OSE HeroX - The Open Source Microfactory Challenge
Sponsors
- The open source cast of characters is Lulzbot, Sparkfun, Adafruit, and other direct OSHWA relations - and see sponsors of OS Hardware Summit
- Matterhackers
- Polar Cloud
- Check out these 3 sponsors. Similar work, but proprietary. - http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-printed-CNC-mill/
Strategy
- Clear positioning as distributive, open source enterprise, without compromises. FreeCAD and 100% open source tool chain is required.
- Distributive economic impact is a stated goal. $10M distributed revenue goal, within 2 years in a distributed enterprise.
- Value proposition: replaceable, lifetime design with easy to source parts - allows for user maintenance.
- Incentive structure must reward collaboration
Incentive Structure
The project is complex, and is intentionally so - such that one must collaborate and borrow from others in order to complete the project. Without building on others' work, it would be imopossible to complete the design, build, testing, data collection, documentation, and production engineering. The result is a working product - not a design. The result must include manufacturability - production ergonomics that allow for the creation of a small business producing 4 cordless drills per day (8 hours) once all the parts are secured. Candidates will be judged on the performance and build data presented. That means that all the parts have to work.
While freeloaders are encouraged, original contributors will get rewards based on the percentage of their contribution. The selection criteria are transparent, but to prevent gaming and to prevent disputes of the judging panel's selection - the specific details of the algorithm will be secret. Judges' selections will be final.
There will be 2 types of rewards - Final Product - and Contributors. The Final Product category rewards anyone who has succeeded in building the desired product to spec. If the Final Product is not reached - ie, nobody achieves an industrial-grade DIY drill - then the full reward will not be given and the contest will be extended by 45 days. The first person to publish gets the reward. Ie, if there are competing designs, the one that is published earlier gets more credit and reward than a later one.
The Final Product prize may not be the largest prize if it turns out preliminary contributions were significant. This incentivizes early publishing rules.
The publishing format is very explicit, in order to make it easy for anyone to build upon the work and review it. As such, a wiki template is used that shows the file download, a screenshot,
Additional money collected via crowdfunding will be used to provide a prize for the FreeCAD Cordless Tool Design Workbench.
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