Description

Having gone through the process of getting an OSE project organized (see, I would like to be able to encourage others to do the same. This page is a collection of notes and something of a guide towards either starting up an OSE project or joining one. This is something of a moving target, because the OSE project itself is trying to get more organized. As such, some of these links may get out of date and the information below might not be accurate after a time. Caveat emptor.

Choosing a Project

The Open Source Ecology project (OSE) is working to develop the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS), a collection of 40 or 50 machines (both numbers are cited in different places) intended to enable the development of local, resource-based communities. There are a couple of places where you can see these projects listed.

Main Page

The main page of the OSE wiki has a very nice chart that just lists the GVCS tools grouped into six categories. Each as links off to a page that further describes the project. This is a good way to see the whole GVCS project from a 50,000 foot view.

GVCS tools

The GVCS tools page lists all of the tools. Each tool contains a short description and has links to a forum, blog, wiki page, and current status. Ideally this page would include an reference to the project manager, but it doesn't. Also, the status is often pretty out of date.

Global Village Construction Set

This is another list of the GVCS tools. This page has the official tool icons and a short description. The status on this page has more to do with completion than project status. There are a couple of nice videos after the tool list and an interesting essay on enabling technology from an OSE perspective. At the very bottom is a description of the development process and working assumptions.

Other Projects

While the GVCS tools are the main projects there are other, much smaller efforts that should be considered as well. Projects like the Open Source Stepper Motor Controller are focused on developing common components needed by the GVCS tools. This sort of of "support project" will likely be more common as we shift from category 1 tool development (bootstrapped) to category 2 (making components to make machines).