Hyperloop: Will the Future of Hi-Tech be Open Source

Written by Priti Ambani

Sep 6, 2013

So you have heard about Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, a futuristic idea to transport passengers, faster and more efficiently than even air travel. Elon has released a 57-page report that outlines his concept that engineers from Tesla and SpaceX have worked on for 9 months.

The neat part about this reveal is that Elon has put forth specifications and details on the Hyperloop, inviting anyone to make the designs and concept better for future implementation.

This “open source” thinking is not new, but gaining traction, especially if we need collaborative action and the minds of many to solve huge infrastructure problems, for example in transportation. Holding corporate secrets close to the chest may work for the secret cola recipe to retain market edge, but problem-solving innovators want the whole ecosystem they exist in to become more efficient. In fact by opening up data and inviting developers may spruce up a new wave of revenue and market for these forward thinking companies. I thinking revealing specs for a futurist-but-still-not-so-futuristis concept like the Hyperloop is a great idea to garner incremental progress to an idea we will need implemented soon.

All this rosy thinking begs the question- will it kill the software business? No – IMHO, not everyone wants to build their applications, but having open source specs helps everyone in the long run. Think innovation potential instead of market dominance.

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About Author

About Author

Priti Ambani

Priti Ambani is the Global Media Director at Crowdsourcing Week, a thought leader and prominent writer on social and environmental enterprises, start-ups and Web 2.0 businesses. As the Director and Managing Editor of Ecopreneurist, Priti has been instrumental in growing the site into a notable social business resource. Specializing in her ability to work with impact organizations from the ground up, Priti has developed successful business and communications strategies for fledgling start-ups, social and environmental enterprises. She also serves as a sustainability consultant at GreenDen consultancy and advises on CSR and the triple bottom line. Priti is a Professional Engineer and holds a Master’s degree in Biological Resources Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.

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