OScH in the Wild: Dissemination of Open Science Hardware and Implications for HCI

Open Science Hardware (OScH) refers to open-source alternatives for proprietary scientific equipment. While the OScH movement aims to reduce barriers for scientific experimentation both in and beyond professional labs, disseminating OScH for widespread adoption proves to be challenging in practice. To this end, we examined real-world practices related to the dissemination of OScH through a two-part study. First, we developed an open science hardware, a DIY incubator, and disseminated it through the Instructables website and maker workshops. In parallel, we interviewed eight open science hardware practitioners from different parts of the world. Insights from interviews together with our own self-reflections revealed how different OScH dissemination modalities serve unique purposes. Our findings also reveal several challenges for widespread adoption of OScH and the importance of collaborations between OScH developers. We conclude by discussing the opportunities for HCI to lower barriers for customization, support internationalization of OScH, and scaffold proactive distributed collaborations between developers and users.