4 Year Strategic Plan 2012

4 Year OSE Strategic Plan

 

1. Abstract – This  4 year plan is proposed for the completion of the GVCS as the enabling physical technology for building the world's first, replicable, post-scarcity community. The scope of the existing experiment is a 30 acre, 30 person community in the Kansas City area of Missouri, and intent is replication as a viable lifestyle for  0.1% of the industrialized world's population (growth to 1M people engaging actively in OSE Campus concept communities within 2 years of 2015). Therefore, our product is a transformative Lifestyle. The unique feature of this community is its positioning as a research and development community that provides assistance to local communities towards economic prosperity.  Part of this package is a 2-hour daily work requirement necessary to provide all necessities of creature-comfort living (food, shelter, energy, in-house technology), while the rest of the time is spent on thriving -  open source economic development. The technological scope of this 4 year program is reaching standards of modern technology up to metal smelting from ubiquitous, on-site resources. This 4 year plan does not include semiconductor production from local resources. The intent of this phase (until year-end of 2015) is to complete the GVCS development and to provide substantial data points on the building of a modern, autonomous Global Village. This involves not only the technology base for a modern community – but also the integration of community dynamics based on collaborative production as a novel means of economic organization of communities. The basic approach is cultivating a 30-person team of pioneering developers on a 1 year time scale, followed by rapid development of open source blueprints for a working community. This work involves developing open source blueprints of powerful, proven infrastructure technologies – as well as documentation of techniques and methods for using these tools as an integrated construction kit for building community infrastructures. The open source economic development approach is intended to reduce capitalization and know-how barriers to enable viral replicability – where collaborative production can compete with other economic models.

    

2. 1.Introduction 

   1. 1.Towards the open source economy 

   2. 2.The Social Experiment 

   3. 3.Factor e Farm 

3. 2.Strategic Priorities 

   1. 1.Stabilize OSE Infrastructure (2012-2013) 

      1. 1.Improve On-site Infrastructure  at Factor e Farm 

      2. 2.Streamline Product Development and Testing Procedures 

      3. 3.Improve Remote Collaboration Infrastructure 

      4. 4.Improve Organizational Infrastructure 

         1. 1.Organizational Structuring + Land Tenure 

         2. 2.Develop Branding Strategy         

      5. 5.Attain Financial Robustness 

         1. 1.Attain Financial Sustainability via Collaborative Production + Distributive Enterprise  

         2. 2.Develop True Fans Program 

         3. 3.Stabilize Institutional Funding 

      6. 6.Develop Performance Metrics and Milestones 

         1. 1.Production 

         2. 2.Social Capital 

         3. 3.Non-Profit Sector Support  

   2. 2.Build Community (2013) 

      1. 1. 1.Improve Global Developer Collaboration (Flash Mobs) 

         2. 2.Cultivate On-site Development Community 

            1. 1.Recruit Subject Matter Experts 

            2. 2.Develop Cross-training Infrastructure  

            3. 3.J1 Visa Strategy for Global Collaborators 

         3. 3.Develop Strategic Partnerships with Established Industries 

   3. 3.Develop Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) - 2014-2015 

      1. 1. 1.Scale the Rate of Development  

         2. 2.Key Milestones for GVCS Development  

         3. 3.Develop Rigorous Testing and Quality Control 

      2. 2.Improve Documentation Quality 

   4. 4.Build OSE Campus  

      1. 1.Lifestyle Investor Dream Team 

      2. 2.Pioneering vs. Replication  

      3. 3.Key Milestones for the OSE Campus 

4. 3.General Budget and Timeline 

   1. 1.Existing  

   2. 2.Projected  

5. 4.Assumptions and Critiques 

   1. 1.Cultural Creatives and Cultural Disruptives 

   2. 2.Unique Community Model  

   3. 3.Community Model: From Development to Production & Purpose 

   4. 4.Autonomous Communities: Ethical Motivation and Disruptive Global Shift 

   5. 5.Collaborative Production in Autonomous Communities 

   6. 6.Scalability to Large Population Centers ( 

 

Introduction

 

Open data, collaborative production, open source software – open everything – is an emerging global trend.1 Open Source Ecology is part of this movement – with its particular focus on developing open source blueprints for civilization.2

 

The Social Experiment

 

The practical motivation for the Factor e Farm experiment is to demonstrate the feasibility of creating autonomous communities in the digital age. Access to information, as enabled by the internet – allows for unprecedented concentration of knowledge in the hands of individuals. With such a possibility, it is natural to ask whether such distribution of knowledge – and therefore economic power – could result in an entirely different model of social organization, transcending the present model of failing globalized infrastructures. The new model revolves around the heart of economic democracy - decentralized productive potential spread throughout the populace – a part of an emerging, open source economic trend of collaborative production. This is an opportunity that could alleviate poverty and resource conflicts – as well as other structural economic and political problems. Our hypothesis is that by addressing the issue of material production and distribution in a fundamental way – we can generate new organizational and social structures.

 

The range of applicability of the GVCS includes lowering the barriers to entry to various forms of productive enterprise. The key assumption is that efficient production relies on access to both information (Intellectual Property) and capital (machinery and infrastructures of production). The aim of the GVCS is to lower the barriers to both.

 

The longer-term goals of the GVCS are more profound. By our experience with developing the GVCS, we aim to develop a generalized, open source product development methodology. This methodology would encourage corporations and other economic agents to collaborate in product development – pooling their resources, increasing product quality, reducing cost, eliminating competitive waste – and thereby setting a precedent of economics based on collaboration and abundance, as opposed to scarcity. That is a fundamental mind-shift emergent in the digital age, and it is our goal to make this mind shift a reality.

 

Factor e Farm

 

Our intent is to develop a Wikipedia for open source product development – an encyclopedia covering best practices of industrial productivity – consistent with environmental regeneration and social justice. Our intent is to open up trade secrets across all sectors of industries and institutions -  to make the productive process transparent for the benefit of all. That is a choice that humanity can make with respect to its productive prowess – without compromising quality of life – while addressing issues of poverty and resources conflicts.

 

We don't stop at the level of a theory or an internet platform – we are building a small scale community that blends advanced, human-scale eco-industry with social dynamics designed around autonomy, pursuit of mastery, and higher purpose. This experiment is Factor e Farm – a 30 acre facility designed to demonstrate how the GVCS can be used to build a small-scale civilization with modern comforts  – using open source technology fueled by 100% local resources. We are showing the limits of how to turn dirt and twigs into advanced civilization.

 

We admit clearly that the above goals are audacious – but they are worth the effort. It is as such that we ask you bravely to become a part of making this challenge a reality.

 

Strategic Priorities

 

1. 1. 2.1Stabilize OSE Infrastructure (2012-2013) 

      2.1.1 Improve On-site Infrastructure  at Factor e Farm 

 

We are an off-grid facility except for an internet land line. To date, we have built a 4000 square foot workshop and HabLab, a 3000 square foot, 10 person living unit. Our existing infrastructure can  marginally accommodate 12 people year-round, and it is powered by a 1.4kW photovoltaic panel array with a backup gasoline generator. We intend to migrate to pelletized-biomass fueled modern steam engines for the bulk of our power needs by 2014, and we aim to migrate to solar concentrator electric and wind power by the end of 2015 as these machines are developed in the GVCS.

 

We have 240V single and 3-phase power in the workshop running from a 50kW-hr battery bank. Finishing work is still needed for HabLab. Water and electrical infrastructures need to be completed for existing buildings. Site landscaping, access roads, utility trenching, and winterization need to be done. For materials handling, we need to build a loading dock for truck access. We have a 1/3 gallon per minute well, and we are considering drilling either a backup well or digging a 100,000 gallon pond for our bulk water needs. We are considering an ozonator3 as our main pathway to potable water.

 

To accommodate a full team of 30 people on-site, further living accommodations will need to be built. We are considering 2-person studio OSE Microhouses4 for the remainder of our accommodations. We need to build a storm shelter which could also double up as a root cellar.

 

Our workshop has 12 working bays and can easily accommodate 12 fabricators, limited only by welder power. Currently, we can run up to four 200AMP welders at a time for 6-8 hours per day at full duty cycle.

 

Our agriculture program is in its infancy and it needs to be developed to provide a year-round, full diet to participants. We have a 300 tree fruit and nut orchard, a garden, cow, chickens, and greenhouse. We have recently recruited a Farm Manager, and we will be performing a full site survey. We aim to produce a site Master Plan and Food Production Plan by the end of 2012.

 

The main need for the site survey is to facilitate the development of an erosion control plan consisting of keyline plowing, berming, water catchment ponds, and any other earthworks.

 

1. 1. 1. 2.1.2Streamline Product Development and Testing Procedure 

          

The existing method of development requires these steps:

 

1. 1.Design – generation of 3D CAD, Exploded Parts Diagram, Fabrication Drawings, and Assembly Drawings. 

2. 2.Design review for fabrication, modularity, and lifetime design 

3. 3.Build 

4. 4.Testing 

5. 5.Documentation 

    

Improvements of the open source product development procedure involve defining and optimizing development team structures and workflows, and recruiting a stable team to fill those roles. The intent is to scale the development process to scale to 6 parallel projects being developed with full rigor on a one month prototyping time scale.

 

The difficulty with such a development process involves cultural clash between OSE specifications and dominant industrial design paradigms, where extra attention is required to convert standard design to OSE Specifications. We have observed difficulties in both design parameters – especially simplicity, user-centered design, modularity - and the open IP nature of developments.  To address this point, we can simply pay open-minded individuals, and modify designs using in-house talent. Thus, a proposed solution is an SME ($5k-15k/month + in-house engineer ($2-6k/month) + in-house fabricator ($2k/month) + in-house Product Director ($2k/month) + In-House Video Producer ($2k/month) + In house Technical Writer ($2k/month) + for a typical budget of $22k/month per prototype, or $66k/product developed – or $3.5M for development.

 

To facilitate testing, we intend to train on-site participants in machine operation to perform extended field testing of machines in infrastructure-building and production activities.

 

1. 1. 1. 2.1.5Attain Economic Robustness 

         1. 2.1.5.1.Attain Financial Sustainability via Collaborative Production + Distributive Enterprise 

 

Our social enterprise model relies on collaborative production for the core of its scaling strategy. While we have used the 1000 True Fans program (600+ supporters at present) to crowd-fund early-stage development – this route does not scale. For viral scalability, a bootstrap funding mechanism is required to enable other groups to replicate our work.

 

Our answer to this financial sustainability and scalability question is developing a collaborative production enterprise model. The nature of this model is cross-training FeF participants to engage in intensivel, 1-day production runs in which 8-16 people swarm on the production of a GVCS machine under the guidance of a multi-skilled Production Director.

 

1. 1. 1. 1. 2.2.2.1Recruit Subject Matter Experts 

 

Successful development of the GVCS requires that we recruit Project Managers or Subject Matter Experts capable of developing the 50 GVCS tools on monthly prototyping cycles. Such prototyping cycles require Design and production of Fabrication Drawings and Assembly Instructions (1 month), followed by Prototyping (1 month). To achieve this, a team of 6 Fabricators/Machinists and 6 Machine Designers/Engineers are required for prototyping, and 6 Product Testers are required to take the machines through rigorous field testing.

 

Specific SME areas include focus on Mechatronics and related areas:

 

1. 1.Power Electronics – Inverter, Welder, Induction Furnace, Plasma Cutter, Laser  - Universal Power Supply 

2. 2.Electronics – machine controllers (CNC machines and automation), 3D scanner 

3. 3.Wind Turbine Design – 50 kW Wind Turbine 

4. 4.Hydraulic Motor Design – Hydraulic Motors, Cylinders 

5. 5.Electrical Motor/Generator Design – Eectric Motor/Generator, Open Source Stepper Motor 

6. 6.Agricultural Machine Design – Combine, Hay Rake, Hay Cutter, Spader, Microtractor, Baler, Universal Seeder 

7. 7.Mechanical Engineer – Machine Designer – Tractor, Microtractor, Bulldozer + Hammer Mill + Well-Drilling Rig + Universal Auger + Trencher +Backhoe + Cement Mixer + Sawmill + CEB Press + Loader + Pelletizer 

8. 8.Industrial Laser Designer – CNC Laser Cutter 

9. 9.Industrial Robotics Design – Industrial Robot 

10. 10.Mechanical Engineer/Machine Design  – Ironworker Machine 

11. 11.Precision Machine Design – CNC Multimachine, CNC Circuit Mill, 3D Printer, CNC Torch Table 

12. 12.Industrial Engineer – Bioplastic Extruder 

13. 13.Engineering Polyglot – Extraction of Aluminum from Clay 

14. 14.Solar Engineer – Solar Concentrator 

15. 15.Mechanical/Automotive Engineering – Modern Steam Engine Designer, including Heat Exchanger and Gasifier Burner 

16. 16.Agricultural Engineering – Dairy Milker + Bakery Oven  

17. 17.Metallurgist – Metal Rolling, Press Forge, Wire and Rod Mill  

18. 18.Automotive Engineer – Open Source Automobile, Open Source Truck, Power Cube 

 

1. 1. 1. 2.3.2Key Milestones for GVCS Development  

 

Key Milestones for GVCS Development are:

1. 1.Demonstrate $20k/month Collaborative Production business model based on the GVCS by Q1 of  2013. 

2. 2. Scale GVCS development to robust development of 6 projects at one time by Q1 of 2014. 

3. 3.Recruit 6 SMEs for 6 parallel projects at the beginning of Q1 of 2014 until project completion by Q1 2016. Stabilize project management personnel (6) and documentation team (6) by Q1 of 2014. 

4. 4.Add each additional beta release to our collaborative production product line within 3 months of the beta release – as proof of economic viability of each product. 

5. 5.Scale production earnings to $80k net/month from our 4000 sq foot Workshop by beginning of 2015. 

6. 6.Develop induction furnace with  a capacity of 2 ton/day virgin steel ingot production from scrap metal by mid 2014 

7. 7.Roll metal stock, rods, rebar, and wire from ingots by end of 2014 to ASTM standards5. 

8. 8.Develop solar concentrator and modern steam engine power sources by Q1 of 2015. 

9. 9.Develop 1 ton/day aluminum smelting capacity from clay by Q1 of 2016. 

 

1. 1. 1. 2.4.3Key Milestones for OSE Campus 

 

1. 1.Stabilize living and working infrastructure for 12 developers by Q1 2013. 

2. 2.Stabilize permanent population of FeF to 12 people by Q3 of 2013. 

3. 3.Demonstrate 400 square foot OSE Microhouse construction on a timescale of 5 days with 3 workers at $3k for superinsulated, autonomous, natural building. 

4. 4.Increase and stabilize population of Factor e Farm to 24 developers by Q1 2014. 

5. 5.Achieve food, fuel, and electricity production autonomy by Q1 of 2015. 

6. 6.Achieve $100k/year net earnings from nursery stock, edible landscaping services, eco-tours, workshops, and B&B services. 

7. 7.Demonstrate that the entire GVCS 50 can be replicated at a cost of $10k + labor once the GVCS is available for seeding its first replication. 

8. 8.Develop a land stewardship social enterprise for expanding the OSE Campus concept to other locations by Q1 2016. 

    

 

1. 1. 4.1Cultural Creatives and Cultural Disruptives 

 

Sociologists Anderson and Ray estimate that 25% of the US population are Cultural Creatives.6 At OSE, we are making the assumption that less than 1/100th of the Cultural Creatives falls into a deeper change-maker category – the Cultural Disruptives. These are people who are willing to engage in disruptive change based on not only the awareness of – but also a pro-active stance for - building deep and lasting solutions to pressing world issues. We estimate that the fraction of the population that falls into this category is approximately 1/1000, or 0.1% of the world's population. We believe that this section of the population has cultivated the necessary mindset to obtain the required skill set for engaging in the OSE Campus model. This means that these people have the intrinsic motivation to seek and organize with other like-minded Disruptives – who also find sufficient purpose and meaning in such a lifestyle so that they would be willing to sever traditional societal expectations in order to attain an integrated lifestyle. This means that our market size is approximately 1 million people in the developed world.

 

I would like to emphasize that in the 4-year development phase of the GVCS, our target audience is the developed world. This is because the technology base necessary to develop the GVCS is not found in the developing world. Once the GVCS is developed in full, it will have its own bootstrapping technological capacity to build advanced, appropriate technology in the world – therefore allowing the concept to be replicated in areas of the world which currently do not have modern industrial infrastructures. Therefore, we predict that it will be appropriate to take the technologies to the

'developing world' in 4 years, not now. Many people currently suggest that we should work in the developing world now. This is inappropriate unless a certain level of basic industrial infrastructure support exists in a given location – such that when the machines break down, there would be no way to service them. This would bypass a type of error suffered by many former cases of third-world aid programs.

 

We are proposing an industrial bypass – or technological leapfrogging – for developing countries. Our approach, however, is developing the enabling technology in the Western World. Thereafter, we will be in a position as an organization to assist disruptive entrepreneurs in the developing world.

 

1. 1. 4.2Community Model: Social Sustainability 

 

The FeF community is presently a research and development community for the GVCS. The intent of this community is to become a virally-replicable (5,000 communities of 200 people within 2 years of 2015). If we assume that the GVCS tools are developed fully, the next question is whether the social model is sustainable. A sufficency criterion for the social sustainability of such a community is:7

1. 1.2 hours per day work requirement, 5 days per week. If a modern standard of living can be achieved with 2 hours of work per day, then adoption may occur based on sufficient provision of creature-comforts  and the ability of the people to pursue higher purpose in their free time. 

2. 2.Engagement in some form of integrative mind-body-spirit practice towards becoming an Integrated Human.8 This is consistent with Daniel Pink's concept that the deepest human motivation is a desire for autonomy that enables one to pursue mastery – consistent with higher purpose.9  

3. 3.Design of the community as an inter-generational community based on couples and families, as in the rest of society. This indicates that 1/8 of the population will be non-productive children, and the rest will be adults. 

4. 4.Interesting life. City centers are favored by many people because of the diversity of activity and exchange. The OSE Campus concept is built by extraordinary people with rich internal lives. Therefore, it should be easy for somebody to live an interesting life in such a setting – as centers of cultural and scientific progress.  

5. 5.Open door policy for positive outside relations. Campus doors will be open for visits, workshops, training, education, and other forms of exchange. Every OSE Campus should have a positive economic effect on surrounding areas because it is in itself an autonomous, economic powerhouse. We expect that the OSE Campus will transform surrounding communities to local food systems, autonomous fuel and energy provision, sustainable housing, robust economic productivity, and general cultural and scientific progress. 

1http://conferences.ted.com/TEDGlobal2012/

2http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/marcin_jakubowski.html

3http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Cistern_and_Ozonator_System

4http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/OSE_Microhouse

5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ASTM_International_standards#A

6    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cultural_Creatives

 

7This set of criteria needs to be reviewed by loading sociologists and others with experience in community-building.

8http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Integrated_Human

9http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

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Review

Emeka, Colby, Sunny, Viveik, Dan, Karien, Helen,