OSE Specifications

Introduction

(last updated early 2009, to be updated with significant expansion of scope in late 2009)

OSE Specifications are the metric for assessing the contribution of economic activity to the creation of post-scarcity economies.

The OSE Specifications are a standard aimed at defining and evaluating the criteria of products, services, and their production - which serve to promote the creation of post-scarcity economies, and therefore, the creatio of resilient communities. Post-scarcity refers to the rigorous condition of a community's adjustment to the usage of its resource base, such that needs and desires and provided abundantly - with significant surplus to fuel progress and evolution of the community.

Components of OSE Specifications

OSE Specifications cover a number of aspects of economically-significant production, covering the development and production aspects:

• Economic significance
• Open source technical documentation
• Distributive economic nature
• Transformative nature of enterprise
• Systems design
• Transparency of production model and development process
• Creation of post-scarcity levels of production
• Participatory nature of development process
• Simplicity and low cost
• Open Source Business Model and startup assistance
• Lifetime, modular design; design-for-disassembly; design-for-scalability
• Localization of material sourcing and of production
• Ecological qualities
• Minimization of waste, overhead, and bureaucracy

Economic Significance

Economic significance refers to the overall economic importance of a given product. For example, fuels and tractors constitute multibillion dollar global markets, and are thus economically significant.

Creation of Post Scarcity Levels of Production

Post-scarcity levels of production imply the availability of effective tools of production, including both hardware and techniques. Post-scarcity

Ecological Design

There are many features of ecological design that may be considered, depending on the situation, but these are the salient features.

Multipurpose Modular Design

Objects should be designed so that they are made as building blocks, or modules, of other or larger objects. This way, objects can be modified. Instead of a whole object having to be replaced to add new functionality, a module may be added. This gives products a flexibility that is built into their very nature, such that the user has additional control with minimum expense. Modularity may sometimes be synonymous with inter-operability, and may sometimes be synonymous with scalability. It may contribute to lifetime design if an object is 100% modular and each module may be replaced. Modularity also means that an object may function as a building block of other objects. In all cases, modularity implies that an object may be modified. The combination of flexibility, adaptability, scalability, interoperability are desirable. These features expand the range of applications, increase lifetime, reduce cost, as well as provide and retain high value. In a material world, these are features that contribute to wealth and prosperity. In a nutshell, modularity provides large value and has low associated costs. These are good implications for individual and community well-being.

If modular design is followed, then the type of interoperability of using building blocks leads us to a Pattern Language of technology. In this pattern language, the modules or building blocks serve as the sentences of a larger language, or technology infrastructure.

Design for Disassembly and Lifetime Design

For long life, and easy repair. Replaceable components are key to this.

Simplicity and Low Cost

The design should be the simplest from both the fabrication and cost perspective, such that it is the most readily replicable.

Scalability

Products shoudl be designed so that they can be scaled up or down - such as by addition of new modules, or using multiples of a part in parallel. For example, a solar concentrator system designed according to the principle of scalability should be a linear design (see Solar Power Generator), so that it could be enlarged either by lengthening or widening the array.

Development Process

1. Participation in the development process is entirely voluntary. No compensation for alienation is necessary. As a result, the best designs are produced from the commitment of passionate stakeholders.

2. Anyone may join or leave the development group at any time

3. Collaborative development process utilizes the input of diverse stakeholders

4. Steps and results of the development process are documented

Economic Feasibility and Replicability

Localization

   Level 1 - production is local
   Level 2 - sourcing of materials used in production is local
   Level 3 - raw materials are local
   Level 4 - production machinery used in the prouduction process is open source and locally fabricated

Localization applies to regional economies.

An example of Level 3 is that local aluminum is made by Smelting aluminum from local clays.

If localization is taken to all the 4 levels, for all necessities of sustaining its population - that means that a region is autonomous, and as such, has no built-in tendency to wage war for others' resources. This is the critical point of localization - its benign effect on global geopolitical struggle. In simple words, people don't kill and steal others resources, as instructed in old literature.

Product Evolution

A process is put into place for continued development on a product. This could be a support community, foundation, or users.

Fabrication Facilities

Concrete Flexible Fabrication mechanism exists for others to purchase the product at reasonable cost

Open Franchising or Open Business Model

Replicable enterprise design is freely available, and training exists for entrepreneurs

Startup Assistance

In summary, we aim to raise the standards embodied in open source product development efforts by articulating the possibilities. OSE Specification describes all the desirable features that can be embodied in open economic development, under the assumption that maximum advancement of distributive production is the best route to human prosperity.

The end promise isliberatory technology - open, replicable, essential, optimal, and ecological goods and services for humankind living in harmony with natural life support systems.=Other Notes= We are interested in providing a transparent assessment of the overall openness or accessibility of so-called open source products. The concept of open source is extended here to physical products in general. The intent of this specification is to clarify those attributes of the product or product development process that contribute to widespread access to users. This specification is intended to help people assess distributive production aspects of projects, by distinguishing between the various degrees of ‘opensourceness’ embodied in projects. This is because some projects call themselves ‘open source’ when, in reality, only a small portion, or even no physical portion, of the hardware is open source.

For example, in the case of the OS Green Vehicle, the only open source component is an apparent design process, but the output of the design process is proprietary: ‘Your rights to use, modify and re-distribute any data from this web site are limited.’ Moreover, the components used in the car are proprietary. This is not in the true nature of open source ideals.

Access refers to use for both private or market purposes. The specification is not neutral in its goals, just as no technologies are ever neutral. The intent goes so far as to point out the nuances that contribute to a particular direction of: (1), promoting ecological integrity, (2), contributing to the highest possible quality of life, and (3), creating the widest possible distribution of wealth. Because the open source method of product development has immense potential in transforming the economic system, the OSE Specification aims to address the evaluation of positive change endorsed by various open source projects.

The scope of OSE Specifications is far-reaching: it considers all the steps necessary for a product to be user-accessible. This includes open access to relevant information and affordable access to physical products. This implies that for physical products, the highest standard is the existence of a production facility to bring a given product to market.

OSE Specification does not stop at physical production facilities. It addresses the means for replicating the production process itself. This includes the development of open business models, training materials, and apprenticeships for entrepreneurs. As the final step, we consider the availability of capitalization assistance within the metric. The capitalization assistance may be in the form of producing the machines involved in production for the trainee’s new enterprise, or it may mean that the trainee shares in the earnings from making a product in order to help defray the cost of a new facility.

Such level of commitment to the success of replication may imply a hidden agenda behind this program. Indeed there is: the greatest possible empowerment of people and communities to be the masters of their destinies by beginning to take control of their means of production. Self-employment and local, ecological economies are desirable byproducts.

OSE Spec addresses access for two audiences: both users and producers. Production could occur by do-it-yourself means. More importantly, we have the framework of flexible fabrication in mind. The OSE Spec addresses the availability of blueprints or digital designs, which can be used readily in computer-controlled fabrication facilities. Such fabrication procedures lend themselves for use by producers selling to outside markets. Indeed, the metric addresses the ease with which production may be initiated. At best, production should be easy to start, if it requires minimal capitalization, and if producers can be trained effectively.

The particular elements of OSE Spec includes four areas: information access, ecological design, design process, and economic feasibility and replicability. The components of OSE Specifications are detailed as follows: