Towards 50 GVCS Tools by 2013

These notes were taken from the July 19, 2011 blog post by Marcin Jakubowski [1]

What is OSE and the GVCS?

• OSE: A network of farmers, engineers, and supporters.
• GVCS: 50 industrial machines to build a small-scale civilization with modern comforts.
• Design, prototype, and test all 50 by end of year 2012.
• Not inventing new machines - innovate existing technology and publish it.
• Need to build them to determine if this 50 is the right set.
• Technology set is recursive - machines can make better machines.
• Goal: optimize quality of life such that material constraints simply cease to be the driving force in human relations.

Factor e Farm

• An experimental facility to build and test GVCS machines.
• Evaluate how they come together to make a community infrastructure.
• Use the tools for day to day living and work.
• Impose the constraints of accountability, interoperability and local adaptation to each machine.
• Create a kernel of equipment, which can be replicated, modified, and optimized for different conditions.
• FeF is the Global Headquarters of the Open Source Ecology project.
• Core development happens at FeF (prototyping, strategy, rollout)
• Emphasis on dedicated project visits.
• Support via True Fans, etc.

Plan for 2011

• Focus on demonstrating the effectiveness of our equipment in construction and agriculture duties.
• For construction use:
  • tractor
  • CEB press
  • sawmill
  • soil pulverizer
  • cement mixer
  • auger
  • backhoe
  • trencher
  • hay baler
  • hay rake
  • hay cutter
• Demonstrate infrastructure building and housing construction using double CEB walls filled with strawbales for super-insulation.
• Five people on site:
  • 2 dedicated project visitors
  • Specialists in two weeks:
    • Surveyor
    • Professonal fabricator

• Remote collaborators show a low level of success.
• 3-5% show meaningful results in design/prototyping.
• Increase the success rate by finding volunteers with direct stakeholdership in using the GVCS.

• By year-end, we would like to build our permanent on-site team to 6-8 pioneers
  • Project manager
  • Construction manager
  • Fabrication manager
  • Farmer
  • Designer/CAD/CAM expert
  • Power electronics expert
  • Site manager/cook
  • Documentor.
• Allows Marcin to free up time from fabrication and construction
• Focus on higher-level project and strategic development tasks.
• The most important need is to recruit a fabrication manager and construction manager.

Project Scaling: Preparation for 2012

• 2011 goal:
  • gain a solid foundation for scaling Factor e Farm operations
  • as an open source product development center/experimental post-scarcity community.
• Emphasize that all of us at Factor e Farm are full-time volunteers.
• Only way to attract people who are truly committed to the depth of our mission
• We are fully committed:
  • have no outside jobs
  • rely solely on crowd funding, resource development, production earnings, and our own resources.

Plan for 2012

• Starting Jan. 2012, Marcin transitions to full-time project management
• We need to develop a large pool of qualified, subject matter experts so we can have options to choose from.
• There are some services that nobody will offer for free
• We will need to cover about $5k materials per prototype
• $750k to roll out the prototypes as soon as we design them.
• The budget may be as high as $4M when everything else is considered.

Global Development Effort

• All of our information comes from off-site
• Our effort is in essence global
• Implementation is local.
• People across the globe interested in starting OSE branches to replicate the GVCS.
• The more relevant question is to fund, build, prototype, and test the 50 GVCS tools by year-end 2012.
• Our problem statement is development, not replication.
• While we are experiencing exponential growth, the GVCS is far from complete.
• The highest priority is prototype development

Status and Development Needs

• 2011: 1 full product release at present, 8 prototypes, and 3 product releases.
• This will push the limits of our resources and creativity.
• Action points in terms of their highest impact:
  • Join us at Factor e Farm as a Dedicated Project Visitor
  • Work with our resource development team leader, Viveik Saigal, on generating support
  • If you are a User Interface Designer, help with Nikolay’s True Fans development proposal.
  • Subscribe as a True Fan
  • Submit proposals for Dedicated Remote Collaboration
  • Find subject matter experts who can bid/design/protope the 50 GVCS tools
  • Contribute design and documentation for the 50 GVCS tools on the wiki so we can finish them by year-end 2012.
  • Spread the word. Pass on our brochure and TED Talk.
• We like it when people volunteer their time and resources.
• We do not like speculative, high-risk offers
• We need high success rates.
• Spending core energy on publicity and outreach is not our priority
• The chance for success is higher when people approach us.

• If you want to form a branch, sumbit a charter that includes:
  • A strategic plan/business plan
  • Clear goals for building, prototyping, and testing of the 50 GVCS tools.
  • Charter’s deliverables should be evaluated on a yearly basis.
  • Come to Factor e Farm as the first step to such an effort

A Working Example

• Need a working example of the OSE concepts
• Make FeF that example
• Others should visit FeF to learn from experience
• One succcessful example of a post-scarcity economy can and will change the world.
• There have been snags along the way:
  • Having debt,
  • Not having the skills or tools,
  • Misalignment of interests,
  • Scarcity mindset,
  • Shortages of resources and funding,
  • Land tenure,
  • Personal issues,
  • Peer pressure,
  • Programming,
  • Lack of supporting infrastructures

• The main missing link for our own effort was qualified people.
• there are too few nonconformists alive today
• People pissed off enough and capable enough to rise above the global race to the bottom
• People will take a better option if they are presented with one.

Summary

• Full product release of tractor, power unit, soil pulverizer, and to add to the CEB press by year-end 2011.
• Build the living and working infrastructure by year-end 2011 - showcasing and shaking down our machines.
• Produce professional quality documentation for these four machines by the same time.
• 2012 is rapid parallel development.
• The 6 month plan is the foundation for the parallel development of 2012.
• A solid core infrastructure for project management is the core of the next 6 months.

• Help by:
  • Identifying a large team of qualified, remote developers.
  • Have 10 bids per project or close to 500 bids.
  • volunteer to help with above tasks

• Contribute to other projects:
  • Steam engine
  • Solar concentrator
  • Industrial robot
  • Sawmill
  • car
  • CNC multimachine
  • Laser cutter
  • Torch table
  • Ironworker machine
  • 3D scanner
  • CNC circuit mill
  • 3D printer
  • Universal power supply

• Best strategy is 2-3 full-time project managers at FeF, working with Marcin.
• Fast-and-furious parallel technology rollout process that sets new standards for open source economic development.
• FeF fabrication team can prototype these as soon as they are created.
• Prototyping can be rapid when the designs are available
• 3000 square foot workshop to be ready, and to be populated with about 3 times more fabrication equipment than we already have.
• Get the fabrication manager and construction manager onsite.
• Marcin will proceed to defining a strategic roll-out sequence and budget.
• Proceed beyond a machine design to the open-sourcing of the individual components:
  • Stepper motor
  • oxyhydrogen generator production

• We still focus on volunteers
• Identification of bids/designers/fabricators can easily be sourced from the crowds.
• The 2-3 on-site project managers are also volunteers
• With our on-site fabrication team, we can build the prototypes at the cost of materials.
• We will pay for whatever design we cannot get for free.