Open Source Things…

It was intriguing to hear about the various areas where open-source practices are applied. Before I began researching different open-source projects, I reviewed a list of topics that other students had chosen. They were all quite interesting, and I wanted to find an organization that was both fascinating and impactful. I learned about OpenMotors from a friend who is very interested in electric vehicles. At first, OpenMotors seemed too good to be true, but according to their website, they have already produced and sold their open-source EV base model. However, while 3D CAD files are available on their website, only the seat and chassis models are open to the public. So, you cannot download an entire car yet, but we are getting closer to that reality. All other schematics of the EV are available from OpenMotors, and various organizations have built different vehicles using their base model, the TABBY EVO. OpenMotors is an ambitious organization that I hope becomes more practical and well-known. From the discussion in class I learned more about other open source areas that are more widely used and accessible. I think the most interesting examples were Precious Plastic and Open Source Hardware. Plastic recycling is a great area for open source since it solves an important problem that can be contributed to by everyone. Open Source Hardware is a very niche idea but it can help many enthusiast learn and create their own hardware. Professor brought up an interesting possibility of combining open source products such as Precious plastic to 3D print open source hardware from schematic files. This system would be another great example of the possibilites with open source.

Closer to the End

As we are a few days from our presentation day for Bitwarden, my group and I began work on our final touches. We worked together to start on a draft of a script and then addressed all of the required questions as a group. Together, we decided on how to split up the presentation and which part every member would address. We created a google slides that we all contributed to with our own ideas and images from our work on Bitwarden. After completion of the slides, we practiced our presentation before altering it to how we see fit. Before we started the presentation, we were working on a large documentation PR for an issue that we created weeks ago. We got an answer to our issue and it turned out that the documentation was not deprecated but was actually published too early. So, we were not able to complete the PR but it was something that we could add to our presentation and learn from.