FAQ 2015

(FAQ has more content, but needs serious cleanup.)

CAD

Does Sketchup allow use for. OSE purposes? Sketchup has a free no commercial license. OSE does. It sell its Sketchup designs because we make them available for free. Therefore, OSE can use Sketchup for its designs.

How to use GIS to map trees? Is there a cloud GIS free solution? How to do a simple technical drawing of a lot? What to look for in a soil map? What are fOM of a topology map? How do you identify a topology map to an actual place on the land? How do you know where to place a big pond, and where to put it? How do you decide how many ponds should be created? How do you decide the distance between Swales? How do you do water capture waterworks when there are features in the way that you want to save? How do you do so when there

How does the work of OSE relate to pressing world issues?

The central question that the GVCS intends to answer is how to transcend artificial scarcity. In a world where resources are abundant but their distribution is poor, much if not most of human politics revolves around resources. OSE's core mission is to lower the barriers to the stewardship, use, and production of resources. We feel that this can have a profound impact on reducing armed conflict, poverty, and distribution of wealth.

Why does OSE consider distribution of wealth as one of the critical issues to solve?

Taday, 85 of the world's richest people own as much wealth as 3.5 billion of the world's poorest. This issues involves tremendous amounts of unnecessary suffering and lost opportunity, and is related to resource conflicts and loss of freedom.

How do you define freedom?

Freedom is the ability of individuals to pursue happiness - via opportunities to attain autonomy, mastery, and purpose. These 3 values are a central source of human motivation - according to Self Determination Theory.

Why are you working on the CEB Press?

Housing is the single highest cost of living today. Reducing this cost or liberating people from the burden of this cost can free up much time for other pursuits. The Liberator, our CEB Press - is a machine that can produce compressed earth blocks at ane energy cost of 2 cents per brick, where the building material is free.

Q: What is OSE's position on the Peer Production License (PPL)?

A: February 18, 2015. Philosophically, OSE doesn’t agree with PPL allowing companies paying so they do not have to share. This is not consistent with creating a culture of open collaboration and sharing, as indended in open source licenses. Practically, the PPL terms appear to have unclear distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ users. We agree with the general critique presented by http://blog.runtux.com/2014/05/28/242/. Our own comments on non-commercial licenses are here – Why_OSE_Doesn't_Use_Non-Commercial_Licenses.

It is not clear from the wording of the license whether commercial use is allowed by 'bad' users by paying a fee. However - if companies could pay a fee to use content - and if ‘appropriation for the anti-commons capitalist economy’ is the issue that the license aims to address, having corporations buy themselves out of sharing does not address such appropriation. In fact, allowing corporations to buy themselves out of being good citizens can promote such defection - and enclosure of new developments which would otherwise remain open. If the companies are required to follow an open, viral license – they cannot appropriate open technology – without sharing derivatives. We want to encourage collaboration – not defection. Further, OSE's case for open source is based on the efficiency advantage of open source. We feel that anything short of open collaboration is a compromise of the principles developed in the original open source definition, and we are acting accordingly. Our route in practice is Extreme Production, not protected consortia.