Blog Update Feb 2015

Treatment

Points: We got lots of proof of concept supporting delivery of magical goals. It is time to go the last mile on economic significance.

• Development velocity
• Extreme Manufacturing
• Single day builds. This is significant. We know of no other company or production mechanism that can produce a comlete heavy machine

Script

It's been quite a ride over the last 4 years. We introduced the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS)

50 icons - with 4 year update across them

on the world stage at TED in 2011:

TED Talk

The promise is grand: developing the distributed, open source economy. Solving problems faster than they are created.

Critics of the open source economy point out that Open source is a system of development that doesn't have the requisite positive feedback loops needed to build a viable economic system. John Robb Critique of Open Source - par. 13. This is a belief held firmly in the economic mainstream - and is a reason why open source companies suffer significant risk of Pulling a Makerbot.

We've been busy showing that revenue models can be built upon efficient production, and that they are efficient because they are open source: contributors work for free or for pay to develop products that can be sold.

Efficiency is key to the success of open source economics. In December 2012, we have shown for the first time that one of our heavy machines, the Compressed Earth Block (CEB) Press, can be built in a single day. We did this by a combination of digital fabrication and swarm build techniques where modular design allowed for a rapid, parallel, Extreme Build process.

Video 2012 Dec 18

The promise of the distributed approach lies in enhancing access to raw productive power. We have learned that our plans are sufficient for someone to download and build machines on their own. In 2011, the first ever independent replication - ref occurred.

James Slade Replication - and link to other replications.

About a dozen other replications followed until the present, and overall 104 GVCS machines or products were built in total. Most were built at the OSE headquarters in Missouri. Most were heavy product like the brick press, tractors, and MicroHouses - and also a few small ones like the Micro Power Cube or 3D Printer.

Graph of machines built - small - link to page

While we were supported by the Shutleworth Foundation in 2012 and 2013, we cranked out prototype product. Once foundation money ran out in 2014, we began earning - again. In 2011, we made our first sales of early release tractors, brick presses, and power cubes. We netted $25k, showing that open product generates revenue. Building upon these results, we added a second revenue stream to our production model: immersion, hands-on training in metal fabrication. It's a social production model that includes revenue from production (sale of machine) and workshop tuitions. When we produced the brick press last year, we cleared $10k from a weekend workshop. We are applying our rapid, parallel, swarming, modular build techniques - to a model that we call Extreme Manufacturing. This model relies on the premise that we know how to build machines in a single day.

Picture - scott et al with joy pressing the brick.

The brick press can be a killer app if we can produce high performance houses with at a fraction of standard construction. it by applying the XM model for house building.

https://www.facebook.com/OpenSourceEcology/photos/pcb.10153056715941562/10153056712416562/?type=1&theater

In 2014, we built 3 microhouse module prototypes. The last one featured a design-build collab with about 100 people, and we produced a fully featured, 800 sf addition, with CEB walls, in-ground hydronic heat, and modular construction for under $25k. We built the thing