Open Know-How and an Open Source Hardware Registry as a Unifying Discoverability Mechanism for Open Source Hardware Humanitarian Engineering Projects

At least five organizations maintain libraries of open source humanitarian engineering projects designed to support rapid distribution and manufacturing, with the potential to alleviate suffering globally. However, these projects are described using various data formats, making them difficult for the general public to discover and access. Additionally, only the leadership of these disparate libraries can add new projects, further limiting accessibility. To address these challenges, we present the Open Source Hardware (OSH) registry modeled on the Arduino Library system. This unified registry endeavors to standardize project metadata, enhance discoverability, and improve the global response to humanitarian crises.