What is Open Source Ecology (OSE)?
Check out our short brochure: Factor e Farm in Five Minutes
Contents 1 Distillations videos 2 Introduction 3 Inventing a New Civilization on a Shoestring Budget 4 Factor e Farm 5 External Links 6 Videos 7 Highlights of our Work 8 Collaboration Distillations videos The Distillations videos give an overview of OSE and the progress at Factor e Farm in 2008. Introduction Open Source Ecology's goal and current engagement is creating tools to build replicable, open source, modern off-grid resilient communities using open source permaculture and technology to work together for providing basic needs and self replicating the entire operation at the cost of scrap metal. We seek societal transformation through interconnected self-sufficient villages and homes. This is a stepping stone to transcending survival and evolving to freedom. Factor e Farm is the land-based facility where we put this theory into practice. We are developing and testing the set of tools required to build such a village - the Global Village Construction Set. Land stewardship and local production via open source design and digital fabrication - founded on open sharing of information - are the key features of this adventure. Right livelihood and resolution of pressing world issues is the intended byproduct. Taken literally, open source means that the goods and knowledge for reproducing the complete product (the "source") is freely accessible (open), and ecology is the study of living interactions between organisms and their natural environment. From a human perspective, we seek to push our vision of ecology beyond ecological crisis and into ecological harmony and human productivity. You can read the entire theory of Open Source Ecology in the OSE Proposal document. Inventing a New Civilization on a Shoestring Budget Say you want to build a village, enterprise, or for that matter - an entire civilization – because civilization is just a compilation of productive enterprises. Say you have only $10k in your pocket. You can begin to build your habitat with a CEB press of 3000 bricks per day production, and a sawmill with 3000 board feet per day of production – easily. You will need a tractor for earth moving and power. These 3 tools total $6500 for materials to build these tools from open source plans. You can then build the entire technological infrastructure with a personal fabrication open source Fab Lab – with metal melting furnace, 3D printer, CNC machines, and circuit fabrication, for another $3500 in materials, for a total of $10k. You’ll have to learn the skill to build and operate the production machinery. We can teach you, and you can even propagate a 5-kingdom gene bank for an entire agricultural infrastructure – it’s on the house. You’ll just have to find yourself some land, sun, water, and scrap steel. What if this package could be self-replicating? Fab Lab and gene bank make it so. Now we’re talking. An imaginary situation? Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but we’re taking the development of the above very seriously at Factor e Farm. See the Distillations videos. And if you are compelled to help - we started a request for proposals for the First World Conference on Open Source Ecology. Please consider applying. If you can’t make it to the Conference, but would like to support this as a True Fan of this work, then subscribe to our campaign by going to our blog. Factor e Farm Our main open source collaboratory and land-based development facility, since 2007, is Factor e Farm, in the Kansas City area, central USA. See our weblog for ongoing updates. Ongoing events and workshops are posted at the Factor e Farm mailing list Our Drupal website is here First year of Factor e Farm Wiki development site for the Global Village Construction Set Donate to the project See our legacy webpage here. Archives of some of our theory and history are here. External Links P2P Foundation called us, arguably, the most important social experiment in the world BoingBoing article on the open source, CEB press - [The Liberator] Wired magazine blog on The Liberator Discussion of the economic model for open source production - with The Liberator as a case in point Followup discussion on economic sustainability of open production by P2P Foundation Discussion on land stewardship basis of distributive economies Open source design and manufacturing resource at the P2P Foundation - [1] OSE Specifications for Distributive Production and internal link Review of sustainability movements - [2] Greenr - Accelerate the Change - blog post on Open Source Ecology German blog discussing the wealth of resources that come from land Videos Factor e Live series - chronicles of Global Village construction Video Interview on Global Swadeshi Dialogues Video of Presentation on the Global Village Construction Set, U. Missouri, Columbia, 2008 Audio interview with Agroinnovations Highlights of our Work Advanced Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press prototype done Open source tractor prototype in action Product ecology overview OSE Product Development Cycle Neocommercialization of open source technology Technical proposal for the Global Village Construction Set Collaboration Core Development Team application - for the Global Village Construction Set Solar Turbine development email group Student internships and research - see Research Projects OSE Mid-MO We are accepting organic farming internships through ATTRA, Organic Volunteers, and WWOOF Find out why you should donate here. See the Appropedia entry for an overview of Open Source Ecology: http://www.appropedia.org/index.php?title=Open_Source_Ecology
The Distillations videos give an overview of OSE and the progress at Factor e Farm in 2008.
Open Source Ecology's goal and current engagement is creating tools to build replicable, open source, modern off-grid resilient communities using open source permaculture and technology to work together for providing basic needs and self replicating the entire operation at the cost of scrap metal. We seek societal transformation through interconnected self-sufficient villages and homes. This is a stepping stone to transcending survival and evolving to freedom. Factor e Farm is the land-based facility where we put this theory into practice.
We are developing and testing the set of tools required to build such a village - the Global Village Construction Set. Land stewardship and local production via open source design and digital fabrication - founded on open sharing of information - are the key features of this adventure. Right livelihood and resolution of pressing world issues is the intended byproduct.
Taken literally, open source means that the goods and knowledge for reproducing the complete product (the "source") is freely accessible (open), and ecology is the study of living interactions between organisms and their natural environment. From a human perspective, we seek to push our vision of ecology beyond ecological crisis and into ecological harmony and human productivity.
You can read the entire theory of Open Source Ecology in the OSE Proposal document.
Say you want to build a village, enterprise, or for that matter - an entire civilization – because civilization is just a compilation of productive enterprises. Say you have only $10k in your pocket. You can begin to build your habitat with a CEB press of 3000 bricks per day production, and a sawmill with 3000 board feet per day of production – easily. You will need a tractor for earth moving and power. These 3 tools total $6500 for materials to build these tools from open source plans. You can then build the entire technological infrastructure with a personal fabrication open source Fab Lab – with metal melting furnace, 3D printer, CNC machines, and circuit fabrication, for another $3500 in materials, for a total of $10k. You’ll have to learn the skill to build and operate the production machinery. We can teach you, and you can even propagate a 5-kingdom gene bank for an entire agricultural infrastructure – it’s on the house. You’ll just have to find yourself some land, sun, water, and scrap steel. What if this package could be self-replicating? Fab Lab and gene bank make it so. Now we’re talking.
An imaginary situation? Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but we’re taking the development of the above very seriously at Factor e Farm. See the Distillations videos. And if you are compelled to help - we started a request for proposals for the First World Conference on Open Source Ecology. Please consider applying.
If you can’t make it to the Conference, but would like to support this as a True Fan of this work, then subscribe to our campaign by going to our blog.
See the Appropedia entry for an overview of Open Source Ecology:
http://www.appropedia.org/index.php?title=Open_Source_Ecology