True Fans: Difference between revisions
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| '''Nathanael Dinwiddie''', Lawrence, KS, USA | |||
I attended a presentation given by Marcin at the Lawrence Public Library on November 22, 2010. I appreciate Marcin's effort and enthusiasm for this compelling project. I have long been inspired by the vision of Jacque Fresco, and Marcin is generally preparing the beginning stages for the achievement of that grand vision. We must evolve in the way of this project. | |||
|[[File:P1010717.JPG|thumb|Nathanael Dinwiddie. Joined November 2011.]] | |||
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Revision as of 11:48, 9 May 2011
Introduction
We are able to work on the GVCS full-time thanks to the generosity of your donations. Kevin Kelly's influential essay [http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php 1000 True Fans suggested a funding structure in which 1000 supporters each donate a small amount to sustain a project they really believe in. We are looking for 1000 True Fans to each pledge $10 per month as part of the 1000 Squared Campaign.
On this page, you can read why people like you have joined the campaign. As of May 2011 we have passed 300 True Fans.
We have also had requests for larger donation options. In response, we created Gold, Gold Extra, Platinum, and Angel subscriptions at $20, $30, $50, and $100 per month, respectively, in addition to the Standard subscription of $10/month.
Video Introductions
- Marcin Jakubowski - August, 2010 -
Marcin's Personal Introduction to the True Fans from Marcin Jakubowski on Vimeo.
- Adam Mitchell - August, 2010 -
True Fan Introduction from Adam Mitchell on Vimeo.
True Fans
| Mark Norton, Willseyville, NY, USA
A friend of mine pointed me at Marcin's TED talk. After watching it, there was no turning back. I've been fascinated by the Maker movement for years now but never quite had the motivation to jump in, in spite of being handy with tools. I live on a small farm (Phase 3 Farm) that my wife and I are turning into a self-sufficient homestead that we hope will supply all of our needs one day. Farms need tools and it struck me that the GVCS was a great way to get what I needed - by literally building them myself. By profession, I am a software developer and I've worked on several major open source efforts over the years, so I understand quite well why the work of OSE is so important and also some of the challenges it faces, especially around sustainability. As such, I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and became a True Fan. |
| Dan Miner, New York City, USA
I'm glad that as of spring 2011, after the release of Marcin's TED talk, OSE is getting at least a small fraction of the attention it deserves. If more people understood that what fuel depletion, international resource wars, and climate change will do to globalized manufacturing and distribution, they'd be, ah, very disturbed - and would rush to place orders for their own Global Village Construction Sets. Not sure whether OSE will become more popular than Lady Gaga - but let's get ready to scale up production now! - Dan Miner, New York City - www.beyondoilnyc.org |
| Javier Rivera, Spain
Want to see a world Resources Based Economy, support The Venus Project (Zeitgeist) and became a True Fan of OSE in February 2011. Joined in the wiki days after, trying to help with such a great work. I see OSE as a true step in a RBE direction - This is just a needed project to make a open world. Keep up! |
| Etienne Duport, France
I wish I discovered the OSE project long ago. It's very exciting ! Hopefully one day everyone will be able to replicate these tools to live their own autonomous lives. Being that far from the mother ship in Missouri, donation is a smart solution to prop up OSE. May the Force be with you ;-)" |
| Rasmus Kiehl, Toronto, Canada
Let's take back the economy ! (more details on my page in the team culturing section). |
File:Rasmus Kiehl2010.jpg Rasmus. Joined February 2009. |
| Steffen Lemmerzahl, Zurich, Switzerland
The Global Village Construction Set fits very well in a set of works that I appreciate very much, such as the projects of D55.dk and Atelier Van Lieshout in art or Paolo Soleri in architecture. Beeing an architect myself (http://www.slik.ch) with a background in CNC-built structures and parametric architecture (http://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch) I'm thinking in a similar direction as you do, so I'm happy to be able to support your great project with my small donation! |
| Angela, Colorado, USA
So many could truly benefit from what your group has accomplished and the things yet to come. Bravo! Keep it going, PLEASE! We look at your success and know that your work is very important and it couldn't be happening at a more critical time. There are so many people in so many areas that will thrive with the tools your work will provide. Besides maybe someday we might need them too! We have property that has a lot of trees down and need to be cut. Areas that need to be leveled , and trails re-established, etc. Good Luck and our best wishes for all of you. |
| Charles Kraus, United Kingdom
The work you are doing (and I shall quote my Facebook status) is “Literally the most amazing project I have ever seen”. For a long time I have been interested in the idea of being self-sufficient, and in fact have had a dream of one day buying my own island and starting up a completely self-sufficient, live off the land society. It’s obviously never going to happen but without our dreams what else is there to live for? So when I see an entire group of individuals dedicating their time and effort to quite literally the foundations of my dreams I felt like I had to contribute something, in fact you’re the first cause I have ever given to on a monthly basis! What I would love to see is a number of completely self-sufficient towns being set up, I have over the years visited some communal farming projects in Israel however most of these have had to close so I’m hoping with your construction set you will be able to improve on projects that have come before. I also think that with some work your tools could be very useful in the third world Africa etc, so seeing your tools being put into practise would be great. |
| Joe Ventura, California, USA
I was extremely excited to learn about Open Source Ecology's work, especially The Global Village Construction Set. I'm a communications professional for NGOs and nonprofit organizations. Through my work, I've traveled around the world, including large parts of Asia and Africa. These experiences overseas convinced me of the need for thoughtful planning around the coming transition from a fossil fuel-based economy. I'm hoping that my small monthly contribution will enable this project to continue and expand its impact. |
| Hans Sendelbach, Washington State, USA
The core issues underneath all this are really quite serious in nature. In my heart I have known for years what is happening, but the momentum in society is so powerful that it makes it easy to ignore the truth. A few months ago I watched the documentary Collapse, which is a long interview with Michael Ruppert. It shook me out of my state of denial. In my mind this all comes down to a simple science experiment. If you put bacteria on a growth medium like agar in a petri dish, the population will explode exponentially until the food runs out. The population will plateau and drop off. The plateau and drop off are from two factors, the lack of food and poisoning from waste build up. With humans we need to broaden the definition of food and waste to include the food and waste of our infrastructure such as oil and the waste products from its consumption that leak into the air, soil and water. We are in the same position as the bacteria. Thankfully organisms are smart and can sense there environment and adjust their growth according to the availability of nutrients or other factors. They are also adaptable and can even evolve new methods of metabolism in order to survive and thrive. Bacteria for example exchange rings of RNA with each other that allow them to generate novel enzymes, so they may adjust their function to match their environment. RNA is coded information that controls chemical behavior. This sentence is also coded information. Your organism and mine are exchanging data, so that we may tailor our personal and infrastructural metabolism to better fit the ecological limitations we are sensing. This is the heart of what natural systems do. Open Source Ecology has the potential to facilitate the rapid adaptation of our infrastructural metabolism. My hope is that we will learn how to weave our communities back into the complex fabric of life. Thank you Marcin et al. for stepping forward with the concept for this movement. |
| Judith Katz, California, USA
I joined because I think it's high time we develop more sustainable ways to live on this planet and OSE is a viable step in that direction. |
| Giulia Vianello, Italy
I think that the [present] economy isn't the right way to run the world. I'm talking about people who can lose everything for more money, even their life. So, maybe that's the most important reason why i have decided to subscribe to your project. I'm sad because the life of many people i know, depends on money. And i want to change this. I think that all environmental problems we actually have on the earth are initially caused by ignorance, and the ignorance is a convenient way to earn. So from your work i would like to see come out free knowledge for all people, so they would be able to better this world through the knowledge and consequent skills acquired from the open source mind! In this way everyone would understand that we can be free in every aspect of our life, and a free man is a good man. The kit you're building is fantastic and I'm happy to be able to benefit from your work in the future. Thank you very much. |
| Marcu Knoesen, Cape Town, South Africa
I can clearly see the need to attain all the goals as set out in OSE. The future has to be more localised. The path we are on at the moment will not end well. It is time to make a course correction in a big way. |
| Robert Morris
I saw the article in Grist today, and have spent the past couple hours looking through your materials. Fascinating stuff. I have often said that all you need for paradise on earth for 100 people is 5 engineers and a couple doctors. It is gratifying to see that someone is attempting to put it into practice. My work is not similar at all. My last semester of law school starts on Monday, and I will be embarking on a soul-crushing cubicle-dwelling existence this fall. Happy to be contributing to a new approach, if only in a small way. |
| Floyd Earl Smith, San Francisco Bay Area, California
I’m proud to join my fellow True Fans of Open Source Ecology. The Global Village Construction Set embodies human creativity and potential, and at the same time unleashes it. Together we True Fans are supporting less use of fossil fuels for farming, better use of precious fresh water, and slowing and surviving climate change, while improving, not damaging, the land. |
| Jonathan Rivera, Houston, Texas
The work you guys are doing is great! And you guys all deserve support from everyone with a conviction for this cause. I know my contribution is not much but I hope to continue to support any way I can. The resource based economy is an idea that has given me motivation to change my life for the best. |
| Georgy Korablev, Vancouver, Canada
I am a mathematics student; I support OSE project because it is an audacious step towards the true freedom and liberation of people. I am tired to see countries like Canada spending $35 billion on interest payments annually, and only $3 billion on infrastructure and technology development. I'm tired to see debt growing. I'm tired to see roads broken, schools closed, human rights violated, wars started, technology restrained, people starved, taxes grown, education made into a business, income gap grown, secrets kept from the people, fake government, mindless jobs in corporations competing for a market share, overproduction, manufactured demand and overconsumption, low quality products, inflation, fake research and fake research based on fake research, dollar signs in people's eyes, greed, lies. People, look around and realize that all the improvement that we had in our lives is due to industrial revolution and rapid development of technology that made things 1000-fold cheaper or more; it is not due lawyers in the government; not due to stock growth, bank loans or corporations. It is due to people MAKING THINGS, NOT PROFITS. And these people shall have our full support. |
| Julia Valentine, California, USA
I recently became a True Fan as a financial supporter. I am a mother, teacher, Permaculturist, and inhabitant of Planet Earth. All of these endeavors require a sense of hope and a belief in the resilience of our species and of Nature as a whole. Where we stand as a society today, in the midst of the industrial growth machine, leaves us lacking in both hope and resilience. I have a base need to foster these qualities, and to create a more livable future for the children I care for and guide into adulthood. I have a true belief in the ingenuity and flexibility of our species to create a new paradigm. OSE is the actual physical manifestation of our amazing capacity to change. To truly change, we must imagine and then create. The humans behind Factor e Farm and Open Source Ecology have imagined and created. They are on their way - leading by example - to this fruitful future I also work to manifest. I am pleased to have the hard work and creative genius of OSE be open to me as a tool to use for building my abundant future and the future of my community. Thank you for daring to both imagine and create. |
| Amanda Packard, Missouri, USA
I am intrigued and inspired by people offering viable solutions to the challenges facing humanity. And above that, people manifesting those solutions now – Open Source Ecology is doing just that. I have had the honor of visiting Factor e Farm and seeing some of the tools of GVCS in action – I am deeply moved by this vision and the people behind it, who value not only tangible exhibitions of development, but also a holistic spiritual/meditation practice. I am excited to proudly join others in supporting Open Source Ecology in this paradigm-shifting revolution. |
| Christian Shearer, Pacific Northwest, USA
Originally from the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Christian Shearer is the founder and Managing Director of the Panya Project (www.panyaproject.org). He has over six years of permaculture experience, working and living at Lost Valley Education Center outside of Eugene, Oregon, and now residing at the Panya Project in northern Thailand for over five years. He is a permaculture consultant with Terra Genesis International (www.terra-genesis.com), an advisory board member of We Forest (www.weforest.com), a natural builder, a food forest enthusiast, a musician, a certified educator and has extensive knowledge of tropical permaculture systems. He teaches permaculture around the world (Thailand, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, and even Missouri!) and is excited to continue sharing his passion for a better world and learning from all involved! He is excited to be a True Fan of Open Ecology, because the ultimate goal of what the people at Open Ecology are doing is perfectly in line with the intentions of Permaculture. The synergy between the two could be very powerful in helping to usher in a new way of being for people on this planet based on local production, resiliency and an engaged populace, with more of a focus on the well-being and health of people rather than the economic progress of the wealthy. Christian is proud to lend his support to a movement like Open Ecology that fills such an important niche in helping to bring about the vision of a Permanent Culture. |
| Nathanael Dinwiddie, Lawrence, KS, USA
I attended a presentation given by Marcin at the Lawrence Public Library on November 22, 2010. I appreciate Marcin's effort and enthusiasm for this compelling project. I have long been inspired by the vision of Jacque Fresco, and Marcin is generally preparing the beginning stages for the achievement of that grand vision. We must evolve in the way of this project. |
| Isaiah Saxon, Aptos, USA
I'm a filmmaker, technologist, and one of the instigators of an egalitarian community of 17 people, called Trout Gulch, where we are building a studio, village, farm, and maker space inspired by the actions of Christopher Alexander, Will Allen, Sepp Holzer, and Marcin. My film team, Encyclopedia Pictura, is working with hollywood to create a new populist heroic myth for the maker movement. I'm anticipating that the entire GVCS will be created and documented, then replicated by mechanics, geeks, hippies, weekend warriors, and tough guys that are into their trucks. I think OSE is contributing tangibly and symbolically to the greater cultural shift toward localism, authenticity, and DIY green tech. |
| David Crary, Seattle, USA
I have been really searching to find people out there who are actually experimenting with new forms of social organization where it is possible to create advanced culture - that is thriving in abundance and largely autonomous, creating a model for everyone...so kudos to you guys. Keep up the great work! |
| Benjamin Kaplin
I'm a mechanical engineering student, and I support the OSE because a completed Open Source Village kit would represent several orders of magnitude of improvement over existing projects to improve living conditions around the globe with technology. I grew up reading Stephenson, and one of the most powerful images in his book Diamond Age is The Seed, a nanotechnology McGuffin that one of the main characters devotes his life to that would take the control of production and self-determination out of the hands of the McCorporations and put it into the hands of revolutionaries and the impoverished. Needless to say, nanotech is still several decades away from that dream, and contributing to the True Fans campaign helps a realistic Seed program without pulling me away from my studies. |
| Paul D. Mamigonian
The Open Source Ecology group are making self sufficient living real. Through the Zeitgeist movement and groups like the Open Source Ecology the example is being set that we can come away from the corrupt monetary system. How many times do you hear people say " BUT WHAT CAN WE DO?". There IS SO MUCH THAT can be done and IS BEING DONE. THE TIME IS RIGHT, THE METHODS ARE HERE AND SO IS THE TECHNOLOGY. Please see my site www.livegreenliveclean.org. The Open Source Ecology group are leading the way, and it's up to us all to follow their lead. |
| Marcin Jakubowski, opensourceecology at gmail dot com, marcin_ose on Skype
I started the campaign because I have observed how little of humanity's true potential has been tapped. Everyone slaves their life away to a system that is crumbling at the seams. I believe that we can all reach absolute prosperity and evolve to freedom - by becoming skilled and productive Integrated Humans, and by helping anyone else to do the same. History has shown that this is a general formula for lasting prosperity. As long as we're wise, it should be trivial to get beyond the economics of scarcity. We need to show the world how to build the world's first, replicable, open source Global Village. |
| Scott Akridge
As I get older I'm more and more interested in helping people. A couple weeks back I enlisted the help of a friend to help in developing a CEB press when I began doing research and found www.openfarmtech.org with the open source CEB press. I continued looking for more information but kept coming back to this site for more info and learned more about the project and found I wanted to get involved. I started by becoming a member and donating $10 a month with plans to build the CEB press and build a couple structures then make the effort a cooperative. After reading more I've decided to also build a sawmill, assuming I can recruit some help. I think this is a great project and am excited to be a part of it in a small way. |
| Toby Martin
I support OSE because...
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| Lucas González, imagina (dot) canarias at gmail dot com
I support OSE because both the model and the elements add some important missing pieces to what I perceive is going on.
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Joseph Zarr, joseph.zarr@gmail.com
I am an anthropologist, a farmer, and a permaculturist by training. I support OSE because, well, let's be frank: This is arguably the coolest project on the planet. I am most attracted to Factor E Farm and OSE because of the overall themes of personal improvement (via daily spiritual and physical discipline - in whatever forms a person deems appropriate), human production, and an intertwined personal and community growth. We must collaboratively market the ownership of our futures.
"For less than the price of one coffee per week, for less than the price of one first class stamp per day, you can help change the world. Subscribe!"
As our resource pool dwindles globally, largely due to corporate theft and errant industrial practices, we will have to produce locally and 'in-source'. With a dwindling petroleum base, our dream of cheap energy will disappear. These are simple facts. We must invest human energies in locally-based solutions. We must ignore our propagandized 'reality' and create a meaningful existence together. With drastically increasing populations (estimated 70 million per year), we must teach ourselves the merits of collaboration, co-housing, and SHARING. My opinion is the era of individualized ownership is archaic and ill-advised. Only by sharing and producing what we actually need, and sharing what we already have (be it skills, books, resources etc.), will we experience the next stage of cultural progress. Hopefully, in the not so distant future our children's hands will not deform due to excessive playing of video games but, rather, they will callous, strengthen and scar due to meaningful labor and a 'hands-on' reality; i.e. literacy, numeracy, production = freedom. The only debts we owe are to ourselves and our community. Let's pay up.
| Josef Davies-Coates
I'm founder United Diversity and co-founder of The Open Co-op and support this project because of all the many many VERY cool projects I follow, this is perhaps the most inspiring and important. I can't think of a better way I could possibly spend my money. |
| Reto Stauss, reto.stauss(at)gmail.com, rstauss on Skype
I am mainly attracted by the momentum this projects develops. And of course because it is not talking but doing. My hope is that inspires my own little project (actually it already did): open source goods produced by small, agile manufactories. Lucas, Joseph, sign your points. |
| Geoff Capper, geoff (at) floodstreetfarmlet.net
I am supporting OSE because it is showing us that it is possible to regain control over the complex systems that to an extent have come to rule our lives. We can build our own machinery, we can build our own future, we can be free. The activity at Factor e Farm is truly inspiring, and I hope to use many of the products building up our own small farm, which may hopefully inspire others locally. |
| Tom Lindsey, thomas.lindsey at gmail dot com
I support OSE because I want Factor e Farm to succeed so I can use the tools they are developing, replicate Factor e Farm, and create a future of freedom for myself and loved ones. |
| Edward Miller, embraceunity -at- gmail dot com
I became a true fan because I would like to see our civilization become more resilient by using decentralized technological solutions, and to evolve towards a post-scarcity society. I plan to move on site soon to help build a RepRap machine. |
| Jussi Haverinen, haverinen.jussi at gmail dot com
I'm a strong believer in power of free software approach to technology and very interested in transformative technology and it's effect on society. Politically I'm an social ecologist and I do think that the main task that has to be done is to abolish capitalism and the state through direct democracy in the cities and neighbourhoods (confederated together of course). My skills: mostly computer knowledge, relatively good unix admin skills, and some language skills but that's about it. I only have limited knowledge of farming, construction, electronics, handcraft, but I'm willing to learn. |
| Mark Thomas, factore at thomastechcon dot com
My wife and I are serial homesteaders--we built up a goat dairy from scratch in South Africa, a small livestock farm in Appalachia, and are just starting on a lambing operation in Southside Virginia. Politically, I base my ethics on the Nonaggression Axiom and I do think that the main task that has to be done is to abolish democracy and the state through direct capitalism. Apologies to Jussi above! I do my political writing at Distributed Republic and much of my reading at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. |
| David Voeller, carefulwiththat at gmail dot com
Open Source Ecology is applying knowledge and skill in the most effective way possible, to create a livable future. The convergence of Permaculture principles and Open Source methodology has been a long time coming. Open Source has shown us that technological advancement need not be encumbered by destructive and wasteful hierarchical control. Permaculture has taught us that a fulfilling and ethical life is not only possible, but realistic in a variety of climates and conditions. Open Source Ecology's work has the possibility to allow many more people to live within their resources; and to drastically increase the quality of life for those already doing so. |
| Eric Hunting, TheMillennialProject at gmail.com
We are on the cusp of a transformation in the nature of our civilization. A fundamental shift in the way just about everything works in our society predicated on the evolution of the processes and technologies by which just about everything in our habitat is made. Emerging digital fabrication technology combined with emerging awareness of the factors of industrial sustainability are not only changing how we make things but who is making them and where. Industrial Age paradigms that have been concentrating industrial, economic, and political power for a century are failing in the face of a progressive shrinking, smartening, and demassifying of the tools of production and communication. Open Source Ecology is on the cutting edge of this transformation, pursuing and cultivating a spectrum of tools, new and old, that can realize a radical new level of sustainable community self-sufficiency with the intent of disseminating these tools globally. The Factor E Farm project is an incubator for a nascent movement with world-sweeping potential. |
| Erik de Bruijn, ose at erikdebruijn.nl
We've heard about, or even experienced, the collaborative power of passionate individuals around the world. When they join hands, contributing their energy, freely sharing their ideas and building on them, this mode of production can be highly productive. It may well outperform the traditionally closed 'institutional' mode of production, like Wikipedia is giving us an abundance of knowledge at no cost. OSE attempts, and is actually very successful at extending this notion of knowledge sharing into a way of living. They codify and freely reveal their knowledge into design files and rich instructional material such as video tutorials. Those serve to inspire, but also to practically make this concept replicable and effective. |
| A. N. Alias, anon23bf at nyx dot net
I support OSE because we need viable alternatives to the military-industrial complex as a foundation for survival in the near future, particularly if predictions about the coming hyperinflationary depression turn out to be well founded. |
| Olle Jonsson, olle.jonsson at gmail dot com
I had seen the impressive LifeTrac project on the web, but when I heard about the RepLab initiative, I was hooked. I'm just a random web developer, but I want to help push toward a generalized, open digital fabrication toolkit. When each hackerspace, lab, and interested individual has access to equipment like that, things get really interesting. |
| Maureen, baubo at dishmail.net
I support factor E open source farm because when the cheap industrial food machine breaks down for lack of diesel fuel and capital, people are going to be shocked, angry and then desperate to learn a new way of living. OSE is not just a theory, a book or a blue print. It’s an open source physical model of a DIY food, energy and shelter producing system. Large-scale industrialization was largely a wrong turn for humanity. By shrinking the scale, localizing throughputs, working smarter and sharing information globally we can create a bright new future – a true renaissance. Factor E farm is breaking trail for us all. I can’t think of a better investment. |
| Elifarley, my first name @opensourceecology.org
I found out about Open Source Ecology after watching the Zeitgeist Addendum movie. That movie sparkled my curiosity and I started a quest to understand the problems and possible solutions to our society's needs. In this quest, I found out some very exciting ideas, groups and people, like the Transition Towns movement (concerned with peak oil), The Venus Project and RBE Foundation (moneyless, cybernated society), Common Good Bank (alternative currency system), RepRap (self-replicating, open source 3D printer), the P2P Foundation, and the OSE site, to name a few. You may have noticed that all these projects and movements seem to have a common goal, they all seem to propose that we forget all artificial limitations (and scarcity) and we all seek union to improve our lives and sustainability. Without artificial limitations, we all can have much much better lives. That's the message I can hear all these people and movements resounding. I'd say that The Venus Project champions ideas, whereas OSE materializes them, performing concrete actions that will move our world forward. I'm confident that our small contributions to this cause will add up and have a tremendous positive result for everybody. (In Portuguese) Descobri o site da Open Source Ecology depois de assistir ao filme Zeitgeist Addendum. Esse filme despertou minha curiosidade e então comecei uma busca para entender os problemas e as possíveis soluções para a nossa sociedade. Nessa busca, descobri algumas ideias, grupos e pessoas muito interessantes, como o movimento Transition Towns (preocupado com a dependência ao petróleo), o Venus Project e a RBE Foundation (sociedade sem uso do dinheiro, automatizada), Banco do Bem Comum (sistema de moeda alternativa), RepRap (impressora 3D de desenho aberto, auto-replicante), a Fundação P2P, e o site OSE, dentro vários outros. Vocês podem ter notado que todos esses projetos e movimentos parecem ter um objetivo comum, eles parecem propor que esqueçamos todas as limitações artificiais (e escassez) e que todos busquemos união para melhorar nossas vidas e sustentabilidade. Sem limitações artificiais, todos nós podemos viver muito melhor. Essa é a mensagem que eu posso escutar todas essas pessoas e movimentos ressoando. Eu diria que o Venus Project dissemina ideias, enquanto que a OSE as materializa, realizando ações concretas que irão avançar o nosso mundo. Estou confiante que nossas pequenas contribuições a essa causa irão se juntar e terão um resultado tremendamente positivo para todo o mundo. |
| Shaun Warkentin
What money buys is technology, luxury. What technology and luxury buy are pleasure, physical health, and free time for the intellectual, spiritual, relational, creative pursuits that are the constitutive properties of real wealth (a widening of awareness and knowledge) unavailable within a purely subsistence economy. The equation linking money to wealth must be broken (along with the power structures that encroach upon the agency and freedom of most of humanity and the biosphere). OSE appears to be demonstrating how this might be achieved. |
| Aigars Brūvelis, abruvelis at gmail dot com
This is it. Linux will fully replace windows and in 50 years Open Source Harware will replace most of the commerce. Get on with it. |
| Lucas,
I contribute to OSE because I got tired of all the organizations that claim to be "promoting" sustainability through advocacy and lobbying, which usually merely contributes to the inertia and complexity of our current patently unsustainable society without producing any truly meaningful effect on regular peoples' relation to the economy and planet. We need tangible means and methods to take our lives into our own hands and reduce our reliance on global industrial market structures, not rhetoric and posturing. OSE is one of the few operations that has taken up the task of rebuilding and redesigning material existence to cope with the inevitability of a resource-scarce future. The advancements made at this important project are setting precedents that simply are not being set anywhere else, and I hope to personally be using some of the methods and technologies being developed; from that standpoint, I view my financial contribution as an investment, not a gift. At some point in time those of us who philosophically stand opposed to the dominant paradigms of mass consumerism and ecological exceptionalism must stop talking and starting acting, and OSE is doing just that. |
| Peter Koeleman
I would love to see the Factor e Farm evolve into a self-sufficient, renewable and socially superior society. The technological steps towards freedom that the Factor e Farm project take are very interesting to me because I am an IT specialist. I had a taste of gcode a long while back and work with Linux every day as my primairy OS. The modular hardware design makes this technology easy to comprehend and use, even for non-engineers like myself. The freedom part of this project is what I think will be the most important part of the near future in escaping a corporate ruled society of ever more money spending (=debt building) consumers. The need for economic growth simply isn't sustainable. Those who manufacture and manage their own resources are the only ones who know the real cost of things. |
| Daniel Slate, danieldavidslate + gmail and the rest
This is the real thing, and what you're doing is absolutely necessary. The numerous possibilities that can grow from this...general resilience, a reboot/revision of kibbutzim/moshavim in America or elsewhere, so many other possibilities...building the platform is worth doing. Ideas become real through action. What I see coming out of this work is a way to test out applied philosophies of responsible liberty. |
| Adam Mitchell, mitch dot ad at gmail dot com
If organizations were measured in terms of relevancy of work, loftiness of their goals and their ability to inspire others, Open Source Ecology --no doubt-- would be at the top of anyone's list. I am proud to support their endeavor, however small, in hopes that together we can build a better world and encourage others to become more Integrated Humans. |
| Anna Przychodzki
I was very excited to discover the work of Open Source Ecology; I had no idea people were doing this. I stopped taking science class in my second year of high school so the technical stuff goes way over my head... what I do understand is the intent of the work and the implications of success. The life I want is out of reach for now... but if I support OSE, maybe I can have it in the future. OSE seems to bring us closer to what I believe are our birth-rights: sustainability, economic freedom and quality of life by way of human ingenuity and cooperation, not competition. |
| Nathan Luedtke
I think I found out about Factor E Farm through John Robb's blog Global Guerillas, or at least through that general section of the net, which I am interested in and have been following for some time. I have been tracking your project for a little over a year, and was inspired to contribute when i saw that recently you seem to have hit a tipping point and have been making quick progress which probably will require a little more cashflow. In terms of what I would like to see come out of it- exactly what you are doing. All of the positive movements that I see out there- Permaculture, Open Source, Transition, etc etc- all of them are integrated in your program. With OSE/FEF, you have a very scientific/rational approach that I appreciate. Long term, I would love to see OSE ideas spread and populate worldwide, and see the technology package implemented and developed further at other sites, both in the USA and as a more successful "technology transfer" to the third world. |
| Ivan Garcia, ivan at movimientozeitgeist dot org
I've been a OSS programmer for like 8 years now and I love the idea of OS Hardware and the great suistaniblity revolution that the OSE guys are doing. I'm also a supporter of the Zeitgeist Movement in Spain and they both share very similar goals. What you are doing is absolutelly necessary and meaningful for our future! |
| J. Kent Hastings, USA
The OSE (Open Source Ecology) "True Fan" program is a grass roots way to crowdsource funding for the goal to develop the essential 40 pieces required to make up the complete "Resilient Community Construction Set," an advanced industrial economy in a box that can be deployed inexpensively anywhere in the world. The cost is reduced to one tenth normal thanks to the savings from using open source software and hardware designs. The components are essential to life and work in the system rather than just decorative knick knacks or toys that Makers like to dabble with and are "designed for disassembly" so each component, like the Life Trac tractor for example, is easy to repair with bolts and simple tools such as wrenches, and easy to modify and improve. |
| Søren Poulsen, Denmark
Words like empowerment or freedom get a whole new meaning when you talk about having the skill set, to create everything you need from nothing. |
| Nikolay Georgiev, Karlsruhe, Germany
Open Source Ecology is based on Natural Principles which consequences have been shown to be positive for a lot of natural and technological systems.
It is crucially important that we go beyond life of survival. Survival mode is pushing everyone to take resources from other people, not considering their allowance, health and their community. When we are in survival mode we often neglect our own values and push other people in order to survive. When we reach the state of living where all basic needs are covered, every person on this planet will have much bigger possibility to develop his own potential. Right now only a very small percentage of the human population have the time and possibilities to develop themselves – to guide their own life in the direction they want, to contribute to the society by using their abilities in their fullness. Most people in the world are fighting, struggling, working only for their own survival or that of their own families, and higher goals and desires like developing themselves and contributing to society are not possible and of low priority. We need new models of economy and living based on openness, giving and sharing. Open Source Ecology is headed clearly in this direction, giving back freedom to where it belongs. |
| Dario Figueira, Portugal, wurmdario at gmail dot com
I became a true fan simply because I was already monetarily supporting a NGO. And for me, you seem to be doing better work, or more important work than they were. So please continue XD. WurmD 23 August 2010 (UTC) |
| Matthias, neodynos-at-googlemail-dot-com
Thinking about what's wrong with the world, I found that huge aggregations of power and of money are the main tools we as humans use to oppress and exploit. That led me to support Open Source Ecology as a decentralized alternative. And while I am convinced that the ultimate solution (one that transcends even death) is not to be found through technology but rather through sound theology -- I am also convinced that the work of OSE can provide all of us with a better world until death. |
| Chris Berry, France
What immediately impressed me about what you are doing is that...... well, this is something that could actually work. Much of the ecology movement seems to really depend on shifting human nature (ie modern capitalism will work just fine so long as people breed a bit less, consume a bit less, etc- its never going to work, at best we'll destroy the planet in the next 200 years instead of the next 50). People need to be offered something genuinely better. And really, when you look at it, it shouldn't be difficult to beat this modern lifestyle based on greed and envy and selfishness, with rampant crime and suicide and mental illness, people drowning in debt, and every system we depend on falling to pieces in front of us. |
| Stewart Easton, Vancouver, Canada
I was exposed your work through listening to VTV’s show in the archives. I have a background in biology, but I work in finance, so I have taken the route of “those who can not do, help”. The help in my case is money and I will spread the word of your work as I spend much time on other forums debating the merits of an RBE, and I always use your organization as an example of people building the technology to advance the concept. I am part of the Vancouver Chapter of the Zeitgeist movement and I think the work you are doing is great and we as a movement need to do more to help you with your goals. You are building the technology that is going to make an RBE possible. |
| Daniel Morlan, Indiana, USA
I will be watching you folks closely. I heard you on the V-Radio show a couple of times, and your methodology is far more inspiring to me than the mere lip-service that most put out, including myself. (I am the “editor in chief” of the Indiana Zeitgeist Newsletter.) and an acquaintance of Neil Kiernan, and I am enthralled with what you folks are doing. |
| Shakti Saraswati, Brisbane, Australia (mail at shakti dot id dot au)
I have come to the Open Source Ecology, from the Zeitgeist movement and see this as a natural transition from something quite absurd to a more practical way to live our lives. By doing nothing we have allowed this silly profit system overrule common sense and go so viral as to be totally dysfunctional. Society spends all of its time solving problems that are symptomatic and never go any deeper to find causal remedy. The fact that people can earn money without actually contributing anything of substance is an unbelievable waste of potential usefulness. 80% of the population do this while fiddling the figures, they are totally consumed. Imagine if that problem solving potential was put to good use. As a musician I find it an incredible distraction living in a society that has not, after 5000 years of civilisation, actually become civilised yet. A lot of the mental energy that I need to improve myself as a musician is wasted basically trying to survive. I have learned to live off the smell of an oily rag, and my priority is improving myself to the detriment of living comfort, and that is because society does not work efficiently. I see Open source Ecology as the first rung in the ladder to improving all that ails the world. The important thing to mention here is the fact that everything that each individual knows is the collection of their experience of everyone else around them, so they have no right to exclusivity and have a duty to share. There is no reason why all land and resources should not benefit all people. The understanding of this will eliminate all the unnecessary conflict that we have today. The challenge is to put it into practice for the greater good without sacrificing the individual. This will happen when we share the workload and become responsible. Fulfilment in life comes from hands on achievement and when everybody is contributing instead of building locks and walls while fiddling figures, I bet we have a much more harmonious and luxurious lifestyle without the fear. The real challenges will be then what will affect us all as a human species, rather than just individual survival. So thank you Open Source Ecology for putting the wheels in motion of the ground-up transition to self-sustaining systems open for the improvement of all who contribute, not just those who wish to profit and exploit.
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Carolyn Phillips, Adelaide, Australia
I’ve always liked smart, lean design and this project seems both smart and lean. I hope you make some headway without the bureaucratic bloat that seems to ultimately spoil good ideas. |
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