OSE Collaboration Architecture

General strategy for Collaboration

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Specifics for On-Site Development

0At Open Source Ecology, we are developing innovative mass collaboration methods. To do this, we are using Module Based Design – breaking design into parts or modules – so that the parts can be developed and built in parallel.

Key to this is a low barrier to collaboration: by using widely accessible tools, teaching people as we go along. Further, we use a building block (construction set) approach: we develop the building blocks so that anyone can use them in a plug-and-play fashion. The building blocks may be complex – but using the building blocks as understandable, readily-made entities – people can build on these to make more complex devices. Underlying all of this is using open source tools.

Such a process must be based on open tools - such that anyone can have access to the tools and get involved. This makes a process potentially scalable to anyone who merely has an interest in getting involved. Open tools involve open hardware and open software – which allows you to “look under the hood” to understand, and then hack design.

Software Tools - Introduction

We use a set of software tools that are cloud, realtime, collaborative, and embeddable. Cloud means that we can access and work over the internet – the work is hosted remotely and can be accessed through the internet. Realtime means that changes can be seen by all collaborators as soon as they happen. Realtime collaborative means that multiple people can be working in different locations around the world while seeing the results updated as they happen. Embeddable means that the resulting documents can be embedded elsewhere: such as on a wiki, in Wordpress, or in a content management system.

Google Docs are an example that has all the features - cloud, realtime, collaborative, embeddable. It is important for all OSE participants to be familiar with Google Docs – usable for text documents, spreadsheets, drawings, forms, and presentations.

Main Tools

It is important to understand how our Main Website, the Wiki, Dozuki, Trovebox, Facebook, and YouTube/Vimeo all contribute to our development.

You can see our different machines under

Design Applications

OSE's collaborative platform involves primarily wikis and google docs. To that, we add Google Hangouts as a place to communicate as a group via video. We use Etherpad as a platform where anyone can edit text collaboratively. We use Dozuki as a Master Index. We use the Main Website to communicate Problem statements on each machine being developed.

CAD Approach

Video Production Approach

Documentation Platform Dozuki explanation – link of Dozuki to Wiki