A work-in-progress declaration of principles and properties that real and virtual goods should strive for.
19th century technology resulted in the industrial revolution, the power of machines to substituting for the power of men and animals, resulting in the ability of manufacturing goods through mass production. Now, in the 21st century, information technology permeates society, giving each individual access to the combined knowledge of humanity. It is time to apply this knowledge and new technology to fix some of the intrinsic disadvantages of classical industrial mass production.
Globalized mass production
- is extremely cost driven;
- resulting in disproportionate focus on manufacturing cost vs. lifetime cost
- which in turn results in waste through incentive to manufacture single-use products
- actively encourages hiding non-economic impacts,
- environmental
- working conditions
- corruption
A product should be usable for it's intended purpose without artificial restrictions. The intended purpose for the user, that is, not whatever the manufacturer intended.
A product should be repairable with the minimum number of specialty tools, all of which should be accessible to the general public.
Use of anti-tamper mechanisms, such as special screws, should not be used to prevent layman repairs, unless opening the product is dangerous to unskilled laypersons (high voltage, high pressure, etc).
Privacy and security concerns are often used as pretenses to lock down products, despite it being proven time and time again that closed products aren't intrinsically more secure than open platforms. It is true that not every user has the ability to verify cryptographic chains of trust, but having the option and transparency in this regard allows users to engage trusted third-parties instead of only the original manufacturer, should they be unaffordable, incompetent, malicious, or out of business.
For traditional mass production, per-unit cost is the strongest driving force, and minor manufacturing cost savings that disproportionally reduce lifetime utility of a product are routinely implemented to maximize profits, but often impose unforeseeable, and/or unreasonable burdens on the users.
Instead of minimizing cost, the design should focus on maximizing the efficient use of non-renewable resources, utility and life time of a product.
The focus should be on:
- Usability
- Interoperability
- Open Standards
- (Accessibility)
- Interoperability
- Maintainability
- Upgradability / Modularity
- Extensibility
- Reusability
- Longevity
- Robustness
- Manufacturibility without specialty equipment
- Recyclability
- Resource Efficiency
Companies can employ "intellectual property" protections, such as trademarks, patents, copyright, and trade secrets. All ultimately exist to prevent other from recreating the product, ensuring the IP owner has some form of limited monopoly, giving them a chance to recoup the investment they put into bringing a product to market.
We cannot expect a product without IP protections to generate the same profits as a protected product. Even with protections, many products never see a profit.