Video About Open Source

Goal: to increase collaborative literacy by clarifying what Open Source really looks like. Possible Q and A interview format?

Some initial ideas of topics to cover

How does human knowledge accumulate?

• a trans-generational recursive process
• mass trial and error
• standing on the shoulders of giants

How is human knowledge preserved?

• the knowledge commons
• wide diffusion of information
• cultures of intent (eg monks, scientists, farmers)

Open Source is the basic modus operandi of humanity. The whole panoply of 'common sense' knowledge in any culture is formed and preserved in this way.

Historical examples

• pre-industrial technologies
• agricultural techniques
• plant genetics
• building processes
• food preservation technologies
• folk songs
• epic poetry
• mythologies and frameworks for interpreting the world

But...

The history of knowledge enclosure

• religion: the priestly caste and secret knowledge
• medieval guilds, expertisation?
• capitalism and competitive innovation
• property and intellectual property

Open Source to the rescue.

• brief history of modern OS
• the spirit of OS: not just open, but intentionally shared
• the key features
  • source is actually available
  • useful source
  • the four freedoms (including commercial)
  • rapid collaborative development

How to be Open Source in three easy steps:

• Document everything - specifically for replication and further development
• Publish everything - early and often, share alike licensing
• Proactively collaborate - reach out to peers in your field, create synergies not divisions

About OSE

• reverse engineering 200 years of proprietary technology to liberate it for everyone
• rapid diffusion of tools for urgent ecological and economic regeneration
• re-energizing humans as creators and producers, ending the consumer paradigm
• using the potential of the internet to mobilize and coordinate human talent and energy on a global scale
• setting new standards for industrial design:
  • lifetime
  • modular
  • easily built
  • easily disassembled
  • ecologies of technology (not isolated products)
  • regenerative, not extractive
  • liberating, not alienating

Economic models for Open Source hardware:

• production using open designs
• the software model: design open source, charge for consultancy
• community manufacturing centers
• education Help us develop and refine these.

OSE is part of a broader cultural development that includes things like

• permaculture
• permissionless, horizontally organized political and solidarity movements
• peer-to-peer education (eg farmer-to-farmer in global south)
• revitalization of the commons concept
• land trusts

OSE (and this broader project of liberation) will fail if:

• methodologies of collaboration are not intentionally developed and pursued by all who share the regenerative vision
• potential users and contributors 'wait and see'. No person or organization can build this on their own, your participation is required.
• the growing ranks of visionaries and world-changers do not commit to opening their source. Knowledge that isn't actively placed in the commons slows down everyone's efforts and will ultimately wither on the vine.

OSE has developed a set of specifications that allows anyone to contribute to design. Currently developing business and organizational models to help people and groups to join the effort. Pathways for collaboration with OSE:

• remote design and development: either join a team or start a team
• replication and testing
• forming chapters

(include 'First Step' for each of these, eg "Email us at collaborate@opensourceecology.org", or "set up a development spreadsheet using this template…")