David Li

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Intro

David Li is the founder of Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab. https://www.szoil.org/

Conversatin 2

  • 3D Printer as augmentation of mass production - not replacement of it
  • Complement, not core
  • Coop for an open source Low Speed Electric Vehicle - https://www.wsj.com/video/big-in-china-tiny-electric-cars/CF7E986A-7C70-4EE3-8F7B-441621F10C94.html
  • Easy and cheap to build - immediate community application
  • Solving the funding problem with a coop
  • Vehicle can be used as a collateral with a bank
  • Building can be financed by a loon
  • Transportation is a tool of production
  • Good foundation for a coop
  • Shared platform could also be a coop.
  • Extend service to car rental.
  • This helps to grow electric vehicles
  • It is cheaper to build electrics - but comanies don't want to do it.

3D Printer

  • There are new hardware prototyping companies sprouting
  • Very good interface to thinking about robotics
  • But also another part is thinking about gcode as a way to get into robotics
  • It's about being familiar with 3D movement of robotic arm
  • Opportunity to have more people think about a productive machine, not just 3D printinig
  • 3D printing building
  • Not 3D printer but as entering into robotics.
  • Seeing Universal Axis - a basis for a robotics platform.
  • Online course - very low part count - easy to put together. Also extensible to large things. From simple XYZ to large scale heavy fabrication
  • Foundation for FabLab machines
  • Conversation with Fab Foundation -
  • Talk to Sherry Lassiter - chairwoman of Fab Foundation
  • Lack of foundational design of basic components.
  • Good to think about putting together a kit - always a good open source business model. By itself and with
  • One of the interesting references for this is Little Bits - showcase of what they do with the Bits.
  • There is a need out there for a construction set. There is demand for easy ability to build axes.
  • Integrate this into the installation projects - interactive art projects for example.
  • Open source was always a vision
  • That was always the vision
  • Thinks it's a gap to execution
  • Make her aware of the availability.
  • Always good to have a good web presence - get to the place where more than building - you buy the kit.
  • Reframe as Robotics Construction Set as opposed to 3D Printer Construction Set

Conversation 1

  • Open source discussion - leveraging talent
  • Example - Ghana person - made a biodigester production ready.
  • Open source in china is driven not by philosophy, but by necesssity. Getting to know people is easy.
  • Strength of China is engineering and design -
  • Not traditional outsourcing - Taiwan, Korea, HK, Singapore - in 70s and 80s. This is more accessible in China.
  • Cutting out the middleman - if there is a sufficient local need - production follows.
  • A lot of manufacturers of Shenzhen are doing manufacturing in Africa. If global - easier in China.
  • Kenya as an example - customs tax is 10% in Kenya, vs import from China is 35% for fully assembled. If disassemble - then it's 10% import.
  • Chinese companies joint venture with Kenyan companies.
  • Work with Kenyan Chinese
  • McKenzie report - comprehensive report on the scale of private investment in Africa
  • Why doesn't Alex Socolof hire China to teach builds of tractors. $3k EV - shipping is $800. Import tax is 100% of vehicle. Tata is $3k. About $8k.
  • Different countries have different regulation. 10% import duties.
  • Africa is like China 30 years ago - government officials were accessible.
  • Opportunity to go electric.
  • For tractors it's not who has access to government officials - there are already rules to increase innovation in China.
  • Couple of partners in Ghana, industrial part. Money is in real estate.
  • Available manual labor - FAO - Smallholder Farm - target is smallholder farm.
  • 80% of all agriculture land is smallholder farms.
  • Red tape is there in China.
  • Ghana is quite entrepreneurial.
  • Ghana for heavy machinery - Accra is not heavy industry - Kemashu is heavy machinery. They are also the garage of West Africa. Used cars get fixed up there. Huge used car industry. Kemashi Hive - entrepreneurship hub. Big garage culture.
  • Lots of old cars end up there.
  • In USA, about 50% of all farmland is smallholder farm?
  • In USA, farmers are one of the highest suicide rates in the world. According to a recent article.
  • Trump country - the smallholder farm - less than 20 hectares
  • Bigger farmers are less susceptible to suicide -
  • Industrial farms in Europe will probably go out of business. Smallholder in Europe will do better.

FabLab

  • You get more attention for putting a tractor on the blockchain rather than a tractor on a farm
  • Narrative for agriculture.
  • TroTro factory - Uber for tractors
  • Fab Lab - other kids will not be as brilliant as MIT. 'I can get MIT in here' is attractive.
  • One thing that prevents FabLab from being useful - is that people are not used to copying design. Because FabLab highlights the invention of someone. Something that is not economically significant.
  • Atelier Paisans is a cooperative. So that is a good thing. Engineering team responds to farmer, not farmer to engineer. Their business model is - core team of 7 engineers - design lower cost tools for farmers. 70% comes from material markup, and 30% from workshop.
  • FabLab should be a local copy machine. Which should have social impact right now.
  • FabLab module - most time how to run a machine. Bad manuals.
  • ShopBot resists full automation. They do things to stay relevant. For example proprietary interfaces.
  • Instead of Shopbot - we use a local one. Happy to open up what they have.
  • Open Source machines are poor at providing a supply chain. Not OSE!
  • Trademark - that is important.
  • China is production as a service.
  • What is the open source offer the supply chain? OSE offers license, logo, trademark. Can drive engineering around.
  • For me to look at potential of OSE - is a Certification Mark and a global community.
  • Available the 24th and 25.

Business Model

  • Look for Open Source Certification -
  • Certify compliant products.
  • "Centralization is ok for production" but knowledge should be open source.
  • Moving towards local and distributed
  • David proposes now is to take global production chains to change the local.
  • Companies go to Africa to sell first, then set up local production.
  • FabLab - irrelevant to poor village. Lecture with Neil has no value.

Action

  • Smallholder farm - labor is a short supply
  • Chinese factories are becoming smaller. SHenzhen has 200k factories.
  • The farm village - knowledge is pretty open. Even in village scale - 5000 e-commerce shops. 2000 factories - 50,000 people village. Everyone does some part of supply chain.
  • Agrarian into industrial - in 1700s, noncompete was unknown. Very competitive. In initial stage, there were many companies. Or even Fairchild semiconductor - spawned 1000s of companies in Silicon Valley.
  • Cooperation - Fab Village. Invited projects to develop and test stuff. Feb 19.
  • 3rd Gen China GPS.
  • Spectrometer data for plant growth and chemical composition of earth.
  • Autonomous farming equipment.
  • 200 people.
  • Partner Lingde Big Data. Regarding spectrometer data. Engine manufacturer. Electric.
  • Quality control - it's not that it's missing - it's that you have to pay for it.

Trend

David is, like Bold by Diamandis, calling for crowd sourcing and crowdfunding. On top, he calls for open source - but it is not clear whether he supports OSHWA compliant, collaborative design, or more the flavor of Academic Open Source with high barriers to entry.

Notes

  • Article on DIY and professional build services in China. Also, white label and gongkai. Critique of Bunnies Huang. Questions - how to convert this to open source, not proprietary consortia of Gongkai? The key is open source design at the component level - not proprietary parts. This can enhance closed loop production cycles. Recycling of parts in Shenzhen is good, though. Concentrated open-ish network vs distributed manufacturing. 85% of electronics are made in China. Not distributed - [1]


Links

https://app.additor.io/p/w6JjNDkS#5919dc65499c573415eafa42

Conversation 1 Links

Hi Marcin,

 It's great to talk to you. I am looking forward to meeting you on the 24th. My contact there is Professor Jack Qiu, also in school of communication. I was just at Platform Coop 2018 he hosted in CUHK. 


https://platform.coop/2018


FAO did good work on small holder farmers. There are a lot more reports on their site. I strongly believe that open sourced autonomous small farming machines will be the game changer to level the playing fields.


http://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/385074/


US farmer suicide rate spiked.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/06/why-are-americas-farmers-killing-themselves-in-record-numbers


Taobao village. The productions in China has been commoditized and Internet is being used as new channel for development. The decentralization of productions still continue in China.

https://qz.com/899922/once-poverty-stricken-chinas-taobao-villages-have-found-a-lifeline-making-trinkets-for-the-internet/