[p2p-research] decentralizing open source bike production?

[Michel Bauwens]

Very interesting question posed here, but is is 'absolutely' true that scane
trumps decentralized production?

see: http://worldbike.org/what-open-source-bicycle-design

"

What’s hard is open-sourcing the production process. Bicycles that sell in
big box stores for $79 are made by the millions in huge factories in Asia.
The massive economies of scale allow these producers to build and train
robots to cut and miter the metal tubing and weld the frames together. To
get the Worldbike concept to that level of production will require a
significant leap from where we are now. And yet, without doing so, our
customers will be forced to pay higher prices.



How will we secure the participation of factories who are motivated by
profit? Will these factories set a lower minimum order and underwrite some
of the fixed costs for a bicycle that helps people earn a living? Will the
charitable nature of our work resonate with factory owners? Or will
Worldbike.org and other NGO’s have to use donor funds to subsidize the new
bicycles until volumes rise into the millions? Here is where the open-source
analogy breaks down a little bit. But perhaps we can use the spirit of the
open-source movement to freely exchange information about purchasing,
shipping, and selling utility bicycles in developing countries."


-- 
Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

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