Crash course on OSE

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Crash Course

This is a Crash Course on Open Source Ecology. In the next 15 minutes, you will be brought up to date on all the work of OSE from the last 4 years. Email crashcoursemoderator at gmail dot com for support.

Overview for New People

To see what we do, see the GVCS in 2 Minutes video. Open Source Ecology was founded in 2004 by Marcin Jakubowski. We are a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been creating the Global Village Construction Set, an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS lowers the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing and can be seen as a life-size lego-like set of modular tools that can create entire economies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, in urban redevelopment, or in the heart of Africa. See Key Features of the GVCS, and if you want to see the full set of values, see Core Values of OSE.

We have an ambitious program for product release of the 49 remaining technologies within 2 years and a $2.4M budget - which we abbreviate as our 50/2/2 program. The period for this is 2011-2012.

Also, see this excellent status Overview from Nikolai Georgiev. Then, check out our new website - http://opensourceecology.org (forthcoming by Feb. 14, 2011). Support OSE to help us make this happen.

For Technical Developers

If you would like to help bring this project to completion, we invite proactive collaboration on many fronts. First, see Proposal 2012 for a list of the 50 technologies that we are developing, for their product ecologies, and for general information about the development process. Second, read and re-read the Core Values of OSE, as these inform all of the technical, organizational, and community development around the project. Then, read about the technical development process at the GVCS Development Template, and the publishing standards for our results at the Product Template. The key page is the Status Table - a GVCS master index for displaying the status and needs of each project. If there is no entry for a given project and step, that indicates that no work has yet been done. Each entry in the table is hyperlinked so you can find out the status of each step, and the next steps and needs become transparent. At this stage, after general assessment of a given project, you are ready to contribute. Begin by filling out the Team Culturing survey according to the notes and instructions stated on that page. Then, contact the Project Manager for that project to see how exactly you can become involved, or, find out about Project Manager Duties if you would like become a project manager yourself. You can also see the GVCS Budget for a general description of the expected development and prototyping costs.

Success on the above requires that project managers are recruited for each of the 50 projects. It also depends on developing a corresponding organizational, web, and funding strategy.

For Organizational Developers

Organizational infrastructure includes organizational form, organizational architecture, process design, operations management, product management, resource development, donor relations, human resources, handling of finances, transparency, conflict resolution, media development, public relations, and other tasks that allow the technical development to flow smoothly. We are presently installing all of this infrastructure. At present, we are working on becoming an NGO or nonprofit, and we are defining the organizational architecture. On the resource development front, our first step is to install an instance of CiviCRM to handle contacts. To get involved, first fill out the Team Culturing survey. Then email our Operations Manager or Resource Developer to get involved. You can read about 50/2/2, our GVCS Organizational Infrastructure that is being developed to make this happen, the GVCS Resource Development Strategy to support the Organizational Infrastructure, GVCS Web Strategy to facilitate development, GVCS Media Development Strategy to communicate the work, GVCS Forum Policy to handle entry-level discussion and to filter it into actual development progress, learn how to help OSE win Awards and Contests. What else is missing here?

For Web Developers

The web infrastructure includes the main website, wiki, blog, forums, design repository, CiviCRM platform, and community portal. We are presently reworking all of this infrastructure.

For Organizational Developers

Organizational development involves all the supporting roles that lead to the 50/2/2 Apollo Program for the GVCS, and the positioning of the project as a world-class effort of improving the human condition. Organizational development involves the management, architecture, organiztional form, fundraising, marketing, PR, and other functions that this project needs to reach its goals.

Keywords

Required Reading for Developers

• OSE Specifications
• Proposal 2012
• GVCS Development Template
• Product Template
• Development Team
• Wiki Policy
• Forum Policy

Other

Conferences, Media Development,

FAQs

• http://openfarmtech.org/community/faq
• FAQ
• OSE FAQ

To Do Items

• Edit Proposal 2012 - needs GVCS Icons to