View source for Who is behind open source hardware?

In order to get a clearer view of participants in open source product development projects, we developed ''personas'', that is, the depiction of fictional and archetypal people synthesized from observations of many real people. These personas are intended to represent different types of participants in open source product development projects as well as their distinctive characteristics. 

We came out with the five following characters (click on their name to learn more about them):
<gallery>
Martine - portrait.png|[[Martine, the active follower‎]]
Mira - portrait.png|[[Mira, the inventive creator]]
Paul - portrait.png|[[Paul, the community manager]]
Thomas - portrait.png|[[Thomas, maker and geek]]
Xobile - portrait.png|[[Xobile, the open source entrepreneur]]
</gallery>

Personas are described regarding five main aspects:
* '''Curriculum Vitae''': significant aspects of their life so far which are of interest regarding their participation in open source product development projects.
* '''A day in the life''': what they do in the day-to-day basis, especially regarding their participation in open source product development projects.
* '''Leisure activities and interests''': what they generally like to do elsewise, the activities which make them happy.
* '''Personal goals & values''': what are their motivations to create or join an open source product development community, what is their vision of open source. 
* '''Communication and Interaction''': how, why and with which intensity they interact with their surrounding community.

They were created through three steps:
# Interviews with participants in open source product development projects
# Segmentation, that is, identification of recurrent patterns (in terms of goals, attitudes, behaviours) allowing to group similar people together into types of users.
# Synthesis of a persona for each segment, making them realistic by supplying them with a name, a photo and demographic information.

As it is said in the movies: Any resemblance to real persons, organisations, products and situations is purely coincidental.