In the 'One Town in Spain' thread, I waxed rhapsodic about efforts re-localize economies, specifically food production. One way to help do that is through Open Source Ecology.
http://opensourceecology.org/about.php
From the website:
Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been creating the Global Village Construction Set, an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS lowers the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing and can be seen as a life-size lego-like set of modular tools that can create entire economies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, in urban redevelopment, or in the developing world.
In other words, at their Factor e Farm they are developing 50 open source, low cost machines that would help local communities reclaim control of their own destiny by rejecting the "tyranny of efficiency" and using appropriate technology.
The Key Features are:
Open Source - we freely publish our 3D designs, schematics, instructional videos, budgets, and product manuals on our open source wiki, and we harness open collaboration with technical contributors.
Low-Cost - The cost of making or buying our machines is on average 8 times cheaper than buying from an Industrial Manufacturer, including labor costs of 15 dollars/hour for a GVCS fabricator.
Modular - Motors, parts, assemblies, and power units can interchange, where units can be grouped together to diversify the functionality that is achievable from a small set of units.
User-Serviceable - Design-for-disassembly allows the user to take apart, maintain, and fix tools readily without the need to rely on expensive repairmen.
DIY - The user gains control of designing, producing, and modifying the GVCS tool set.
Closed Loop Manufacturing - Metal is an essential component of advanced civilization, and our platform allows for recycling metal into virgin feedstock for producing further GVCS technologies - thereby allowing for cradle-to-cradle manufacturing cycles.
High Performance - Performance standards must match or exceed those of industrial counterparts for the GVCS to be viable.
Flexible Fabrication - It has been demonstrated that the flexible use of generalized machinery in appropriate-scale production is a viable alternative to centralized production.
Distributive Economics - We encourage the replication of enterprises that derive from the GVCS platform as a route to truly free enterprise - along the ideals of Jeffersonian democracy.
Industrial Efficiency - In order to provide a viable choice for a resilient lifestyle, the GVCS platform matches or exceeds productivity standards of industrial counterparts.
Great idea which I'm 90% behind but without any R&D where does it lead?
We would not want to live with 11th Century "modern comforts" so our
descendants in a millennia should not have to live with our level of comfort.
Originally posted by wolfgang59 sustainable civilization with modern comforts
Great idea which I'm 90% behind but without any R&D where does it lead?
We would not want to live with 11th Century "modern comforts" so our
descendants in a millennia should not have to live with our level of comfort.
Food for thought though!
Without R&D? As it's open source, there's no limit to the amount of input to the research part. They've done some crowd funding to pay for the development part at their Factor e Farm. They currently have 12 of the 50 machines that are ready to go.
Originally posted by rwingett Without R&D? As it's open source, there's no limit to the amount of input to the research part. They've done some crowd funding to pay for the development part at their Factor e Farm. They currently have 12 of the 50 machines that are ready to go.
R & D doesn't necessarily have to come from either government or corporate sources. Largely, progress has come from individuals, who aren't bothered by bureaucratic nonsense, and just fix stuff.
Originally posted by normbenign R & D doesn't necessarily have to come from either government or corporate sources. Largely, progress has come from individuals, who aren't bothered by bureaucratic nonsense, and just fix stuff.
And an open source system allows them to do just that. Anyone can contribute.
Originally posted by normbenign R & D doesn't necessarily have to come from either government or corporate sources. Largely, progress has come from individuals, who aren't bothered by bureaucratic nonsense, and just fix stuff.
Originally posted by normbenign R & D doesn't necessarily have to come from either government or corporate sources. Largely, progress has come from individuals, who aren't bothered by bureaucratic nonsense, and just fix stuff.
You mean like the tv repairman who invented plasma screens?
Or the guy who turned his gas oven into a microwave in his garden shed?
Originally posted by wolfgang59 You mean like the tv repairman who invented plasma screens?
Or the guy who turned his gas oven into a microwave in his garden shed?
No like the guy that invented the interval windshield wiper. Like the hobbyists who wrote the code for DOS, but didn't know what to do with it.
Originally posted by rwingett In the 'One Town in Spain' thread, I waxed rhapsodic about efforts re-localize economies, specifically food production. One way to help do that is through Open Source Ecology.
http://opensourceecology.org/about.php
From the website:
Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been cre ...[text shortened]... GVCS platform matches or exceeds productivity standards of industrial counterparts.
Thanks for posting this rwingett. I've watched the TED talk and a few of the other videos from the link. This is very cool stuff.
In my work I use Linux constantly in web servers, mail servers, SQL servers, firewalls, VPN's etc, and am always very glad to have it as a free (as in freedom) and powerful alternative to software I'd have to buy. If the same kind of energy and collaboration that went in to creating the open source software revolution can be applied to hardware it could be a tremendous boon for a lot more people than just programmers and network geeks. Very cool indeed.
Originally posted by normbenign R & D doesn't necessarily have to come from either government or corporate sources. Largely, progress has come from individuals, who aren't bothered by bureaucratic nonsense, and just fix stuff.
While that's certainly true, the vast majority of technological innovation is largely funded by either governments, institutional investors or corporations, or a combination thereof. No nuclear power plant could have ever come from an "individual" who just "fixes stuff".
Originally posted by KazetNagorra While that's certainly true, the vast majority of technological innovation is largely funded by either governments, institutional investors or corporations, or a combination thereof. No nuclear power plant could have ever come from an "individual" who just "fixes stuff".
Government regulation is the chief obstacle hindering individuals or small coops from big innovations.
Open Source Ecology
29 Jul '13 20:571 edit
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