OSE Strategy Notes

Summary of Points

• Extreme Meaning, Extreme Manufacfuring - the premise of OSE's development method is that a large development team can be gathered based on the essential meaning of the GVCS, captured partially in the GVCS Ted Talk and continued throughout the work of OSE. The experiment is such: is it possible to match the human resources of a large corporation without a budget, by replacing alienation for compensation with pursuit of self-determination? Self-determination involves one's ability to create the livelihood to meet their needs before using some of their energy for ends that they may not agree with. Quantitatively speaking, is it possible to have a full time equivalent of 100 people with one full time process manager, and the rest being high performing SME volunteers? For comparison, if Linux corporation has a $6M budget, and $1B of yearly contributions - that translates to 100 staff members, with each staff member generating $10M of contributions. For the OSae case, one staff member likewise generates a 100 person FTE, where if each contributor carries a $100k/year value, then one staff person is responsible for $10M of contributions. thus, OSE's goal should perhaps be to match the performance of Linux Foundation.
• Focus on mass creation of right livelihood as a potent route towards self determination. Does anyone argue this point?
• Establish Mass Creation of Right Livelihood as the key long term and short term metric for attaining self-determination - the most potent driver of humanity - as a result of OSE's work. This is consistent with OSE's mission to create the open source economy, as self-determination is facilitated by open source, Distributive Enterprise.
• Redefine the open source economy as a system of livelihood (as distinct from jobs) in which a person has a fair chance to pursue self-determination.
• Develop OSE Linux, via quick MVP test-driven prototype, and iterate. This allows development tool use scaling at the cost of one hour per new contributor, with zero cost to OSE as the new contributor commits to the install.
• Build relationships with key community leaders to develop the key OSE tools, from CAD to marketing, etc. This is because we are overtly building upon prior open knowledge.
• Engage a high performing team of part time professionals (minimum 4 hours per week), with strict hiring and firing procedures, as in the Rare Genomics Institute model.

Collaboration Strategy

• Promote use of OSHW Dashboard across different OSHW projects and groups
• Promote use of Development Template to fulfill OSHW Best Practices
• Seek to develop a network of libre and open source tool providers (software, hardware, publicity, sense-making, organizational, enterprise)
• Develop OSE Ambassadors - via Ambassador training - and passing of an exam for being up to date with the philosophy and practice of OSE. Ambassadors qualify to become Process Managers. Process Managers are required to take Ambassador Training because the integrated OSE development process considers not technology in a vacuum, but technology within an Open Source Appropriate Technology context.
• Develop Chapters. Chapters provide both Ambassador and Development services to OSE International
• Develop Open Source Entrepreneurship Training - to teach about the specifics of business development related to open source product development.

Rationale

• Open products must get only to a minimum level of effectiveness before their economic cost advantage becomes a compelling motive for adoption and further development. This starts with early adopters.
• Unfunded development can go onluly so far, as economic pressure is a major competitor with voluntary contributors.
• However, the revolution cannot be funded, typically because those who have gained by the system are too engrained in it, and it is difficult for them to see outside
• Complex, integrated enterprises are primary targets. In the more radical sense, autonomous communities are most favorable places for deployment. However, since there is a large entry barrier to creating an integrated package, there are limits to this strategy. Thus, we start small.
• Starting small may well.involve the mass creation of right livelihood.
• The pen is mightier than the sword - for those who have mastered the sword. This means that organizing social + social capital can be leveraged honestly only after one has shown a track record of getting their hands dirty and gained a deep understanding of the issue.

Points to Consider

• Fund close collaborators via the Xtreme Manufacturing Workshop Model.
• Build relationships with key allies while educating about distributive enterprise, regenerative development, and open source culture.

Other

• Write Grants from TED Fellows list of grants. Structure first with compliance, then allocate a grant writer to this.
• Evaluate Comparison of Urban vs Rural OSE Development Sites