Recovery Through the Open Source Design Movement

With the devastation in Haiti fresh in mind, Good's Alissa Walker takes a look at the growing practice of sharing design ideas.

1 minute read

January 28, 2010, 11:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


It's essentially the open source movement for design, where ideas and designs are freely shared to facilitate social change. In this case, some of those designs could be shared to ease the recovery in Haiti.

"Offering up proprietary information seems like a radical departure for companies involved in research and development, but it's becoming standard for many creative and technology firms to share. Designers, with a flair for making complex information visible and understandable, are especially skilled in this area. Transparency is one of the key tenets of the Designers Accord, which is the biggest global community of creatives focused on creating positive impact (and another of the GOOD 100). The Designers Accord mission instructs adopters to "codify best practices to achieve the greatest impact," which includes publishing their tools and materials. After the group's first summit last year (with GOOD's Casey Caplowe above), founder Valerie Casey is planning on making their findings public with an educators toolkit. Another conference, the Aspen Design Summit, which convened in November, has gone to special lengths to make the outcome of the summit widely available, and publishes updates on Change Observer. Paul Polak's book Out of Poverty is essentially a guidebook for designers and entrepreneurs who want to bring social change to economically-depressed communities."

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 in Good

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Wastewater pouring out from a pipe.

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage

Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

April 13, 2025 - Inside Climate News

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

April 16, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Black and white photos of camp made up of small 'earthquake shacks' in Dolores Park in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees

More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

April 15, 2025 - Charles F. Bloszies

People walking up and down stairs in New York City subway station.

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving

Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

April 18 - Scientific American

White public transit bus with bike on front bike rack in Nashville, Tennessee.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan

Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

April 18 - Bloomberg CityLab

An engineer controlling a quality of water ,aerated activated sludge tank at a waste water treatment plant.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding

The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.

April 18 - Smart Cities Dive