OpenGadget has been invited to attend the 2010 Airventure held in Oshkosh, WI.  The normally "sleepy" little class D airport has the distinction of the being the busiest airport in the world...for an ENTIRE WEEK!  We will be demonstrating the worlds first publicly available 3D build manual.   Back in Feb 2010 we partnered with Ravin Aircraft to bring the 3D images of the Ravin 500 out of the hard drive and into the hands of the public.  Almost everything produced today starts from a CAD drawing and yet the view perspectives are so commpeling we wanted to know why more people don't use it.  The fact is that pure CAD can be difficult, and OpenGadget is out to change that.  We want to put more 3D content into people's hands so they can actually use it..without having to spend hours and hours learning CAD?  Will you build an airplane..maybe not..but now with this class of data..you certainly will have the tools if you decide to try, just like all these other 400,000 people who go to Oshkosh at least once a year.  Take a look around at the OpenGadget library and see what we have to offer.  If you want to see the Ravin500 in 3D then just type the key word RAVIN in the search box.

You can find Ravin aircraft, two of the model 500's, the LP1 from Algie and OpenGadget in booth 642,643.

Open-source hardware takes steps toward gadget mainstream
Originally published March 3rd,2010 in Computerworld

Open-source software is one of the great success stories of the past few decades. The Apache HTTP Server is the world's most popular Web server, Linux has more than held its own against Unix and other proprietary operating systems, and Mozilla's Firefox browser has given Microsoft's Internet Explorer strong competition over the years.

Could the same philosophy -- the free and public dissemination of underlying code and specs, with multiple developers from disparate sources contributing to the design -- work for tech gadgets as well? Will we one day commonly use smartphones, netbooks or other gadgets that have been developed under an open-source model, maybe even preferring them over proprietary products like the iPhone?