Are We Doing Enough?

Sharing Design and Manufacturing Expertise Across Open Source Hardware Communities

CHI 2026 Workshop

Date: TBD Location: TBD

Call for Participation

Participants are invited to attend this workshop on Sharing Design and Manufacturing Expertise Across Open-Source Hardware Communities. The goal of this workshop is not only to share solutions to common challenges in this space, but also to consider the methods and efficacy relating to how this information is shared. We will ask ourselves if the community is doing enough to ensure that information about hardware design and manufacturing is accessible, understandable, effective and utilises the best channels to reach the widest audience. Activities will include mapping and analysis of knowledge, collaborative design of potential frameworks to utilise this mapped information, and wider reflection on behalf of the hardware community.

We are seeking 15 to 30 participants with a range of backgrounds in hardware including hobbyists, makers, academics, industry professionals, educators and other enthusiasts. Participants with experience in designing, deploying or evaluating bespoke hardware are particularly welcome, as are those with an interest in open-source hardware. The goal of the workshop is to foster collaboration and community across all disciplines of hardware and design, so participants should be open to sharing their experiences.

Participants are invited to submit a one-page (ACM single-column format) overview of their experiences in the discipline and their interest in the topic to the EasyChair link. This can be purely biographical, can be a position paper, or can describe a hardware design or device previously created. These papers will be hosted on the workshop website for the public to access.

Submission deadline: 12th Feb AoE

Submit / Register (EasyChair)

Schedule

Session 1 - 90 Minutes

20 minutes

Welcome

Participants will introduce themselves based on their pre-submitted slide, followed by a brief introduction to the goals, structure and intended outcomes of workshop from the organisers.

20 minutes

Scoping the Needs of the Hardware Designer

Participants will spend some time discussing in small groups before bringing together as a whole the stages of hardware development and the different facets of design that need to be considered when addressing the problem of guidance-seeking.

40 minutes

Mapping the Methods of Information Sharing and Dissemination

Using the established needs in the previous activity, participants will discuss in small groups where they believe the most comprehensive and effective guidance for each need exists in the physical or online world. These ideas will then be used to construct a "map" (via a digital Miro board) that represents the workshop's understanding of the ways in which a designer can seek help at various stages of the device design and production process.

10 minutes

Coffee Break

Networking and informal discussions

Session 2 - 90 Minutes

45 minutes

Utilising Mapped Channels of Information Sharing

Following the "mapped" representation of information sharing channels, participants will discuss ways in which these channels are currently utilised by academia, industry and the hobbyist communities in different ways. This will then lead to a discussion on how each community can look to the others for inspiration and improvement.

30 minutes

Community-Oriented Discussion

Participants would then be invited to "sit back and reflect" upon the previous activities and pose questions for the hardware community on how ideas can best be shared. This would be an open-ended discussion driven primarily by the topics brought up over the course of the previous session, with the aim to provide tangible feedback and future work based on the outcomes of the mapping exercises.

15 minutes

Wrap Up and Goodbye

Workshop organisers will summarise everything that has been discussed over the course of the workshop and explain to participants where materials will be available following the conclusion of the conference. We will also remind participants of the open channels of communication established in the pre-workshop and encourage future discussion and collaboration via these channels.

Post Workshop

Immediately following the conclusion of the workshop, we will publish the frameworks and ideas constructed by participants such as the Miro board used throughout and any other written materials that will be digitised as part of an additional Miro on the workshop website, and on the community online channel (e.g. Discord).

Workshop Organizers

Rory Clark

Rory Clark

University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Rory Clark is a Research Associate at the University of Bristol. His work emphasises work as done when building and interacting with devices, and has experience in reflexive and auto-ethnographic methods when exploring design and implementation of hardware.

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Oliver Child

Oliver Child

University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Oliver Child is a PhD candidate in the Bristol Interaction group. His research revolves around the personal fabrication of refined interactive devices with embedded electronics.

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Hyunyoung Kim

Hyunyoung Kim

University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

Hyunyoung Kim is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham, where she leads the Future Fabrication Lab. Her research explores novel fabrication toolkits and techniques that empower lay users to design and build solutions to their own problems. She actively open-sources her work to broaden access and maximize its real-world impact.

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Cedric Honnet

Cedric Honnet

MIT Media Lab, USA

Cedric Honnet is a PhD candidate in the MIT Media Lab, his research focuses on scalable fabrication of miniature electronics for open source wearables.

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Valkyrie Savage

Valkyrie Savage

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Valkyrie Savage is an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on fabrication and sensing techniques for prototyping custom interactive devices.

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Joseph A. Paradiso

Joseph A. Paradiso

MIT Media Lab, USA

Joseph A. Paradiso is a Professor in the MIT Media Lab, his research explores sensor networks, wearable systems, and human-computer interaction.

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Mike Fraser

Mike Fraser

University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Mike Fraser is a Professor of Human Computer Interaction and Head of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, UK. His research focuses on the personal fabrication of electronics, gesture recognition, and acoustic manipulation of materials.

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Steve Hodges

Steve Hodges

University of Lancaster, United Kingdom

Steve Hodges is a Distinguished Professor in Computing and Digital Systems at Lancaster University. His research explores methods of leveraging hardware to make computers more useful, engaging and inclusive spanning all aspects of design from prototype to production. His work has contributed to devices with tens of millions of users across the world.

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Project Funding