Open Source Ecology Community

An open source ecology (OSE) community is any community that follows the principles of open source ecology (OSE). An OSE community may be described best as an enterprise community of economically-interdependent stakeholders, specialized in their respective areas of production, and combining to a complete or nearly complete package of local, resilient production ability.

The baseline for such production is complete production capacity for these infrastructures based on local resources:

1. Food
2. Energy
3. Housing
4. Fuel
5. Land transportation vehicles
6. Fabrication capacity
7. Significant portion of raw materials production, including rubber, ceramics, glass, metal, plastics, fiber, and cementitious building materials

The above list does not necessarily include VLSI clean room facilities for semiconductor production, but may in the future, depending on progress after the above basics are provided.

The OSE concept of a Resilient Community attempts to explore the creation of a small community (village scale) with shared values that leverage the principles of open source, distributed economy/shared wealth, and the productivity advantages of being able to self-fabricate almost anything using the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS).

Other projects are attempting similar communities, such as The Venus Project.

Resources

Success and growth of an OSE community will depend on the resources available to it. Fortunately, we are surrounded by resources - both natural and man-made. The challenge to an OSE community will be to discover these resources and use them in an appropriate way.

Two resources need to be singled out for special consideration: land and water. Sadly, the days are long past when a group of like minded people can head out west (or where ever) to seek unclaimed land for their own use. Selection of land for the creation of a planned community is of critical importance. See OSEC Land Selection Criteria. While selected land will likely have many different kinds of resources, the importance of water cannot be over-emphasized. Water is essential for life.

• Land
  • 1 acre per person seems to be the rule
  • Ideally secured by ownership (could be shared, corporate, etc)
  • Climate and micro-climates
• Water
  • Year round source
  • Potable or cleanable
  • Head and flow volume desirable
  • Natural pressure desirable (artisian springs)
• Raw Materials
  • Organic
    • Trees
  • Earth
    • Sand
    • Top Soil
    • Cementitious Earth
  • Minerals
    • These will vary considerably with location.
  • Scrap
    • Local dumps, etc.
    • Local industry refuse, etc.
    • Pollution is a yet to be used resource

Shelter

• Housing
• Work shops
• Farm buildings (barn, shed, etc)
• Food storage

Food

• Production
• Hunt/Gather
• Preservation
• Storage

Clothing

• Raw Materials
• Intermediate Production
  • Spinning thread and yarn
  • Tanning leather
• Production

Energy

• Sources of Energy
  • Solar
  • Water
  • Wind
  • Bio-mass
  • Geo-thermal
  • By-products of other processes
• Storage

Transportation

• Personal
• Work

Tools

• Hand Tools
• Fabrication
  • Digital Fabrication, RepLab
  • Manual Fabrication
• Global Village Construction Set
• Vehicular Tools
  • LifeTrac
  • MiniTrac
• Information
  • Books
  • Internet
  • Videos

Governance

Coordinating action between people