How much is your thing worth?

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This is a design of the money sign -- a symbol for the enormous value of sharing your designs with open licenses. To calculate the value of your design for the world, use the techniques in this paper. Instructions: This is a design of the money sign -- a symbol for the enormous value of sharing your designs with open licenses. To calculate the value of your design for the world, use the techniques in the paper. Description: Pearce, J.M. (2015) Quantifying the Value of Open Source Hardware Development. Modern Economy, 6, 1-11. Open Access Abstract: As digital manufacturing technologies like 3-D printing mature, a new paradigm emerges of distributed manufacturing for both scientific equipment and consumer goods. Free and open source hardware designs are known as FOSH. The value of these FOSH designs is significant to those with access to digital manufacturing methods, particularly scientists who need highly-customized low-volume production products. Traditional funding models struggle to support the necessary investment in FOSH development because it's challenging to quantify its value. To overcome this challenge and capitalize on opportunities in both low-cost scientific equipment and consumer products, this article evaluates three methods to quantify the value of FOSH design: 1) downloaded substitution valuation; 2) avoided reproduction valuation; and 3) market savings valuation, along with additional benefits like market expansion, scientific innovation acceleration, educational enhancement, and medical care improvement. The strengths and weaknesses of these methods are analyzed, showing that they're relatively easy to implement using reliable freely-available data and minimizing assumptions. A case study of a syringe pump with numerous scientific and medical applications is presented, revealing millions of dollars in economic value from a simple scientific device released under open licenses, representing orders of magnitude more than conventional proprietary development. The clear conclusion of this study is that FOSH development should be funded by organizations seeking to maximize return on public investments, particularly in technologies related to science, medicine, and education. Updates: