KipOpen is an open community investment web application. A decentralized online investment platform where informed consumers can purchase open goods.

The KipOpen application is designed to provide a viable economic path for the development of open technologies (specifically hardware and software). The overall aim is to shift the current economics of open technology (largely based on aggregate donations and corporate sponsorships) to a demand-sided model by directly connecting informed consumers with engineers and developers (see the FAQ for more general info).

KipOpen is developed such that anyone can download it and install in their own average computer/server (e.g. a spare netbook or a cheap single board computer …etc). Thus any interested person (most likely for profit/commissions) can host a local open marketplace where technical users can create open designs/products and informed consumers can purchase and vote on those designs/products.

Our long term goal with KipOpen is to facilitate the commercialization of open technology. We see a future where open is the de-facto standard for consumer products.

An open and decentralized market where informed consumers can purchase open goods to meet their everyday necessities is indeed a long-shot, but we believe with the right economics, it is possible and that is our goal.

Finally the name, KipOpen stands for Keep Intellectual Property Open, but it also stands for Keep Investment Platform Open. But after all it is just a name.



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