In a previous article, I gave a brief summary of the origins of the open source movement. The open source model has become a powerful force in the world of software development, and may well become the dominant model in the not so distant future. The success of open source is a wake-up call to professionals in fields outside of software development. To what other systems can the open source model by applied?

Appropriate and intermediate technology development could benefit greatly from the application of an open source model. Like the hacker culture associated with free software, appropriate technology (AT) has had a community-based following for at least 35 years. Throughout the world there exist research institutes, community groups, and non-governmental organizations working with different technological innovations to alleviate poverty and mitigate the excesses of consumer culture.

Yet despite the successes of the AT movement, it is still a community that remains, to a large extent, disconnected. Few forums for sharing and online collaboration exist. Many groups are forced to draw plans from scratch, although their counterparts in another part of the world may have already designed and debugged a similar technology. Dialog usually occurs in conferences and within the confines of research circles.

Let us, for a moment, imagine an alternative. Let us imagine an active online community participating in vibrant discussions and sharing of AT plans and experiences. Let us imagine the AT equivalent of a sourceforge.net, a place where designers and field workers can go to download plans of greenhouses, beehives, water pumps, animal traction implements, and biodiesel equipment. And, within the legal framework of an AT General Public License (GPL), those plans can be used freely, modified, and republished under the same AT GPL. IRC channels dedicated to specific programmatic areas could serve as a dynamic forum where “newbies” can gain wisdom and insight from experienced field practitioners.

In this way, appropriate technology will become a true rival to the megalithic technologies that have so dominated civilization since the industrial revolution.