IBM International Foundation

IBM International Foundation - Initial Proposal.pdf

IBM International Foundation - Initial Proposal.odt

IBM International Foundation - $200,000

by Aaron Makaruk

Submitted 12/5/11

Open Source Ecology (OSE) is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters engaged in creating the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS), a low-cost, high-performance, open-source, do-it-yourself platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 industrial machines that it takes to build a small civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS includes machinery, equipment, tools, components, and other infrastructures for creating a complete economy: food, fuel, energy, building materials, transportation, and fabrication.

Our goal is to encourage the development of localized industrial enterprises by simplifying the designs and lowering costs associated with fabricating productive machinery. For example, our designs can be created up to eight times more cheaply than it costs to purchase a retail counterpart and made with low-grade, abundant, local resources.

For each machine, through the open source platform, we include the following: (1) design rationale; (2) 3D CAD files; (3) 2D fabrication drawings; (4) CAE analyses; (5) CAM files (where applicable); (6) exploded parts diagrams; (7) bills of materials and sourcing information; (8) scaling calculations; (9) A-Z instructionals; and (10) cost and performance comparisons to industry standards. All documentation is openly available on our website, along with high-quality video tutorials showing how to fabricate the machinery. The website also includes a community-developed wiki, online forum, and blog for assisting independent replications of our designs.

Open Source Ecology was founded by Marcin Jakubowski, PhD in 2003. He is a graduate from Princeton University and a 2011 TED Fellow . OSE has successfully designed, prototyped, field-tested, and documented four of the 50 designs: the tractor, compressed earth brick press, soil pulverizer, and hydraulic power unit. We are finalizing construction of a 5,000 fabrication facility, using machinery we designed and built, in preparation for our rollout plan for the remaining GVCS machines throughout 2012.

Since many of our outputs and outcomes are tangible products, tracking our progress is fairly straightforward. We have established a ten-point standard for the GVCS: open-source, low-cost, modular, user-serviceable, do it yourself, closed loop manufacturing, high performance, flexible fabrication, distributive economics, and industrial efficiency. Furthermore, given the collaborative nature of open source design, quality control essentially takes place with multiple redundancies.

Open Source Ecology has partnered with The Terra Foundation of California as its 501c3 fiscal sponsor. We have diversified our income to include support from foundations, private contributors, and a micro-funding program called the True Fan campaign, where individuals pledge $10/month, which currently has over 440 members. We also were selected for a $60,000 grant from the Kauffman Foundation and received a $60,000 anonymous contribution to help construct our fabrication and training facilities. Further, we recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for $63,573, which we felt was a proud demonstration of our broad public support.

Our funding request covers partial completion of the Global Village Construction Set. This involves designing, prototyping, field-testing, and documenting the machinery as well as the material costs of the equipment. The following is a complete list of estimated costs associated with finalizing the entire GVCS set:

(see .pdf file for table)

Our intention with the development of the Global Village Construction set is to create affordable industrial machinery that requires minimal upfront capital investments. As individuals and communities begin using these designs, our task is to train producers in the implementation of open source, distributive enterprises. We feel that this effort will ultimately reinvigorate the economy from the ground up, and we would like to invite The IBM International Foundation to partner with us in this endeavor.

Thank you for considering our request for a grant in the amount of $200,000.