It has also been active in promoting diversity and inclusive terminology within the open source hardware movement.

[3][4][5] The OSHWA was established as an organization in June 2012 by Alicia Gibb, who had been working on the Open Hardware Summit during graduate study.

The summit features presentations of projects and developments within the open hardware field from a diverse range of speakers.

[9] OSHWA offers the Ada Lovelace Fellowship that covers the costs of the summit to encourage women, LGBTA+ and/or other minorities to actively participate in open technology.

[11] The certification aims to offer a simple process for producers of open hardware to indicate that their products meet a uniform and well-defined standard for open-source compliance.