[CHALLENGE] Document your open source hardware project

Friends,

I am @Clement, co-founder of Wikifab, a wiki-based platform for sharing and collaborating on open hardware projects.

After a discussion with @cameralibre and @Lars2i, we would like to help the OSCEDays antennas to document the open hardware projects that will be built during the event.

I’m up! Where do I start?

We built the Wikifab platform to be powerful, flexible and intuitive so that you can focus on building your project. Follow these steps to get started:

  1. Create an account on Wikifab
  2. In the top right corner, click the Create a tutorial button.
  3. Name your tutorial and then click Create or Modify.
  4. Write a short description (don’t forget to mention that it was made during the OSCEdays)
  5. Start to fill the form (duration, cost, difficulty and license).
  6. Step-by-step, describe how anyone can build your product.
  7. Click Save page. :tada: TADA you have created your first tutorial!

Documentation is an iterative process. Take your time. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. Start a project and complete it during building phases.

Need more help? Read our getting started guide.

Show me a well documented project!

Wikifab is work in progress. It was released just a few month ago and is still in beta. The number of tutorials is limited and the platform doesn’t contain all the features we have thought of! Bear with us!

Anyway, we’re confident that Wikifab is ready to be shown to the public. This beautiful and open-source beehive is a well documented tutorial by AKER.

In general, for a great documentation:

  • Take great photos :camera:
  • Write simple sentences, not loquacious
  • Link your tutorials with others

Need more tips about writing technical documentation? Read our Rules.

Why should I share my blueprints?

Sharing blueprints and documenting instructions to let everyone realize your project will empower collaboration and third party contributions to your project.

Today, most of the knowledge required to make a product are inaccessible due to their complexity or are “protected” by patents. By freely sharing the documentation of your product, you allow citizens to make things by themselves and no longer depend on a particular industry.

The inventions of mankind belong to all!

Can I trust Wikifab?

Wikifab is a non-profit organization. Our entire work is shared openly and transparently. Donations help Wikifab remain independent to support free knowledge.

The content of Wikifab is free of advertising. The lack of advertising is a vital for the project because it gives us complete independence from manufacturers and brands, which could compromise the quality of tutorials. Wikifab will never claim ownership of the content our users create.

The Wikifab software is open source. Anyone can download and install it on its own server for free.

Want to know more about us? Read who we are.

Help us to improve Wikifab! :bulb:

Please send us your experience, thoughts and other feedback on our community forum. What’s missing, what do you love, what would you like to see? Feel free to ask questions. We promise to look into it to help you and it really helps us to improve the platform.

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It’s great having you here, @Clement!

Wikifab is the best OSHW documentation platform I’ve come across, not just on a technical level but also because of its commitment to the open source ideals & ecosystem, the inviting nature of the platform, and the approach to long-term stewardship of the commons.

Although I do fully trust Wikifab, the great thing is that I don’t have to.

Because the software and content is open source, and documentation is in open, standardised formats, if Clement and his team are suddenly turned into evil alien zombies at some stage and decide to start doing unethical things or breaking the ethical agreements that they were founded upon, then I can easily access my content and put it elsewhere.
In fact, the community and I could choose to replicate the entire Wikifab website and start a new, evil-alien-zombie-free organization to steward the assets.

By avoiding a venture capital based business model, they emphasise a long-term approach, and hugely reduce the likelihood of their platform disappearing and being replaced with a gravestone.

So for me, Wikifab is a great partner for the OSCEdays community and I recommend it highly - if you need any help with the platform, just ask!

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To track real time documentation changes, follow this link:
http://en.wikifab.org/index.php/Special:RecentChanges

@Timm and @Seb35 have started to do so! :hammer: :nut_and_bolt: :wrench: