DIY and Open Source

When life throws you lemons...  make lemonade.

There's something deeply powerful about doing something ourselves.  Sure, there are our daily tasks that we do ourselves and they are so routine, we may give it very little thought.  Yet, when we are motivated to do something, there is a sense of accomplishment and pride, even if the result is not quite what we expected.

What ever your reasons to DIY, it is great to be able to do so.

So what does DIY look like?

It always remains important to remember that we do not (always) have to DIY.  If we want to buy something, so be it.  The world would certainly be a different place if we did not have the ability to conduct commerce.

Also, DIY does not have to be about Open.  Following instructions on assembling your furniture or cooking or changing oil in a vehicle is just as valuable to the individual, whether Open or restricted.  Often, DIY is more about self gratification than about some altruistic endeavour.

Wikipedia has an article on DIY with a list of web sites for DIY.

Three great web sites for DIY are Instructables and Lifehacker as well as Wikihow.  Basically, they contain instructions on how to do just about anything.  Some of the content is very simplistic.  Other instructions are only for the brave and experienced DIYer.

There are other DIY web sites such as DIY.org which appears to be similar to the sites listed above.

Also, there are the commercial sites with instructions such as Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Do It Yourself, and DIY.ca.

And for those looking to DIY in tech, there's HowtoForge and How-to Geek.  And for the cooking geek, there's Chefsteps.  And for the crafty type, there's Make Magazine, which has quite a selection of projects.

For those who want to up the Do It Yourself game using Open Source, wikipedia has a list of Open Source DIY projects.

So with all that time you have off, with nothing to do...  why not DIY?  Have fun with your projects!