[p2p-research] Fwd: open source ecology status update

Fri Oct 10 17:33:12 CEST 2008

from marcin jakubowski:

.......

Community Supported Manufacturing - Careers in Global Village Engineering

Michel has asked me to provide a guest update on Open Source Ecology's
(http://www.appropedia.org/index.php?title=Open_Source_Ecology) Factor
e Farm (http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/) developments. Here we provide
the latest status - which will hopefully show the reader why Michel
called us potentially the 'most important social experiment in the
world' (
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/marcin-jakubowskis-open-farm-the-most-important-social-experiment-in-the-world/2008/01/22
).
We also raise the discussion on right livelihood as a likely byproduct
in a peer-based economy.

Our present focus is neocommercialization
(http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Neocommercialization) of an open source,
high performance Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press - The Liberator
(http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=91), which we designed, built, and
are presently testing in the field. (link -
http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=311)

On the ground, we are beginning to build our living and production
facilities - with the CEB press powered by a high-performance, open
source tractor, LifeTrac (http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=313) -
which we also designed, built, and are testing it in the field
(http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=329). This tractor is also used in
site preparation and earth preparation for the CEB press.

We have new ground to break within the greater context for these
developments - a viable, open business model - which was discussed
previously by Steve Bosserman with The Liberator as the case in point.
(
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/steve_bosserman/2008/02/09/giving_it_away_making_money.htm
)

Friends, we are getting close to making that entire package a reality
- a community-supported manufacturing
(http://www.postcarbon.org/relocalize/manufacturing) operation,
utilizing open source digital fabrication (reference on CEB
infrastructure) in the process. We are talking about an economically
significant product.

What is community-supported manufacturing?

For us, this means that the entire product development process, from
design to prototype to actual fabrication facility - is supported by a
community of developers. This includes design, funding, and actual
building of the CEB press. Factor e Farm is the site of the
fabrication facility pilot - and that's where the present CEB
construction comes in.

So far we have seen decent success in crowd-supported funding. We put
up our funding page on our wiki, and have collected about $1500 (of a
total of about $3000) for the month of October. We have 3 weeks left
to reach our goal - and we purchase materials and get work done as
fast as funding and people-power permits. Our budget is about $3000
per month - which is dirt cheap for producing state-of-art
infrastructure - because of our strategy to keep overhead costs to a
minimum by investing heavily in the supporting infrastructure - namely
land, off-grid power, capacity to build (CEB), low-maintenance cost
open source tractor, etc. We're essentially doing 1st world work on a
third-world budget. Please support us at our funding site -
(http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Open_Source_Ecology:Site_support)

Even more important than funding is people. At present, we have me,
Brittany, and Bob. Alex Rollin is expected to arrive on Saturday, and
we are in the process of discussion with other potential
collaborators.

If you want to be a part of creating history, join our team. We are
looking for people who can stay with our team for at least a one month
period - and bring other pieces of the Global Village Construction Set
(http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=UM_Presentation) to life. Our
goal is no less than building the world's first replicable,
post-industrial village - with a diversified and sufficient economy.
We want to demonstrate that unprecedented quality of life, including
cultural and scientific advancement - can occur on a small scale, and
without geopolitical compromise. We also want to demonstrate that
integrated economic activity as such is sufficient to produce a
peer-based means of exchange founded on transparent production
capacity - which can be utilized for non-local trade and would serve
as, what is known today as, the money system (italic). Email us for
further details (mailto:joseph.dolittle at gmail.com)

The foundation of a global village is production. This is where our
first product, the CEB machine, comes in - as the first example of
efficient production that can compete in the marketplace with any
other player - and is indeed predicted to be a factor 5 lower in cost
than the 'competition.' Here are further details on our economic
model.

First, we rely on voluntary contributions for the entire project.

We aim to be in production of the CEB press by March. As such, we give
official notice here that we are looking for 4 dedicated collaborators
to operate this enterprise as a 50% time commitment - by coming here -
where rest of the time is taken up with further product research and
development. If you would like to join our team - please contact us
(mailto:joseph.dolittle at gmail.com). We are looking for people with
skills, or people who can learn skills quickly by immersion training
with us. The goal is to set up flexible fabrication capacity for
on-demand production.The lifestyle is one of right livelihood, where
participants live according to Factor e Farm's social contract.
(http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Factor_e_Farm_Social_Contract)

This being said - our goal is to build the production capacity of up
to 4 CEB machines per week. We expect that each machine will take
20-30 hours of labor - once production is optimized.

The community-supported manufacturing model means that the producer
and user benefit. The user gets a product at the cost of production -
materials and labor. We are considering charging $100 per hour of
optimal fabrication time. The user gets The Liberator for $4-5k, and
we make $2-3k per machine. We are designing a 4 machine per week
production operation. This has an earning potential of $50k per month.

The point is, we will transition from total dependence on crowds -  to
production - as our means of support. We will put all money into
developing our post-industrial village - hoping that earnings from
productivity will result in rocket fuel towards additional product
development of the GVCS.

In order to get to optimized production, here is an overview of the
tasks to be accomplished:

1. Demonstrate the building of CEB structures - October - November
2. Build a CNC torch table to cut metal for the CEB machine - December
3. Test the torch table, build an improved CEB prototype (#2) - January
4. Test prototype, optimize torch table design, and build a third
prototype to test replicability - February
5. Streamline production workflow and workshop design, and begin
production - March
6. Produce detailed documentation and training materials - April
7. Host training workshops for users and fabricators beginning in May

Each phase requires about $3k in funding as the bare bones minimum.

The interesting part is that we are developing an open business model.
Our entire CEB fabrication package is open source - and we will
produce high quality documentation and training materials in the
coming months. This way, others can replicate the business.

What's in it for you? If you have dreamt of right livelihood with no
compromise - this may be the seed of such possibility. When open
source GVCS products are developed - people will have the ability to
replicate productive operations of all sorts - ecoenterprise, global
villages, workshops in backyards, mainstream production operations,
etc. Our main focus, though, is the post-industrial village. We will
host conferences in the future in which we gather stakeholders - with
an explicit goal of creating another post-industrial village as a
tangible outcome. The conference consists of building a real global
village.

Why? Because if enough of these villages are created, then a viable
lifestyle option is created. That small percentage of 2-7% of the
industrialized world - who is fed up with business-as-usual
destruction - will have a full option to live as they want to. This is
what Vinay calls the Unplugged Lifestyle
(http://howtolivewiki.com/en/The_Unplugged), and what I have proposed
as the Buying Out at the Bottom package
(http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Organizational_Strategy).

Because our model is open source, we don't expect to make a killing -
because we value sharing more than making a killing. We are forced to
diversify. Realistically, I predict that we will have one or a few
machines sold every month. Each machine earns us $3k, which is
sufficient to run a bare-bones research budget for one month. This
would be a good step towards funding a world-class open source product
development facility.

The evolution of an integrated village economy of our interest is to
develop not only the CEB Press - but tractors, solar energy systems,
fabrication equipment, cars, electronics, foodstuffs, fuels, etc - the
whole substance of a real economy. We think that with a community of
about 12-24 people, we will be fundraising and generating the
equivalent of at least $600k worth of value per year as the minimum
requirement for world-class research. At such level of productivity,
cultural advancement and replication become possible.

The reality check will come once the CEB machine is in production,
with 4 machine per week production capacity. Space will not be wasted
if we don't have a lot of sales - because it will be a flexible
facility for producing all types of products.

Replication follows once a number of products is developed. The
ability to replicate global villages on demand requires training. The
integrated skill set cannot be learned in college. Our plan is to
offer: (1) a basic science and technology literacy primer, as applied
to agroecology and flexible fabrication; (2) immersion training - 2
years at Factor e Farm - where you learn how to build a village
infrastructure; (3) producer/fabricator training for any of the
enterprises that we develop; (4) full Global Village Engineering
degrees - created from scratch, and non-compliant with any known
accreditation system, simply because they are too far ahead of their
time.

In summary, join our team, or watch our updates on the blog, and help
us make this happen by volunteering and donating
(http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Open_Source_Ecology:Site_support).
We are all volunteers here - meaning that we pursue a program out of
our own will, instead of compensation for alienation.

Marcin Jakubowski
Open Source Ecology, founder
http://www.appropedia.org/index.php?title=Open_Source_Ecology

--
----
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new
problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 1:38 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> This is the last mention of your project,
>
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/open-source-ecology-project-looking-for-volunteers/2008/10/07
>
> Feel free to write what you want, if you don´t have access yet, James can
> provide you with an id-pw
>
> I look forward to your contribution,
>
> Michel
>
> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:33 PM, Marcin Jakubowski
> <joseph.dolittle at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Yes, I'd like to contribute on the P2P blog regarding our status. Tell me
>> more.
>>
>> Marcin
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 12:12 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Hi Marcin,
>> >
>> > I have the same history of non-response from Dave, except for that one
>> > time
>> > the past few weeks on resilient communities. I suggest that you leave a
>> > comment on his blog?
>> >
>> > Otherwise, just try several times, until he responds ...
>> >
>> > There is a huge intentional communities organization on the web, you
>> > could
>> > also try the direct way,
>> >
>> > Sorry, can do/suggest no more for now, on the road until the 13th,
>> >
>> > May I invite both of you to write a special contribution on the status
>> > of
>> > your projects, for our blog, during my absense?
>> >
>> > Michel
>> >
>> >
>> > On 10/7/08, Marcin Jakubowski <joseph.dolittle at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Vinay and Michel,
>> >>
>> >> It sounded from past email exchanges like Dave Pollard of How to Save
>> >> the World Blog could really help OSE connect to the intentional
>> >> communities movement. I sent him an email regarding helping us find
>> >> people, but I have heard no response.
>> >>
>> >> Do you have any suggestions or insights?
>> >>
>> >> Marcin
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> ----
>> >> A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
>> >> butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
>> >> accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
>> >> give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new
>> >> problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
>> >> efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
>> >>
>> >> -- Robert A. Heinlein
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer
>> > alternatives.
>> >
>> > Wiki and Encyclopedia, at http://p2pfoundation.net; Blog, at
>> > http://blog.p2pfoundation.net; Newsletter, at
>> > http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p
>> >
>> > Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; interview
at
>> > http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/09/p2p-very-core-of-world-to-come.html
>> > BEST VIDEO ON P2P:
>> > http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=4549818267592301968&hl=en-AU
>> >
>> > KEEP UP TO DATE through our Delicious tags at
>> > http://del.icio.us/mbauwens
>> >
>> > The work of the P2P Foundation is supported by SHIFTN,
>> > http://www.shiftn.com/
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ----
>> A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
>> butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
>> accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
>> give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new
>> problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
>> efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
>>
>> -- Robert A. Heinlein
>
>
>
> --
> The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer
> alternatives.
>
> Wiki and Encyclopedia, at http://p2pfoundation.net; Blog, at
> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net; Newsletter, at
> http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p
>
> Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; interview at
> http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/09/p2p-very-core-of-world-to-come.html
> BEST VIDEO ON P2P:
> http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=4549818267592301968&hl=en-AU
>
> KEEP UP TO DATE through our Delicious tags at http://del.icio.us/mbauwens
>
> The work of the P2P Foundation is supported by SHIFTN,
> http://www.shiftn.com/
>

--
----
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new
problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

-- 
The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer
alternatives.

Wiki and Encyclopedia, at http://p2pfoundation.net; Blog, at
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net; Newsletter, at
http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p

Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; interview at
http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/09/p2p-very-core-of-world-to-come.html
BEST VIDEO ON P2P:
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=4549818267592301968&hl=en-AU

KEEP UP TO DATE through our Delicious tags at http://del.icio.us/mbauwens

The work of the P2P Foundation is supported by SHIFTN,
http://www.shiftn.com/
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