Design Open Source e Tecnologie Assistive: il caso Posta

This chapter highlights the main issues related to the so called Open Source Design in the field of assistive technology devices. We will illustrate the case study of the international project POSTA, whose acronym in Spanish stands for projects of open source assistive technologies. With the expression ‘Assistive Technology’, the international community defines technological devices capable of reducing difficulties that disabled people experience every day: hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication devices, glasses, prostheses, are just a few examples. In recent times, and thanks to the spread of the Open Source philosophy, the self-production of devices is experiencing an important development and constitutes a challenge to the consolidated notions of Design and Intellectual Property. The POSTA case study allows us to reflect on the meaning of contemporary industrial design in relation to assistive products that arise from a collaborative design intent, shared by designers and users via the web platform, to offer feasible 'Do-it-Yourself' solutions, at low cost thanks to the use of emerging technologies that are easily available. The concrete case calls for legal observations and tests the contemporary functions of the Law in the light of the complex intertwining of regulations, that the protection of collaborative projects of this type requires. The issues range from intellectual property rights, to the problem of the responsibility of designers, up to the question of sharing personal data in web platforms. In more general terms, the Open Source Design signals to national and international institutions the urgency to adopt new policies so that emerging technologies are at the service of people, and not vice versa, and to make the rights of vulnerable people effective.