State of Open Con 2023

Circular Economy is the great hope for decoupling economic development from environmental harm. The most powerful circular approach in the context of ICT products is product life extension, because of where we are with recycling technologies and with the ability to use recovered materials in ICT production.

The current OEM distribution model is not able to handle this effectively and the market needs to be open to service providers (refurbishment, maintenance, repair) so that equipment can be cascaded and re-used between users and so that component level upgrades are possible at a local and individual level. This also enables new systems to be built from existing and re-used components.

An open exchange of knowledge on hardware refurbishment and the related software support is essential to this - including open exchange of energy efficiency metrics, measurement, and validation technology. A level playing field for comparison of performance across generations, makes and models is essential for good decision making. For example, OCP data center hardware needs to be compared to OEM equipment, which means expanding measurement concepts and efforts such as SPEC to OCP servers.

Such comparisons will enable an effective balance of scope 3, scope 2 and material efficiency constraints. They require cooperation, collaboration and a different approach to business. Importantly, such a cooperative approach can be profitable - providing economic benefits in terms of job creation and business growth. Governments are alert to this (e.g. with circular economy action plans, sustainability reporting) but will need help from marketplace participants - suppliers, consumers, and service providers.

The Circular Economy is an opportunity for the ICT community to step up and do something powerful based on the unique ethics and proven leverage of open collaboration.