OSE Collaboration Architecture
General strategy for Collaboration
Specifics for On-Site Development
At Open Source Ecology, we are developing innovative mass collaboration methods. To do this, we are using Module Based Design – breaking design into parts or modules – so that the parts can be developed and built in parallel.
Key to this is a low barrier to collaboration: by using widely accessible tools, teaching people as we go along. Further, we use a building block (construction set) approach: we develop the building blocks so that anyone can use them in a plug-and-play fashion. The building blocks may be complex – but using the building blocks as understandable, readily-made entities – people can build on these to make more complex devices. Underlying all of this is using open source tools.
Such a process must be based on open tools - such that anyone can have access to the tools and get involved. This makes a process potentially scalable to anyone who merely has an interest in getting involved. Open tools involve open hardware and open software – which allows you to “look under the hood” to understand, and then hack design.
Software Tools - Introduction
We use a set of software tools that are cloud, realtime, collaborative, and embeddable. Cloud means that we can access and work over the internet – the work is hosted remotely and can be accessed through the internet. Realtime means that changes can be seen by all collaborators as soon as they happen. Realtime collaborative means that multiple people can be working in different locations around the world while seeing the results updated as they happen. Embeddable means that the resulting documents can be embedded elsewhere: such as on a wiki, in Wordpress, or in a content management system.
Google Docs are an example that has all the features - cloud, realtime, collaborative, embeddable. It is important for all OSE participants to be familiar with Google Docs – usable for text documents, spreadsheets, drawings, forms, and presentations.
Website Ecology
It is important to understand how our Main Website, the Wiki, Dozuki, Trovebox, Facebook, and YouTube/Vimeo all contribute to our development.
The main website is intended to be the entry point for anyone new to the project:
The most relevant part to development is linked to Machines -> Machine Index:
Once you go to one of the 50 Machine Pages - you see:
Dozuki is our repository of documentation and development pages. See Dozuki for how machines are broken into modules and how each module has a Development Spreadsheet.
A wiki is a freely editable website. It can have images, formatting, and many other embeds. It is important that you learn how to keep a Work Log and embed all types of content - the wiki is flexible with that, so that items such as videos or 3D manipulable images can be embedded. See Instructions for how to sign in and use the wiki. The wiki is our sandbox. It is meant to be a notepad and you are encouraged to post there by signing in and editing. Forget about 'finally organizing all of the wiki' - it's intended to be a braindump for many people. With time, some content gets well-organized. But do not think that you will do that all - bcause there are years of history and many contributors.
Regarding wiki organization, the Dozuki pages (development boards) link back to the wiki for the actual content. Since the wiki does not have a good machine development index, we are using Dozuki as an overall index for machine development.
All participants on site are encouraged to upload videos to YouTube, and images to Trovebox. Trovebox is the "open source Flickr".
The ge
Design Applications
OSE's collaborative platform involves primarily wikis and google docs. To that, we add Google Hangouts as a place to communicate as a group via video. We use Etherpad as a platform where anyone can edit text collaboratively. We use Dozuki as a Master Index. We use the Main Website to communicate Problem statements on each machine being developed.
CAD Approach
Video Production Approach
Documentation Platform Dozuki explanation – link of Dozuki to Wiki