Ideas

Ideas before they become OC projects:

• Open power connector for mobile phones, PDAs and laptops. (Wikipedia lists a variety of connectors -- or were you looking for an AC power connector? What sort of specification do you want?)
• Open design laptop (you can replace the components). (see computer component wiki: custom notebook)
• Open data cable. Random good ideas: "One under-appreciated attribute is that the moving parts of the connector are on the cable side, not the system side; when the connector begins to show some wear and tear, the cable is thrown away, not the PC (or printer, or disk drive, or camera)." -- Michael Teener [1] ... Many popular data cables also include power (Power over Ethernet, FireWire -- but not the iLink variant, USB)... What voltage? extra-low voltage [2]? ... Is it better to have the same connector on both ends of the cable, or have different connectors? Same connector allows peer-to-peer arbitrary mesh; different connectors afford/suggest a tree topology ... putting 2 connectors on every device, "upstream" and "downstream", allows linear daisy-chaining; 3 identical connectors allow any arbitrary-dimensional topology ... the round pins vs. flat blades (vs. other connector shapes) controversy[3] ... optical isolation (like MIDI hardware) seems like a good idea ... When someone trips over the cable, destruction of the fixed socket is unacceptable -- but is it better to destroy the cable, or to let the cable pop out? ... twisted pair for power, and twisted pair for data ... Some data line codes (such as the one used for USB) are designed to work even when the twisted pair is accidentally twisted an extra half-twist; is it worth arranging things so the entire plug can be plugged in with an extra half-twist with no problems (like automobile keys) ? ... What's this I hear about non-contact power pads?