[p2p-research] Fwd: Free Manufacturing idea

[Smári McCarthy]

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Karlis,

  This sounds like a good project.

  I have been doing some work with Bryan Bishop, Ben Lipkowitz and Sam
Rose (CC'd) on the idea of creating a database of manufacturing
processes where each defines a set of inputs and outputs as well as
documenting the process itself to a human readable degree.

  Creating such a machine-readable database of interactions would pave
the way for computational solutions of arbitrary "manufacturing graph"
queries such as, "given my available stock of materials, what is the
shortest path to create an electric toothbrush?"

  Of course for that level of details the database would need to be
extremely large and contain a multitude of object designs as well as
processes. The beauty of this is, though, that the simple process of
defining it makes a standard definition of datafiles for the
manufacturing of anything, which could be adopted for use in 3D
printers, CNC mills, etc.

  From here we talk of capabilities: What are the manufacturing
capabilities associated with a particular piece of hardware? Or rather:
Which manufacturing processes are made available by a particular piece
of hardware.

  When we have knowledge of this, we can start geographically mapping
equipment and materials, to add a "distance" notion to the question of
"how to manufacture anything".

  You can imagine where we go from there.

  This kind of project is no less important than the design and
construction of devices like the RepRap...

  Now, how does this relate to your concept? Primarily, I would argue,
in that this book should be a guide on how to view the abstract notion
of manufacturing given this new manufacturing ecosystem that we are
trying to build. It should document equipment, common analytical,
chemical, mechanical and computational processes, and methodology, and
should generally serve as an entry point for people into the world of
free manufacturing.

  Perhaps you think of this differently, and that's fine, these are just
my two cents.

  It's good to have you on board! Your background in CFD could help with
a lot of things that would be highly beneficial, such as defining a
parametric design for Tesla turbines... and more generally easy
accessible documentation and modeling software would be great.

	- Smári


Michel Bauwens wrote:
> Dear friends,
> 
> here is a very important free manufacturing initiative.Karlis is asking
> for feedback, Thanks for doing this,
> 
> Michel
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Kārlis Repsons <karlis.repsons at gmail.com
> <mailto:karlis.repsons at gmail.com>>
>> To: michelsub2003 at yahoo.com <mailto:michelsub2003 at yahoo.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 11:44:16 PM
>> Subject: Free Manufacturing idea
>>
>> Hello!
>>
>> My name is Kārlis Repsons, I am a young physics graduate, who changed mind
>> about going to CFD doctoral studies, because of perceived global
> problems and
>> misuse/small value of my possible work in the field of CFD.
>> What I do right now and why you are reading my letter is an idea about
>> manufacturing inspired by free software. I have made some containers for
>> collaboration on writing a book "Free Manufacturing and Support" already.
>>
>> Since you have taken up even wider initiative, it would be interesting
> for me
>> to initiate some contacts with you. Freely available manufacturing
>> information is of crucial importance to allow new production to happen
> and be
>> improved, but I happen to think, that FM needs some reference work, which
>> would contain every essential information - definitions, goals,
> motivations,
>> solutions, problems and more. My solution, obviously, was to set up an
>> infrastructure for writing a book and now efforts to find contributors.
>>
>> My hope is, that you could advice/participate on some sections on that
> book or
>> help with contacts, so some network could be built for writing that book.
>>
>> If this is interesting, please look here:
>> http://gitorious.org/free-manufacturing .
>> Most of content still needs to be added, of course.
>> In the precompiled book there is a section "book writing", which explains
>> about technical solutions, using which it is written. They might be
>> interesting for you too.
>>
>> Let me know about this...
>> And I shake your hand for daring to work on P2P things!
>>
>> Best,
>> Kārlis
>> (Latvia)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Working at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University -
> http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html -
> http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
> 
> Volunteering at the P2P Foundation:
> http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net -
> http://p2pfoundation.ning.com
> 
> Monitor updates at http://del.icio.us/mbauwens
> 
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