The open source solution

摘要

On Oct. 15, 2002, a group of leading researchers, scientists, web and IT specialists, engineers, and business leaders met in Cambridge, MA, U.S. at the MIT Open Source Building Alliance (OSBA) workshop. Many of the companies participating are currently serving the building industry; others see this as an opportunity to become key players in this mammoth USD830-billion-per-year market. The OSBA hopes to address the many problems faced by today's building industry. As the needs of people have quickly changed, the housing industry has lagged. Currently in the U.S., 50 percent of a new home's construction cost goes to field labor, with only 20 percent going toward materials. The result: the majority of Americans live in low-quality, low-tech, difficult-to-upgrade, costly-to-maintain domiciles.