralized.
Almost a year ago, we set out to gain support for a new generation of our Linked Data powered ecosystem of tools that further the autonomy, discoverability and comparability of hardware designs. Now, in May 2025, we are in the middle of a funded “NGI Search” project that will result in this implementation, leveraging the Open Know-How (OKH) standard.
Technology needs to be accessible for true collective innovation. More than ever, we need local solutions, local manufacturing and local engagement – but designed to fit a global perspective. Knowledge knows no borders and no corporate silos when put out into the open, we want to help all people to gain power over technology.
For us, this means we are aiming primarily at Open Source Hardware (OSH) with all information and meta-data available under an open license.
So we are developing an innovative hardware design search tool ecosystem to enhance the discoverability, accessibility and comparability of Open Source Hardware (OSH) using the open Linked-Data (LD) standards, fostering global collaboration and advancing humanitarian engineering projects.
The goal is to bridge existing OSH directories, across platforms, enabling seamless search and access to hardware designs for a diverse range of applications, from humanitarian engineering to commercial development. By standardising metadata and fostering an open and decentralised approach, we seek to bridge gaps between isolated hardware communities, enhance data portability, and promote adoption of OSH best practices. Through LD we fuse with search engines and other data standards. Our goal is to develop the necessary tools and infrastructure to make hardware designs easily searchable – including through mainstream search engines – ensuring that high-quality, trustworthy hardware designs are accessible to all, and thereby supporting innovation, crisis response, and sustainable development globally.
It is more than time to enhance the ecosystem.
Below, you can find a graphical interpretation of our approach:
We believe in an internet where knowledge is distributed, linkable, and reusable by design, and where Open Source Hardware can be a core component in the semantic web of things: The “Next Generation Internet of Technology”.
Have a look at our landing page in the making, pointing at all (re)sources:
https://codeberg.org/OSEGermany/OpenSearchEcosystem
Feel free to join us in our endeavour to build an Open Source tool ecosystem to make this happen for ontology developers and engineers alike.
In parts, we are pioneering a new field, so join the discussion on implementation and specs around at the Open Know-How forum:
https://community.internetofproduction.org/c/okh
Next: Appart from a landing page we are finishing a first front-end search based on that new back-end, share more technical insights and will have the first Community Call in partnership with the Internet of Production Alliance on the new “Open Know-How” implementation opportunities. Don’t miss it:
Save the Date: Community Meetup on 11th of June
(We will share the timezone/details and Meeting-Link in the OKH Forum)
