Open Source Ecology (OSE) International
OSE is a global movement and collaboratory. Our goal and current engagement is building the world's first replicable, open source, post-industrial village. The name refers to an ecology, or ecosystem, of open-source hardware that works as an ecological whole. However, the name implies much more than technology - for technology is merely a basis upon which social organization can happen, in harmony with its natural life support systems. The real issue then emerges - the possibility of unprecedented quality of life for all.
To build a post-industrial village, we are developing and testing the set of tools required to build such a village - the Global Village Construction Set. Land stewardship and local production via open source design and digital fabrication - founded on open sharing of information - are the key features of this adventure. Right livelihood and resolution of pressing world issues is the intended byproduct.
See an overview of progress in our ongoing social experiment - the Distillations video series - which covers progress up to the end of 2008.
Inventing a New Civilization on a Shoestring Budget
Say you want to build a village, enterprise, or for that matter - an entire civilization – because civilization is just a compilation of productive enterprises. Say you have only $10k in your pocket. You can begin to build your habitat with a CEB press of 3000 bricks per day production, and a sawmill with 3000 board feet per day of production – easily. You will need a tractor for earth moving and power. These 3 tools total $6500 for materials to build these tools from open source plans. You can then build the entire technological infrastructure with a personal fabrication open source Fab Lab – with metal melting furnace, 3D printer, CNC machines, and circuit fabrication, for another $3500 in materials, for a total of $10k. You’ll have to learn the skill to build and operate the production machinery. We can teach you, and you can even propagate a 5-kingdom gene bank for an entire agricultural infrastructure – it’s on the house. You’ll just have to find yourself some land, sun, water, and scrap steel. What if this package could be self-replicating? Fab Lab and gene bank make it so. Now we’re talking.
An imaginary situation? Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but we’re taking the development of the above very seriously at Factor e Farm. See the Distillations videos. And if you are compelled to help - we started a request for proposals for the First World Conference on Open Source Ecology. Please consider applying.
If you can’t make it to the Conference, but would like to support this as a True Fan of this work, then subscribe to our campaign by going to our blog.
Factor e Farm
- Our main open source collaboratory and land-based development facility, since 2007, is Factor e Farm, in the Kansas City area, central USA. See our weblog for ongoing updates.
- Ongoing events and workshops are posted at the Factor e Farm mailing list
- Our Drupal website is here
- First year of Factor e Farm
- Wiki development site for the Global Village Construction Set
- Donate to the project
- Subscribe to this work:
- The first university chapter of OSE started in 2008 at the U. Missouri, Columbia
- See our legacy webpage here.
- Archives of some of our theory and history are here.
External Links
- P2P Foundation called us, arguably, the most important social experiment in the world
- BoingBoing article on the open source, CEB press - [The Liberator]
- Wired magazine blog on The Liberator
- Discussion of the economic model for open source production - with The Liberator as a case in point
- Followup discussion on economic sustainability of open production by P2P Foundation
- Discussion on land stewardship basis of distributive economies
- Open source design and manufacturing resource at the P2P Foundation - [1]
- OSE Specifications for Distributive Production and internal link
- Review of sustainability movements - [2]
- Greenr - Accelerate the Change - blog post on Open Source Ecology
- Swiss blog discussing the wealth of resources that come from land
Videos
- Factor e Live series - chronicles of Global Village construction
- Video Interview on Global Swadeshi Dialogues
- Video of Presentation on the Global Village Construction Set, U. Missouri, Columbia, 2008
- Audio interview with Agroinnovations
Highlights of our Work
- Advanced Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press prototype done
- Open source tractor prototype in action
- Product ecology overview
- OSE Product Development Cycle
- Neocommercialization of open source technology
- Technical proposal for the Global Village Construction Set
Collaboration
- Core Development Team application - for the Global Village Construction Set
- Solar Turbine development email group
- Student internships and research - see Research Projects
- We are accepting organic farming internships through ATTRA, Organic Volunteers, and WWOOF
- Find out why you should donate here.
Recent Activity at Factor e Farm
Last updated 12/09
- December 2009 - First CEB press is in production
- December 2009 - Building open source lathe
- December 2009 - LifeTrac prototype II in design phase