Open collaborative design/Why is this a good thing?

For the nascent field of open collaborative design, advanced open-source CAD software will allow anyone, not just designers and engineers, to easily create new or variant designs, choosing from a vast array of 'copylefted' components, assemblies and whole artefacts from the universal commons that they can make use of. This not only means that people can customise things for their own needs (and tastes) but should make the design process much more efficient and help avoid the huge duplication of effort that occurs in design and engineering currently.

These principles can apply to designing the simplest things that can be made by individuals, solutions for communities in the developing world, all the way up to complex large-scale systems of national or global infrastructure involving thousands of people. Because the designs are not closed or proprietary, people are encouraged to contribute knowing their involvement not only benefits themselves but anyone else might use the results of their efforts. It also means that designs will evolve far faster because of the huge amount of parallel development that is likely to occur.

Giving these designs physical form will become fast and easy due to emerging high-speed, flexible manufacturing techniques. As a result the open design ecosystem will effectively become an internet for physical items — and the impact on society is likely to be as great as the web has been with respect to information.