In what has to be one of the most interesting ideas in recent days, Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch has proposed building an open source tablet PC specifically designed for surfing the Web.  If he pulls this off it could change the way hardware is built and marketed.

His plans are ambitious (and supposedly realistic).  He envisions a device that:

• Costs $200
• Is MacBook Air-thin
• Runs FireFox and Skype
• Has built-in wifi, 500MB of RAM, and a 4GB hard drive
• Has a headphone jack, speakers, and a microphone

The device itself sounds pretty cool, I'd probably buy one for surfing on the couch at home.  He's absolutely right about the concept, something is needed to surf the Internet in an easy, unobtrusive manner.  But I think Mike's plan for making the product materialize is even more interesting:

We’ll organize a small team of people to spec this out. First is the marketing document that just outlines what the machine will do - we have a first draft of that already and will post it soon. Then we’ll spec out the hardware and get people to help write the customized Linux and Firefox code. Once we’ve completed the design we’ll start to work with the supply chain company to get an idea on the cost of the machine (the goal is $200), and hopefully build a few prototypes. Anyone who contributes significantly to the project would get one of those first prototypes. If everything works well, we’d then open source the design and software and let anyone build one that wants to.

If this actually works it could be the first time that a relatively complex piece of hardware is actually brought to reality via an open-source initiative.  This, I think, is even cooler than the device itself, as to this point in time sophisticated hardware has only come from highly specialized electronics companies like Apple, Sony, Samsung, etc.  Opening this market to the community is an exciting idea that I hadn't even thought of much up to this point.

We're pretty used to open source software at this point, just about everybody uses it in some form or another.  (The higher your "geek quotient" the more likely you are to use open source software, but MANY people I know who aren't in the tech industry use FireFox now.)  Extending this comfort and familiarity into the physical realm and making open source hardware common would change a LOT of things.  I can envision open source televisions, stereos, headsets, and even full laptops coming invading the market if this gets traction.

There's already open source hardware out there, but it's REALLY rough around the edges.  There's an MP3 player and at least the software portion of an open source mobile phone, but they're not ready for prime time.  I wonder if something like Arrington's Internet tablet might propel this idea of open source hardware to the extent that it could really get some legs and make an impact in the marketplace.  Setting up a business where consumers can configure and order a customized piece of electronics from open source designs might be an intriguing business idea in the next couple of years.