Anthony Repetto

Team Culturing Information

last updated: 28. June, 2011

WHO are you?

• Name - Anthony Repetto

• Location (city, country) - Oakland, California

• Contact Information (email, phone, Skype) - oaklandthinktank (at) gmail (dot) com

• Introductory Video -

• Resume/CV - No formal occupation or training. Private teacher, inventor.

• Hobbies and Pastimes - My primary interests are mathematics and group dynamics; I dabble in design, linguistics, ecology, and chemistry. I have a house full of folks, here in California, teaching themselves the skills they fancy on shared equipment. I've been dabbling with designs in a similar vein to Marcin, and would love to learn and share!

WHY are you motivated to support/develop this work?

• Do you endorse open source culture?

I keep giving stuff away! All my work is free for outside development, adaptation, and re-purposing. I can't wait to swap notes with everyone. :)

• Why are you interested in collaborating with us?

I've been working on the same thing. Joe Rogan summed up the technical vision: "If you left me alone on a desert island for a million years, could I send you an email?" And a trobriand big man, Ongka, has the spiritual root: "I have given you all these things. I have won. I have knocked you down by giving so much!" I see my life as a demonstration of human potential - you see the juggler with nine pins at the circus, and, practicing at home, wonder: "could I juggle ten?" Eudaemonia is the elevation of each others' spirits, by the choice to be the vehicle of others' empowerment.

• Are you interested in teaching about the GVCS?

Yes. I love to find clear expressions of necessary concepts, and work with folks who are just beginning. They energize me, and spin-off new creative fronts from 'noob mistakes.' Succession is also an important leadership and skill investment; no GVCS can build a person, which is still our best machine.

• Are you interested in economic relocalization possibilities arising from the GVCS?

Very much so. The geopolitical pressures are my big, near-term concern; concentration of capital across submarine-patrolled waters is a recipe for resource wars. Open Source takes the resource leverage away from distant conglomerates and state markets, which is the most realistic approach to poverty and depletion I've seen.

• Do you want to use the GVCS technologies yourself? Do you want to build them yourself?

Yup - and I'm quick to learn any skills I can; I love the whole spectrum, lathe to loom, circuits to compost.

• Are you interested in starting up enterprise using the GVCS technologies?

Working in parallel, already. A resounding yes!

• Are you interested in having the GVCS technologies fabricated by your local custom fabricator?

Yes. Shipyard Labs has their own metal shop, down here, making biodiesel gassifiers - I want to send you a few!

• Are you interested in applying the GVCS to third world development? To redevelopment of crisis areas? To development of derelict areas in the developed world?

Yes - I already had intentions to expand my own work to Brazil.

• Are you interested in starting up Industry 2.0 flexible fabrication enterprises for your local community, by drawing from a global repository of freely down-loadable designs and fabricating using open source fabrication equipment?

Yup.

• Are you interested in the potential of the GVCS for developing local food systems?

Yes, I see it as essential. We're in a transition back from oil->food to labor->food, and the returns from existing practices won't feed enough of us. Chinampas are a good model for efficient labor conversion, as well as land use, but we have to expand the portfolio of fertile zones, to cover our needs.

• Are you interested in doing academic studies/papers, publishing books, or doing other analysis of our efforts?

Happily! I have a paper brain, and love to puzzle, jot, outline, and formalize.

• Are you interested in financial investment opportunities arising from our work?

I already have a decent income, and I'm not interested in wealth. I want folks to make free use of whatever I can create.

• Are you interested in the distributive economic aspects of our work, and if so, how do you see this playing out?

I'd love to see communities of mutual aid, and on-the-fly team alignment for whichever tasks find support. The Open Source Capitalism is close to the root that's developing; I've been exploring those issues, myself. More notes to swap! :)

• Are you interested in building renewable energy production facilities based on open hardware (solar concentrator electric, wind, biomass power)?

Oh, yeah. Biomass, in particular. With biodiesel producing fuel, and char as soil additive, the other major output is tarry gunk... if we can get a few reliable separations, we could develop pharmaceuticals, plastics, and other complex chemistry. Material properties are the major constraint to engineering, and chemical processing is the fastest way to add value to crops. The key concept for me is: biomass processing can be a fuel and materials process, eliminating the need for more energy input further down the industrial chain. Integrated processes like these are the best hope for lowering our energy profile.

• Are you interested in building resilient communities based on access to the GVCS?

Certainly. I'm already working in a similar community setting, and am itching to expand.

• Are you interested in creating a bug-out hut using GVCS technologies?

It'd probably be fun to try. Why do you ask?

• How do you think that the GVCS can help alleviate the instabilities of global monetary systems?

I don't see a direct effect on monetary systems - the Fed won't stop printing, just because you have corn credits. If you look at the trade-off for the individual, though, as more folks farm and swap, demand for dollars drops, and, in that sense, a strong alternative currency could generate a pre-emptive collapse, before the dollar faced enough pressure to fall on its own. I wouldn't call that an alleviation of instability, but instability is good if it clears the field for a regenerative crop. :)

• How do you think that the GVCS can address issues related to resource conflicts?

Directly. If there is no local capital, resources processing, the most valuable part of the industrial cycle, is outsourced. Local capital is a better bargainer for local resources - they take advantage of conditions faster and cheaper than distant conglomerates. Without capital monopolies to bid artificially low for resources, mine-and-dash schemes flop. Resource conservation succeeds, because extraction is managed by local owners with a stake in long-term development. Reduced demand for conglomerate imports lowers exposure to global business cycles, reducing risk of catastrophic shortages.

• How do you think that the GVCS can address issues of overpopulation?

I would rather have a ton of human than a ton of steel... or oil, or gold, or microprocessors. Pound for pound, we are our greatest resource. There aren't 'too many' of us - there are a lot of us! It might be tricky to feed everyone well, but no one needs to be lost or pushed out. GVCS empowers the individual; empowerment turns 'overpopulation' into 'surplus potential.'

• How do you think that the GVCS can address issues of resource depletion and environmental degradation?

Locally, resource distributions favor recycling and reduction over new imports; locally abundant resources are exported, but scarce resources are recycled to avoid excessive costs. This lowers global demand for imports, compared to reduction/recycling technologies, and a greater proportion of economic efforts would go towards recycling and minimizing consumption. With friendly agricultural techniques, our farms become an environmental supplement. If our economy is useful to nature, it isn't degrading to her if we grow.

• Do you have any other comments that you'd like to make?

My aunt has 10,000 acres up by Yellowstone; a yoga retreat. I'll be visiting her, soon - I want to see if you guys can develop the land, and use it as another base of ops.

• What should happen so that you become more involved with the project?

I'd love to head over there for August, and stay a month. Lots to share, happy to work hard. Until then, I'll keep up on the blog and toss a project to ya.

• What are you missing in the project?

There are a lot of parts to a community - especially one that hopes to scale globally. Density is a big one: how does the GVCS propose to handle larger populations? The other is start-up: can you do all this from scratch? How much training and equipment is essential, for each 'price point' - Angolan farmers, Oakland apothecaries, or the daylaborer slums of Manaus?

• What are your suggestions for improvement of the project?

Cast seeds. Spawn hubs, and network them. Hands-on experience wins the hard sell of becoming a leader. You can build a tractor in a week, but how fast can you build another Marcin?

WHAT

• What have you already contributed to the OSE project? (technical contributions, blogging about us, financial support, organizing events, translations, interviews, video editing, publications, publicity work, behind-the-scenes work, CAD work, wiki contributions, computer support, etc)

Nuttin, honey.

Communications

• Educational materials; CNC designs and assembly instructions are great, but applications require educating in its use and product design concepts. "Once I have my 50 tools, what else can I make with them, and how do I use all this for a city?"

Sociology

• Absolutely! Group dynamics and political philosophy are my shtick. Everything from Delphi method to deliberative democracy, thinking hats and rational negotiation.

Home Economics

• Yeah! It's fun!

Design

• Industrial/civil, and product design, mostly. And is this where math would fit? Optimizing recognition systems, heuristics, etc... I love combinatorics.

Engineering

• I am drawn to chemical engineering and materials science, with basic knowledge, and happy to expand.

HOW can you help?

• How are you interested in contributing to the work of GVCS development?

Labor, New Concepts, Insightful Dialogue, Shared Inventions, Contacts, Funds, Land Use, Equipment

• Can you volunteer to work with us, and if so, how many hours per week?

I can stay for a month in August. I'll see, after that. While I'm there, I'll be a bulldozer. :)

• Are you interested in working with us for pay? If so, what services can you offer, and what is your hourly or per-project rate?

No pay. Just friendly collaboration. I'm glad there's a place folks can gather, and want to be there to share.

• Are you interested in Dedicated Project Visit?

Yup.

• Are you interested in purchasing equipment from us to help bootstrap development?

Biodiesel gassifier, spagyric still, anything else?

• Are you interested in bidding for consulting/design/prototyping work?

Can I bid $0?

• Are you a True Fan? If not, why not?

Will be in a moment.

• Would you like to see yourself working with us on a full-time basis?

Yes.

• Are you interested in being part of the world's first, open source, resilient community? The GVCS is the preparatory step for the OSE Village Experiment - a 2 year, immersion experiment (2013-2014) for testing whether a real, thriving, modern-day prototype community of 200 people can be built on 200 acres using local resources and open access to information? We are looking for approximately 200 people to fill a diverse array of roles, according to the Social Contract that is being developed. This may be the boldest social experiment on earth - a pioneering community whose goal is to extend the index of possibilities regarding harmonious existence of humans, ecology, and technology - as a beacon of light to benefit of all people on Earth.

What if Diana lets you use 200 acres up at her place? Could we start early?