This column may be too much of an ask but it must be a question worth asking. Should more clean technology be "open source", in same way as code for software in the computing industry is?
Open source software has helped the computer industry and education. The idea is well established. Could aspects of clean tech go the same way?
It is impossible and unrealistic to think that all clean tech could be open source but in some areas, where huge differences can be made, it could be. Riversimple, a company producing a hydrogen car has annouced that its designs will be open source and published on the web. Are there other areas? Could smart metering be one? Energy efficiency in the short is the biggest win the environment can have. Metering is one area that has got the attention of the large software groups. Google and IBM have made smart metering a central plank in their portfolio of sustainable products. An open source in this sector would help enormously. It could help curtail the rapid rise in energy use in the developed world, making it as accessible as Wikipedia and better it might be more quickly adpoted in the developing world. Afterall, open source often translates to rapid deployment as well.
Another area where open source might be deployed is in buidling design. Many might argue that that is happening anyway but it is ad hoc. Would a centrally managed open source database help? Energy efficiency in building design often can occur in very small increments and as a result of multiple changes. A managed database, open source, might bring that together.
If we are going to reduce emissions through technology, we will need that technology deployed to places where too often they can't afford it. Open source, which reduces costs and is often free, could help that deployment and the quicker the developing world gets clean tech, the better we'll be.
