STEAM Camp - How It Works

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HintLightbulb.png Hint: Update for organizational infrastructure - contractors? Partners? Evolution to Open Source Franchise

How It Works

  1. Each instructor runs an event in their local area - in the nearest suitable population center or venue
  2. There is one instructor per event, and 2 if the number of registrants is 18 or more.
  3. Each STEAM Camp is 9 days long and requires instructor to be there full time
  4. We run 12 events at the same time in parallel - to collaborate on projects and share expertise.
  5. Instructors work with OSE to prepare the curriculum - see specifics of curriculum at STEAM Camp 9 Day Curriculum. Current project for the 5 days is the Raspberry Pi tablet. All instructors work openly on the wiki and Google Presentations and using other open source tools to promote open source collaboration.
  6. Each instructor provides relevant technology - most important because technology is the foundation of our product. Without technology, we could not substantiate practical development of open source products.
  7. OSE coordinates this effort, and shares revenue 50/50 with each instructor based on the net revenue of the particular instructor's event. See STEAM Camp Finances
  8. All curriculum and design is published as open source to promote rapid learning worlwide as a service to humanity. The intent is to make the curriculum available to anyone who wants to teach it, as an open educational resource.

Content and Open Product Development

  1. Each camp has about 3 days of design, 4 days of build, and 2 days of enterprise
  2. Each Camp builds upon the results of the previous camp. The Projects are improved until economically significant products are created, with production engineering designed for distributed production in open source microfactories, hackerspaces, and fablabs.
  3. The process is collaboration and open source-centric. We are absolutely committed to open source as a vehicle to bring about economic freedom. Any enclosure (Non-commercial licenses, patents, non-transparency) is simply not part of our game/
  4. We use open source tools, software, and processes. If these do not exist, we work on creating them.
  5. We work on simple products that can be manufactured readily using 3D printers and other basic digital fabrication tools. We also recognize the limits, such as 3D printers without professional-grade high-temperature heated chambers are limited. Our solution is to develop the missing tools by upgrading the state of art that is available as open source hardware.
  6. We believe in large-scale transformation of economic systems via open source production. For this reason, we start with common, every-day consumer goods - as opposed to exotic innovation. Our innovation revolves around reworking the production engineering of common goods so that they can be produced in local, flexible, ecological microfactories - as opposed to centralized, specialized factories.

Learning Outcomes

The goal of the STEAM Camp is to provide an introduction to the 6 critical ingredients that enable students to begin a pursuit of the open source economy. From the perspective of OSE, the ideal outcome is a student not only learning Open Source Design Thinking, but starting a sideline business based on collaborative material production of common goods for their local economy. This is consistent with our mission of creating collaborative design for a transparent and inclusive economy of abundance.

  • Collaborative Literacy - psychological and spiritual tools beyond the reptilian brain that allow for the open source, growth mindset. The seed of the collaborative cortex, which does not yet exist. STEAM Camp Content: Introduction to OSE and open source product development (1 hr); How to Start an Open Source Project (1 hr);
  • Collaboration Toolset - sofware and processes to translate collaborative literacy into collaboration for product development. STEAM Camp Content: Intro to complete toolchain used for design and prototyping. FreeCAD, KiCad, FlatCAM, Inkscape, Kdenlive, WebGL, Marlin, Cura, Wiki, Work Log, Realtime Collaborative Docs, Modular Breakdown, Part Libraries, repositories, taxonomy, genealogy, critical path.
  • Hardware Tools - OSE Dev Kit. This is a development, education, production kit of a 3-in-1 CNC Machine that facilitates the production of 3D printed electric motors, circuits, and cordless welder - and which allows bootstrapping to industrial 3D printers, a CNC torch table, and heavy duty machining center. Content: each person builds the 3-in-1 CNC machine, Universal Controller, 2 power electronics circuits up to 6kW, a temperature logger, electric motor, welder, mini drill, hacksaw, and then the Project such as the Raspberry Pi Tablet.
  • Learning Community - Forum, Askbot, Wiki, FB page, Meetups, Open Source Everything Store, Extreme Builds, Incentive Challenges, Annual Event, and Factor e Farm Network - a network of land-based facilities for regenerative development and open source ecology. STEAM Camp Content: access to Forum, Askbot, Wiki, FB group, and with Dev Kit - ability to continue as OSE meetups for development. We would like people to continue contributing to the Open Source Everything Store as a marketplace that provides sideline revenue, and with automation, passive income for economic freedom.
  • Ecology - design for an open source, circular economy, based on lifetime design. STEAM Camp Content: The essence of all open source products is that they can be fixed and improved for a lifetime, especially if easy-to-source parts are used. OSE focuses on multipurpose modularity, which when combined with lifetime design - can yield a 100x improvement in resource efficiency.
  • Enterprise - joining the Open Source Everything Store community, for ongoing, collaborative development of products and Distributive Enterprises. STEAM Camp Content:

Meta

  • We cannot think small when it comes to creating distributed microfactories, because creating industrial productivity on a small scale is a big deal
  • We gather a team of open source developers to create the Open Source Microfactory tribe
  • The return-on-investment is the next trillion dollar economy
  • Our vision is distributed open source manufacturing as the next engine of industrial production
  • We believe that distributed production is a prerequisite of a democratic society
  • We believe that eradicating artificial scarcity is a prerequisite for evolving as humans, and that this can be done by addressing the material security of civilization to free people to pursue self-determination. Thus, appropriate, open source technology is about creating the infrastructure for freedom.
  • Our goal is to solve the last unsolved frontier of the economy: equitable distribution.

Timeline

  • See STEAM Camp Preparation
  • OSE ships kits to instructors (for all participatns) 2 weeks prior to the event.
  • Instructors reserve a suitable venue, and OSE pays for the venue
  • Instructors present at the entire 9 day event from 9 AM to 6 PM each day.
  • Instructors are paid in full upon completion of the event.
  • All instructors cover a refundable $300 for a sample kit to build all the proejects from all other instructors. Refund is offered if kit is sent back to OSE after the STEAM Camp.

Time Commitment

  1. 20-80 hours of time to prepare curriculum
  2. Time to learn the curriculum of all the other instructors to present effectively and to lead the builds
  3. 9 day time commitment during the event

Instructor Duties

  1. Preparing curriculum and prototypes that will be used during the STEAM Camp (if any are required). The level of completeness is such that the projects that we build will work, and that the curriculum/build procedures are teachable to the other instructors
  2. Practice building of projects from other instructors, in order to teach these projects
  3. Study of the material presented by the other instructors to teach their material effectively
  4. Identifying, and securing with OSE's oversight - suitable a venue for the STEAM Camp
  5. Shipping their curriculum to OSE for evaluation and approval, so that the technology can be spread to the other instructors
  6. Assisting OSE in marketing by spreading the word through available channels
  7. Meeting several times online to coordinate/learn/prepare curriculum with other instructors
  8. Teaching during the 9 day camp
  9. Releasing all designs and work (including written curriculum) under a CC-BY-SA or other OSHWA and OSI-compliant open source license.

OSE Duties

  1. Coordinating the development process of the STEAM Camp and setting up an organizational structure (nonprofit 501c3, already established) to organize, run, market, and scale the effort
  2. Creating online presence at the main OSE website for registration and information
  3. Marketing through OSE social media, email list, and other contract marketing
  4. Approving and paying for the venue selected by the Instructor
  5. Preparing publicity materials and social media assets for Instructors to use on their channels
  6. Event posting of all events on Eventzilla
  7. Shipping kits for as many registrants as sign up
  8. Customer support for registrations

Orgnanizatonal and Legal

  1. OSE is the IP holder for all the knowledge generated. Translation: for legal purposes, some entity holds the intellectual property (IP) of the content. OSE is that entity. ALL of OSE's knowhow is published open source under OSHWA and OSI compliant licenses.
  2. We are looking for funding to pay potential instructors to help develop the curriculum, and ideally, we would have all the curriculum already done and prototyped. All of the curriculum is already developed to some extent - but it needs to be adapted to fit with the OSE design system as a tight and cohesive package. That means modifications and adaptations to run on a minimalistic hardware platform for easy replication and low cost.
  3. Until funding is secured, we are all developing curriculum in a voluntary fashion.
  4. Phase 1 Current revenue share is 50/50 of the net between each instructor and OSE. Instructors serve as independent contractors.
  5. Instructors could also run this curriculum themselves, without OSE involvement.
  6. In Phase 2 - OSE intends to scale and open-franchise the STEAM Camps. We are currently planning on a 12.5% franchise fee based on gross revenue of future workshops for running the workshops under the OSE brand, where OSE provides the entire product package to support entrepreneurs. Others are welcome to run these workshops independently, based on our open blueprints. The franchise fee funds the creation of an open source product development platform.
  7. OSE provides ongoing product development, marketing assistance, training, startup assistance, kit production, and other enterprise support for franchisees, while building an open source product development capacity to shift the economic paradigm from proprietary to collaborative. Ongoing, regular Incentive Challenges are part of the support infrastructure in OSE's open source product development pipeline.

Risk Share

In an entrepreneurial spirit, this is a risk-share endeavor. In Phase 1, we develop the event together - so we are all resonsible for its success. Participating does not mean that OSE is guaranteeing success. We are all in it together to succeed - based on the promise that with each successive open source design and build - the whole program improves continuously. While the first 4 days may stabilize - the 5 project days will always keep pushing the limits of product improvement or new products. The end goal is commercial-grade product with distributed production. The more successful the event, everyone gets paid more in the 50/50 revenue share. The revenue share is 50/50 between an instructor and OSE for each individual event that the instructor runs. The products that we develop contribute to the Open Source Everything Store - open source product design and production engineering for the open source economy.

Larger Picture

OSE is developing STEAM Camps, Incentive Challenges, and Extreme Build events - as a way towards scalable, open source product development. OSE uses the STEAM Camps as a spring-board for training in open collaboration. STEAM Camps also train people to participate in Incentive Challenges as the preferred way to large-scale collaboration. The incentive challenges must be resourced sufficiently to deliver a working product - as a solid foundation for an enterprise. This means that the incentive challenge will be designed to offer enterprise startup support. The Extreme Builds are large scale prototyping events - similar to conferences - but dedicated to rapid prototyping of ambitious designs.

The approach of running incentive challenges is based on OSE's learnings that typical open source product development effort is difficult to complete for reasons of contributor continuity and resources. Typical open source hardware projects rely on a heroic core team that does most of the work, due to the significant barriers to entry for mass participation in open hardware development. Volunteer turnover tends to be high. Thus, open source hardware has enjoyed only a limited level of success in terms of rapid, large-scale collaboration. And because taking projects from prototype to product requires a herculean effort - most open hardware remain as projects-in-development - not products. (Not to mention the enclosure of open source by many who get close to a final product). By injecting more resources into the development effort in the form of a well-funded incentive challenge, we aim to (1) break the participation barrier, and (2) assure product completion. The keys to success are a massive transformative purpose, and highly modular breakdown that allows many people to collaborate effectively in parallel.

In the STEAM Camp program, vetting of instructors is essentially self-executing. We select qualified open source developers as instructors - and their capacity is demonstrated by their ability to deliver their curriculum. This becomes evident via transparent logging, the Kickoff Meeting, curriculum submission, and collaboration with the rest of the team. After OSE approves everyone's Curriculum Submission - we open the event on Eventzilla for registration. OSE's role is to maintain quality control standards in delivering events.

See also

FAQ

  • It looks like the budget to a space is $1000, right? What special equipment is needed to get started? Yes, the budget for a space is $1000. It may be more or less, depending on whether the Instructor has their own space such as a workshop or a fab lab. No special equipment is required. The kits that are shipped to each instructor include all the parts and tools that are needed. Only small hand tools are needed: adjustable wrench, wire cutters, scissors, allan wrenches, screwdrivers. The kits are prepared such that no special tools are needed. Therefore, the only requirement is sufficient workspace for 12-24 participants.
  • I'm not comfortable charging people $1,350 if things are still in the prototype stage. Have all of the machines been built and tested so far or are some of them still works in progress? Great question. In the preparation cycle up to the STEAM Camp - see STEAM_Camp_Preparation, time is alotted for any required prototyping to reach the stage of a fully tested kit that can be built within the time frames allotted in the 9 Day STEAM Camp Curriculum. For this to happen, each collaborating Instructor has 3 roles. First, if the Instructor agrees to develop a part of the curriculum, they are required to submit a working prototype and build instructions to OSE. OSE staff then builds out the prototypes, checks whether necessary quality control can be achieved readily for replicable results, and determines whether the build can be done in the allowed time frame. Second - if the prototype does not meet the requirements of a replicable and timely build, OSE and the Instructor collaborate until the desired performance is achieved. Third, after all prototypes from the different curriculum modules are tested, OSE prepares complete Practice Kits consisting of all the curriculum modules. The practice kits are shipped to each instructor. Each instructor must verify the OSE test results - to assure that each instructor is capable of a replicable and timely build. Once the instructor demonstrates this ability by submitting build timelapses and results vlogs - then that instructor is certified to run the STEAM Camp and the registration is opened online for that instructor's STEAM Camp.
  • What do you pay instructurs? Are there any out-of-pocket costs for instructors? We do a 50/50 revenue share as shown at STEAM_Camp_Finances, where the amount is determined by actual registrations and costs. There is a refundable kit fee (around $300) for the Practice Kit, which is refundable within 30 days of event completion. OSE covers the venue costs, marketing, and admin. Instructors are paid upon completion of the event.

Links

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