6 steps to calculate ROI for an open hardware project: 
Free and open source software advocates have courageously blazed a trail that is now being followed by those interested in open source for physical objects. It’s called free and open source hardware (FOSH), and we’re seeing an exponential rise in the number of free designs for hardware released under opensource licenses, Creative Commons licenses,or placed in the public domain.
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Opensource.com – jmpearce
Supporting Open Source.