This new research direction has been inspired by the open source and open hardware movements, and is especially inspired by the newly emerging "open design" movement represented by initiatives such as the Open Architecture Network and Architecture for Humanity, in which principles of open source knowledge and collaboration are being applied as powerful tools for understanding and "hacking" non-digital social and environmental issues, such as disaster relief housing and low-tech design challenges. As a logical evolution, our hope is to look at new ways in which this form of collaboration can be used to tackle the kinds of social and environmental issues which either arise from the use-impacts of new mobile and digital technologies, or may be addressed through some innovative configuration of these technologies (or both). In other words, we want to help develop an Open Design for Sustainable Mobility. New approaches are sought for the "open design" of solutions to specific real-world social and environmental challenges in which mobile technology is implicated.

In this context, "open design" refers to principles of collaborative design, networking and knowledge sharing that circumvent the constraints of standard funding regimes and commercial economic models, derived originally from the open source movement and evolved as a framework for trans-disciplinary civic engagement, mainly for supporting projects focused on developing local solutions to real needs and challenges affecting the common good, while helping transfer these solutions to wider contexts via the same collaborative networks.