Open Source Ecology Paradigm

The Open Source Ecology Paradigm

Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D., 12.24.2011

part of the OSE Christmas Gift to the World

Introduction

The Open Source Ecology Paradigm is an idea that the open source economy is a route to human prosperity in harmony with natural life support systems.

OSE is a movement to create the open source economy. The movement consists of hundreds of entrepreneurs, producers, engineers, makers, and supporters around the world – who believe in the power of open – who share the open ethic. The 'Ecology' in the name refers to the interaction of natural and human ecosystems – the environmental, societal, and technological systems – as they interact along open principles. Read a further description of the OSE concept as it was formulated initially in 2003 (see Appendix). Since then, the concept has evolved to a platform for creating distributive enterprise, as a solid foundation for a sound economy - a third economic option beyond capitalism or socialism. The distributive economy paradigm centers around open access to efficient production as a means to transcend artificial material scarcity. The paradigm uses open source tools and techniques to produce advanced civilization – by unleashing the power of the responsible use of technology.

The main current project of OSE is the Global Village Construction Set – a set of 50 Industrial Machines that allow for the creation of a small scale civilization with modern comforts.

OSE Mission

The mission of Open Source Ecology is to create an open source economy - an economy that optimizes both production and distribution, while providing environmental regeneration and social justice.

Overview of the OSE Paradigm

The backbone of Open Source Ecology is open access to economically-significant information – product designs, techniques, and rapid learning materials for achieving this. Collaborative development, 24/7 around the globe, leads to best practice designs - accessible openly via the internet. When economic productivity is unleashed as such, there is a direct effect on community prosperity. As a result of lowered barriers to entry, each community can increase the range of products and services that it can provide. Global collaboration in open product an d process design leads to best practices being commonly available. This is opposed to the dominant paradigm of today – where a few companies having the best products or monopoly control, and by definition, the rest is mediocre. Open economic development has the potential to raise the bar on the quality of products in the productive economy – as opposed to the enforcement of mediocrity through protectionism and monopoly.

All wealth comes from nature – rocks, plants, sunlight, and water. These are found ubiquitously. Yet the presence of strategic resources results in conflicts over their appropriation. “Hey, that's my oil under your land.” Open source technology can address this problem – via principles of substitutability. There are many routes to producing any economically significant product or service. Resilience of communities depends on having a diversity of options. As open access to technology becomes commonplace, every community can increase its level of productivity and appropriate technology – to the point that it can substitute any strategic material with local options – without any reduction in the standard of living – while contributing positively to global peace.

Transparency of the connection between technology and nature means that people begin to respect nature. This happens when people begin to respect that their well-being comes from nature. This transparency is facilitated when economically productive activities happen as close to the community as possible – not out of sight, out of mind in remote locations. This is true environmental accountability – as one tends to not destroy their own environment. Thus, there is a direct connection between transparency of production to natural regeneration – as people begin to make more sound production choices – by understanding the connection of production to the land. This means that industry no longer needs to occur in the form of toxic wastelands – but instead – eco-industry, on a human scale – serving the needs of people, not centralized industries competing for world domination.

Thus, technology and technological literacy are a way to reconnect to nature – not to destroy it.

The above depends on increasing the density of knowhow and technology in every community – which comes from the open paradigm – open information, open communication, open everything. The limit of optimal density of productive knowhow is the point that any community is capable of producing the full range of essential resources necessary for it to exist, grow, and prosper. This is not to say that trade should not happen – but for community stability – trade should be avoided on essential products that the community needs. As much as a community would want otherwise – when placed in a scarcity condition – rationality goes out the window and people start to kill each other.

For the first time in history – we have a chance to do otherwise. Unleashed access to information and technology – as availed by the computer age – means that any conflicts related to material scarcity can become a thing of the past. This includes resource conflicts, poverty, overpopulation, and even bureaucracy – as bureaucracy is not much more than a mechanism to manage scarce resources. Further, regulatory costs are minimized via technological transparency - as a technologically-literate populace of the open source age becomes increasingly responsible for its own actions.

This is not a case for conflict between the rich and poor, the city or the country, the first or third worlds – it is a case where open access to information helps everyone. As barriers to entry are lowered, social upheaval is minimized. As production remains high – and increases due to the elimination of competitive waste – prosperity can only increase.

This is a paradigm shift. That is the core of Open Source Ecology.

This does not address evolving as humans – in cultural and scientific advancement - or in wisdom that prevents us from reverting to insanity. Open Source Ecology only lays a starting point and foundation - from which evolution becomes possible.

Open

We support everything open. See the notions of open at the Shuttleworth Foundation - http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/about-us/our-philosophy/open-reporting/

Economy and Ecology

Distributive Enterprise - The distinguishing feature of this paradigm is a focus on distributive enterprise – open publishing of not only product designs, but also of open enterprise models so that others can replicate best practices. There is a direct relationship between open design and lowering of barriers to entry. Productive enterprise forms the backbone for communities' infrastructures and their prosperity. Open access to unprecedented high densities of productive information means economic prosperity – and everybody wins.

The open source economy is an economic system marked by open access to best-practice designs and techniques for producing economically-significant products and services. One feature of the open source economy is Industry 2.0 – or distributed, flexible production – where access to a down-loadable repository of open source design feeds local, multipurpose digital fabrication facilities. Such facilities - or powerful Microfactories - can produce just about anything that a community will need - local food, energy, housing, or cars. This is distinct from centralized production facilities that exist today.

An open source economy produces designs by global collaboration, with development cycles 24/7 around the globe. When a sufficient number of stakeholders join a development process, it is a matter of time before the development cycle yields the best designs – and these designs evolve continuously.

Integrated Economy – open fosters rapid learning (open IP) and low capitalization (open source products) – ie., lower barriers to entry. Lower barriers to entry indicate that a single economic agent can have a broader range of productivity, therefore more resilience from economic shocks. In the limit of extreme diversity on the part of the producers, every community can attain a complete economy. If product evolution involves advanced techniques for material substitution, then every community can attain a complete economy based on local resources. This is the solution to resource conflicts. This is stability in the face of global economic upheaval.

The end of artificial material scarcity – Artificial material scarcity may be defined as the condition where – in the absolute abundance of resources – namely rocks, plants, water, and sunlight – the distribution to humans is drastically uneven. Lowering barriers to entry helps to distribute production more widely. Product optimization from open development includes optimization for lifetime of use. Lifetime design (ie, lower maintenance costs), combined with high productivity and low barriers to entry - indicates that material abundance can be the general human condition. This is a solution to poverty.

Transparency of Resource Use and Feedback – Rapid learning in the open source economy helps people gain numeracy and technological literacy. Technological literacy promotes the understanding of production – and specifically, the relationship between natural resources and human population. Local resource use fosters a high level of resource feedback loops – as the state of the local environment is easily observable. Such transparency of resource use is the solution to overpopulation in a rational (materially abundant) society.

Lower Cost – by eliminating competitive waste, the cost of buying or making open source products is reduced significantly.

Competitiveness with Globalization - When IP access barriers are eliminated in the open source economy, cost of production is reduced to production capitalization and labor. The cost of production capitalization, under the assumption of flexible fabrication assisted by automation - goes to zero in the scenario of community-supported manufacturing (think Open Source Fab Lab in every community). In the open economy of DIY ethics and local capacity and transparency - the cost of labor goes down – as the user can also learn to be the producer. In the limit of DIY ethic, this cost, defined as external cost - goes to zero – and is replaced by one's time. Further, in the limit of lifetime-design products, the time required for production is minimized, as production has to happen only once. Thus, competitiveness with global players is achieved by zero access barriers and local skill, and local social capital – a different paradigm.

Ecology

Closing the Nature-Technology Divide – Truly sound technology is not at odds with nature. We have a choice to produce technology in an environmentally sound way. For just about every harmful and polluting industrial process, a clean alternative may be found. Biomimicry shows us the way to do this in many cases. Moreover, truly sound technology should bring us closer to nature -

ie, if we appreciate that nature provides all material wealth, we are inclined to take care of nature. This is a case for educating generalists – not technologists or environmentalists – people who understand technology deeply to the point that they respect nature – and people who understand the environment deeply to the point that they they respect technology. Technological literacy is facilitated by introduction of true technical education, as opposed to industry standard marketing forces.

Product Development Ecology – In the mainstream, the designer is not the draftsman, the draftsman is not the engineer, the engineer is not the fabricator, the fabricator is not the user, and the user is not the repairman. While is is touted as the pinnacle of specialization, this introduces a lack of accountability between all these steps, and therefore, inferior product design when considered from the human ergonomic factors, product service, environmental issues, or wealth distribution issues. Open source design addresses this, as it is design by the people, for the people – and it is infinitely customizable.

Environmental Regeneration – There is a direct link between open source technology and environmentalism. Open technology implies optimal technology – and one part of optimization is optimization for environmental friendliness. Thus, the trend of environmental degradation can be reversed to environmental regeneration.

PART II

Tactical Approach

To create an open source economy, we are starting this a small but sufficient subset, the GVCS 50. By developing the GVCS technology kernel, we enable the community-based solution of relocalized production. Because the GVCS tools are selected based on their large economic significance, this has widespread applications – such as enterprise startup, regeneration of urban decay, and building of communities – both in the developed and developing world. Because the GVCS is comprehensive, it is designed to provide a robust solution for rebuilding communities from the ground up.

Rollout Plan

We currently have $1/2M of funding to begin rapid parallel development of the GVCS, with development of 14 further tools starting January 1, 2012. We aim to produce beta product releases of most of these tools by April 1, 2012. From then, we will deploy the remaining 32 technologies, while documenting all results with global CAD and instructionals support. Our goal is to secure a total of $5.5M for 2012 by January 31, 2012. We are including $2.5M for prototyping, $2.5M for documentation and field testing, and $1/2M for deploying the fully-featured, open source CAD/CAM solution. See OSE Enterprise Plan video.

We have grown from about $20k/year for the past 4 years to $500k in the last 2 months, and we have the ambitious goal of $5M more secured within one month. We pride ourselves in efficiency of resource allocations. We spend about 98% of our resources directly on prototypes built, and our overhead for the nonprofit sector donations is 2% via a fiscal sponsor. We encourage you to donate and to put your energy into this work. We are doing a lot of the development with volunteers, and Factor e Farm is the main development facility. We are also outsourcing as much of the design, prototyping, and documentation work as possible – as funding allows. Increased resources mean increased burn-down rate for the GVCS 50 technologies.

The next 14 tools are:

1. CNC Multimachine – we are currently considering Dan Granett, a precision machining expert – to build out the CNC Multimachine, while utilizing any relevant techniques from a collaborating group - the Open Source Multimchine project

2. CNC Circuit Mill – Yoonseo Kang is the project lead on this at Factor e Farm, and we are considering the SnapLock CNC as our platform of choice, evaluating it at present before starting deployment in January. Proposal Brief is forthcoming.

3. Ironworker Machine – Brianna Kufa is project lead, with initial design work completed, and Proposal Brief forthcoming. We currently have a design challenge up on GrabCAD to develop an open source cutting blade design.

4. CNC Torch Table – prototype I has been tested in producing tractor parts with success, and optimization is needed for the software tool-chain. We are currently considering an upgraded gantry shown under Prototype II on the wiki, a simple DIY design which has seen many hundreds of hours of production time and is a stable design. Z height control needs to be developed.

5. Induction Furnace – conceptual design done. Considering recruiting consulting assistance from Superior Induction. Looking for subject matter experts to join this project, Dedicated Project Visit or remote collaboration.

6. Sawmill – Prototype I 75% complete, ready for motor and blade attachment; looking for Dedicated Project Visitor for field testing.

7. Backhoe – Enniss Inc. is being considered for prototyping.

8. Bulllldozer – considering modified LifeTrac frame and weights, jack shaft wheel drive and steel wheels like in old agricultural traction engines from 100 years ago; 10,000 lb weight for first prototype.

9. Well-drilling rig – considering design consulting from Enniss, Inc. Looking for subject matter experts.

10. Modern Steam Engine – current plan is to use the Wally Munster scalable modern design. Collaboration with Tom Kimmel of Steam Auto Club of America to develop a plant for the next generation of modern steam Power Cubes, about 4x3x3 feet in size for s 25 hp Prototype 1. Plant includes Gasifier Burner, Heat Exchanger, oil pump, water pump. Plan for Heat Exchanger is to work with Tom using his open source coil winder.

11. Pelletizer – Need design and fabrication drawings. Can be fabricated by Sweiger Shop readily. See pelletizer dies on research and development page - and design around those.

12. Power Inverter – following the development of the CNC circuit mill, we will prototype the inverter. Need power electronics subject matter experts to join the team.

13. Solar Concentrator – the current plan is to build on documentation available from the SolarFire project. Collaborating with Dr. Peter Schwartz of Cal Poly on design evaluation.

So, You Want to Build a New Civilization?

All right. Please go to the OSE Wiki and sign in. You will see a list of the 50 GVCS technologies, There is plenty of work left on the GVCS 50. Pick one, and start contributing information. There is research and development, where you can contribute conceptual design, analysis of industry standards, diagrams, prior art, background research, and other supporting information. Then comes the design stage – CAD, calculations, simulations, fabrication drawings, etc.. Peer review is useful. Then comes the build – which requires a bill of materials., sourcing, and a facility to build. We encourage you to work remotely and contribute test data. We invite you to write a Proposal Brief, and we can fund your work upon technical merit. Or you can come for a Dedicated Project Visit to Factor e Farm.

Is a technology of your choice not part of the official 50 GVCS list? Then start new pages on the wiki for non-GVCS tools. The wiki is infinitely expandable. The GVCS is only a limited but sufficient set – limited so it remains a tractable project with a clear deliverable. We don't really know if the choices made are the best – but we will reevaluate after the set is done by year-end 2012. We can't tell until we see all the devices work together as a complete set. We just selected the 50 best ones according to OSE Specifications and the Product Selection Metric almost 4 years ago.

If you are a subject matter expert, designer, video editor, CAD draftsman, or other technical contributor in any of the 50 technologies – you are welcome to bid on work. We suggest you submit a Proposal Brief. The key to the project is fining qualified people – and we found that word of mouth and references from trusted sources tend to provide best results. Help us find these people.

We are also looking for full time people to join Factor e Farm – master builder, farmer, fabrication manager, CEO, CTO, and co-founder. With the farmer and builder, we need to continue field testing the equipment while feeding our team, building out infrastructure, building out our electrical grid, and making other tools. We are looking for startup instigators, not employees – as this type of risk-sharing is part of the responsibility that we seek in our partners.

There are other support roles. We also welcome you to join us in resource development – the OSE Enterprise is an open business plan that you can use. We are working on developing remote video editing capacity, where you can edit remotely after downloading footage from our repository – such as YouTube. We are looking for ongoing CAD, fabrication drawing, simulation, and analysis support for prototyping.

Regarding other branches, regional groups, or chapters, you are welcome to start them. If you want to use the name of Open Source Ecology – you will be expected to produce open source designs, blueprints, and open enterprise models – as in our core mission. To do so, you will be required to sign a Charter as an official OSE facility. We will be developing these standards this year as we evolve into a truly global movement, and we will start OSE International as an umbrella organization. We will be expanding to all goods and services, but for now, we are focusing on the GVCS 50 as the strategic core. Once developed, this will provide the track record, process, and economic power to diversify into other products and to facilitate the creation of communities, enterprises, and countries. Remember that this is an Apollo Program for the GVCS – and we expect to finish the 50 beta product releases by December 21, 2012. If things continue as they are now, we may be done ahead of schedule. This will place us with a much larger index of possibilities for 2013.

We would like to continue making this one of the most collaborative projects in the world: open engineering and open economic development for the common good.

Appendix

Appendix – Legacy Site for OSE

This is the legacy site for Open Source Ecology from 2005.

Archived on February 10, 2005, see Mission at http://web.archive.org/web/20050210084651/http://sourceopen.org/

Our Mission

by Marcin Jakubowski, 11.30.03

 I. What is Open Source?

Open Source refers to the model of providing goods and services which includes the possibility of the end-user's participation in the production of these goods and services. This concept has already been demonstrated in Linux, the open source computing system. With Linux, a large number of software developers have contributed to creating a viable alternative to the proprietary Windows computer operating system. Many people can readily see the advantages- all Linux software is free. Please read these articles on the concept of Open Source software and its implications for changing business. 
 

II. What is Open Source Economics?

Our mission is to extend the Open Source model to the provision any goods and services- Open Source Economics. This means opening access to the information and technology which enables a different economic system to be realized, one based on the integration of  natural ecology, social ecology, and industrial ecology. This economic system is based on open access- based on widely accessible information and associated access to productive capital- distributed into the hands of  an increased number of people. Read about an inspiring example of such an economic model being currently put into practice with respect to manufacturing vehicles.

We believe that a highly distributed, increasingly participatory model of production is the core of a democratic society, where stability is established naturally by the balance of  human activity with sustainable extraction of natural resources. This is the opposite of the current mainstream of centralized economies, which have a structurally built-in tendency towards of overproduction. 
 

III. What is Open Source Ecology?

We derive our organization's name from a concept which refers to the integration of the natural, societal, and industrial ecologies- Open Source Ecology- aiming at sustainable and regenerative economics. We are convinced that a possibility of a quality life exists, where human needs are guaranteed to the world's entire population- as long as we ask ourselves basic questions on what societal structures and productive activities are truly appropriate to meeting human needs for all. At the end of the day, the goal is to liberate our time to engage in exactly that which each of us wants to be doing- instead of what we need to do to survive. All have the potential to thrive. Today, an increasingly smaller percentage of the world's population is in this position. 

Appendix

My Story

by Marcin Jakubowski, 12.24.2011

I have been asked a number of times – what experiences led me to start OSE? I am sharing my story here to shed some light on the formative experiences influencing this work, with the hope that they may help to clarify the approach.

Ever since I was a little child I wanted to apply science to creating human prosperity. Wow – with all the Amazing technology around us – life should be good. My father is a molecular biologist, and ushered me to go high in academia. But the further I went the more useless I felt, while noticing that there were pressing global ills to solve. It was during my Ph.D. Program in Madison, WI, that I got radicalized. I discovered first hand the myth of technology – with ever improving technology, people are still working harder and harder, missing out on the finer things in life. This troubled me greatly.

In Madison, there was a string of events that led me to formulate the Open Source Ecology concept. It actually started at Princeton U, where I went for my undergraduate studies. I found Princeton to be a shocking wake-up call – more a breeding place for the power structure of the world – less a playground for ideologues improving the human condition. I vowed after this never to go to another Ivy League, and found myself at U. Wisconsin, Madison, for grad school - a progressive, rabble-rousing environment. Soon enough, I became totally disillusioned with my studies – I was becoming more specialized and useless every day – and I was learning theory about things that didn't exist. I felt that was a great abnegation of human responsibility – given that there are pressing issues in the world to solve. So I started getting involved in the student community to remain sane. I started the Polish Club to bring the Polish crowds together, then Global Connections, to get all the internationals together. Then I moved on to organize interdepartmental grad student socials – since we never had a chance to interact with anyone outside of our department. Since I was interested in energy, I started a Global Energy Forum, and then Sustainability Forum to immerse intellectually in sustainability issues, then Gandhi Network to get some hands-on experience beyond the mind, such as building a solar dehydrator. Through all of these events, I learned 2 things. First, people rarely collaborate or cross disciplines in their work. Second – people did not have time to do cool things any more. Lectures and workshops were all fun and games – but they were really brief sessions of escapism - as nobody really had the time to pursue any of the topics discussed any more deeply. People go to the talks and workshops - then they go back to work for the man on Monday. What was needed was a different lifestyle, a new economy – where people were not so alienated from their work, where they could pursue the things that they really cared about. It is then that I thought that civilization needed a thorough reboot in terms of right livelihood and meaning in peoples' lives. The economy and environment and social justice were all in havoc all over the world – yet everybody was going about business as usual.

Then it became crystal clear to me – only if we collaborate truly openly – as in creating an open source economy where people actually build freely on each other's progress – only then can we achieve a sound economy – and ample spare time. This became clear to me when even I could not discuss my PhD research openly with other university groups – because we had hot stuff and competitive advantage for funding. Thus, my learning process was hampered. That frustrated me to the point that I decided I would work wholeheartedly to change this aspect of modern civilization.

In my last year of the Ph.D. Program, I coined the Open Source Ecology concept. It was about creating an open source economy – based on the principles of collaboration that came from the open source software movement. I claimed that if we operate openly, we learn more, we become more responsible, which includes responsibility for taking care of nature – as it is the source of all of our material well-being. Therefore, open source ecology refers to the integration of human and natural ecosystem into a harmonious system of interactions, based on open source principles of cooperation.

Any civilization starts with access to land – so in my civilization reboot experiment, land was the first thing I secured after my PhD. In the initial phases, with little money and big dreams, voluntary simplicity was my only option, and I explored the limits of how little one could do with. But that got old after some time. I was living like a hippie in the woods with a pocket knife, and it occurred to me quickly that a firm economic foundation and powerful tools were necessary if one is to face nature and ask her to provide directly for one's needs. I also learned quickly that use of nature does not have to mean abuse of nature.. I also learned that we have the technology to do things right – in harmony with nature – and it is only greed and myths that dictate that human prosperity should be at odds with nature. I learned first hand from the land - that nature is abundant – and that general human prosperity is a matter of distribution – not production.

So with this, my tractor broke, and the rest is history as you see in my TED Talk of 2011. Point is: we can create open source equivalents to industry standards – AND take care of the environment, AND in fact, we can do much better all together by eliminating the inefficiencies of competitive waste in all its forms. Globalization is a simple manifestation of competitive waste – competing for strategic resources because we refuse to learn how to use local resources more cunningly to achieve the same ends.

I also come from Poland, with its long history of war, surrounded by powerful neighbors. My grandfather was in the Polish underground engaging sabotage actions against Nazis during WWII, and he was a horseback soldier in WWI. My grandmother was in a concentration camp. I read all types of books on these troubling topics, as they are fascinating – regarding the nature of the human spirit under extremes of conditions – playing out the good old fight of good versus evil. I pictured myself living in those times, and still have bad dreams from time to time - and put myself in the place of the people in these books - and consider how I would act myself. And today, I grasp to understand why we are still so un-evolved as humans, still killing one another. The most fascinating explanation I have yet read on the topic – and interestingly – from a survivor of turbulent political times of post-WWII Poland himself – is Political Ponerology: a Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes. That is the most important book on the topic of achieving general human prosperity that I have read. It is a psychological study that explains why psychopaths tend to move up in corporate boardrooms and positions of power – and how all of us support them - in getting there.

Today I do my part in the open source 'underground' – a fringe movement still, waiting to be the next trillion dollar industry. Except this time, it will not be a centralist phenomenon – but a movement created by many independent players. If we open source a few critical yet sufficient technologies for survival as a species – then a shining example can be set, and a solid economic foundation can be laid – for human progress. My role is to seed a kernel, in the form of the GVCS 50 tools – and the economic power created will take care of the rest.

What is the rest? When people address basic material scarcity – a new economy, and new politics, will follow. It will be a new paradigm. What do I see myself doing then? I will be spending my full attention on how to become a better human, and helping others to do the same. This depends on material scarcity being removed as one of the stresses affecting humanity, as mastering material security is a prerequisite if we want to have a fair chance – of evolving to freedom.

New education, new communities, new politics – they are all around the corner. Even when the world is cracking at the seams, the human spirit will never die.

How are you doing your part to play this out?