Session Title: Standards in Open Science Hardware
Date: 23/3/2017
Attendees (who was there?):
Overview of topic (3-6 sentences):
Standards are primarily ways of ensuring that hardware is safe, accurate, compatible, and follows best practice. There are already standards, both technical and legal, for any hardware product that’s sold (e.g. CE mark, RFI standards) and also for scientific hardware (e.g. centrifuge standards). Sometimes we’re legally required to comply (when selling products) and sometimes it’s a good idea but not necessary. How can we support each other as a community to meet relevant standards? Also, some standards are voluntary, and could even be created by us - do we need GOSH standards (or a GOSH standards group), or would this be a barrier to openness? We concluded there were a couple of useful actions:
- Document testing protocols for hardware, and reference them when re-used; this allows standards to evolve.
- Create a summary of relevant standards for commonly-used hardware, e.g. centrifuges, pipettes, etc. - perhaps with summaries or testing protocols, particularly for closed standards.
Notes:
There’s a PDF on GitHub with my scribbles in it:
https://github.com/rwb27/gosh_2017_notes/blob/master/Standards%20in%20Open%20Source%20Hardware.pdf
Resources
Open Source Sensors: Promoting Access to Knowledge and Data Reliability
