Annual Report Editing

Marcin Jakubowski was born in Poland, where his early experiences were shaped by his family’s history. His grandfather acted in the Polish underground, derailing German trains in WWII, and his grandmother survived a concentration camp. When he was 10, tanks rolled down the streets of his neighborhood - and it wasn't a parade. These were times of martial law behind the Iron Curtain, and a clear state of material scarcity. Marcin and his family waited in line for staples like butter and meat. His life would be transformed when his family left for America, but he never forgot the terrible things that happen when resources are scarce and people fight over opportunity.

Marcin thrived in the United States, graduating with honors from Princeton, and earning his Ph.D. in fusion physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. At the same time, Marcin began to think that the most essential type of freedom starts with one's individual ability to use natural resources to free oneself from material constraints.

To test his convictions - Marcin started a farm - in rural Missouri. He learned about the economics of farming. He bought a tractor - then it broke. He paid to get it repaired - then it broke again. And then soon enough - he was broke, too. He realized that the truly appropriate - low-cost tools that he needed to build a sustainable farm and settlement - just didn’t exist yet.

He needed tools that were robust, modular, highly efficient, low cost, made from local or recycled materials, and, that were designed for a lifetime - not obsolescence. He realized that he'd have to build them himself.

So he did just that - and he tested them - and found that industrial productivity - can be achieved - on a small scale. So then he posted all the designs, schematics, instructional videos, and budgets on a wiki. Then contributors from all over the world began showing up - prototyping new machines, during dedicated project visits. As such, the tractor, the brick press, and a number of other machines were born. And the rest is history.

Wherever material scarcity exists in the world, we see impoverished, isolated beings powerless to take care of themselves and live the healthy, productive lives they desire. Open Source Ecology is building a solution, where information flows freely and openly so that everyone has access to information on how to process raw materials into the life-stuff of modern civilization. We believe that everyone should have access to material security, efficient production, and autonomy.

At Open Source Ecology (OSE), we find it paradoxical that many of the populations living in poverty are surrounded by the absolute abundance of natural resources - namely sunlight, rocks, plants, soil, water - from which all the wealth of the economy is built. We are convinced that the big challenge to producing true freedom is bypassing the artificial roadblocks of scarcity, to give as many people as possible access to know-how and the right tools so they can convert their environment’s abundant raw resources into personal good and freedom.

OSE’s primary project is the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) - an open platform of the 50 industrial machines that it takes to build a small civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS provides open solutions for food, energy, housing, transportation, and industrial manufacturing: everything needed to build vibrant, sustainable economies. This is freedom. This is progress. Lowering barriers to efficient production means going forward into a richer, more just and sustainable future. We’re excited to build a bright, new, more equitable and abundant future, and we’re grateful for your support.

Executive Director's Statement

Open Source Ecology intends to build a collaborative development and manufacturing platform that revolutionizes the way the economy operates today. We design our products in a different way. Our designs are simple and modular and are crafted for a lifetime of service. Our goal is for people to gain full control over their technology, like playing with Lego blocks for life- size machines.

Open Source Ecology believes that the next economy is the Open Source Economy, where we all have access to know-how, so we can build upon it, unleash innovation, and leave nobody behind.

First, there was social enterprise. Now, we are introducing Distributive Enterprise, where businesses harness open collaboration to increase innovation. We share not only our machine designs but also our enterprise plans.

Our goal for 2013 is to stabilize the organization, developing a solid executive team and attaining full organizational structure as a humanitarian organization. In 2013, we aim to streamline our radically collaborative development and production techniques so that we can go into high gear. We aim to continue machine development, as we deploy pilot projects worldwide to test feasibility under the most diverse and demanding conditions.

In 2014–2015, we intend to enter a high-velocity development phase for the remaining machines of the Global Village Construction Set. We intend to finish them all and document them fully by the end of 2015. This is our Apollo Project for a regenerative economy.

From 2016 to 2021, we intend to enter the replication phase, where we build more than 100 facilities worldwide. These facilities are the OSE Incubators - for entrepreneurship training - as a step toward an efficient economy. Our focus is to generate a collaborative, open source product development capacity via a network of such development facilities. Our goal is to unleash innovation worldwide as the next step in the evolution of the modern economy.

The rest will be history.

Forward,

Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D.

Executive Director