Within the last decade numerous open source product development (OSPD) projects have emerged extending the concept of open source software in the world of tangible products. These projects are characterized by the free revealing of their product development information with the intention of stimulating community feedback, product replications and collaborative development. Based on empirical data acquired from 76 projects, this contribution characterizes how OSPD projects use the public space offered by the internet and the existing online sharing platforms to stimulate attention and contributions from product development communities. It particularly focusses on the identification of gaps between actual practices and generally acknowledged best practices. On the one hand, the identified gaps allow deriving conclusions on the current state of development of OSPD. On the other hand, this indicates a general heterogeneity in the approaches followed by OSPD projects which is discussed
