Blog Update Feb 2015

Treatment

Points: We got lots of proof of concept supporting delivery of magical goals. It is time to go the last mile on economic significance.

• Development velocity
• Extreme Manufacturing
• Single day builds. This is significant. We know of no other company or production mechanism that can produce a comlete heavy machine

Script

It's been quite a ride over the last 4 years. We introduced the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS)

50 icons - with 4 year update across them

on the world stage at TED in 2011:

TED Talk

The promise is grand: developing the distributed, open source economy. Solving problems faster than they are created.

Critics of the open source economy point out that Open source is a system of development that doesn't have the requisite positive feedback loops needed to build a viable economic system. John Robb Critique of Open Source - par. 13. This is a belief held firmly in the economic mainstream - and is a reason why open source companies suffer significant risk of Pulling a Makerbot.

We've been busy showing that revenue models can be built upon efficient production, and that they are efficient because they are open source: contributors work for free or for pay to develop products - for use or for sale.

Efficiency is key. In December 2012, we have shown for the first time that one of our heavy machines, the Compressed Earth Block (CEB) Press, can be built in a single day. We did this by a combination of digital fabrication and a swarm build where modular design allows for a rapid, parallel build process.

Video 2012 Dec 18

The promise of the distributed network approach, as opposed to the broadcast (centralized) approach is that more people have access to raw productive power. We have learned that are plans are sufficient for someone to download and build machines on their own. In 2011, the first ever replication occurred.

While many people think about Africa when they hear about the GVCS - the set is intended to fix our own backyards before we take it anywhere else.

So far, 104 machines have been built in total - most being heavy equipment like the brick press and tractors, and also a few small ones like the micro Power Cube or 3D printer.