Mike Newman
Contents
Team Culturing Information
last updated: 1. May, 2011
WHO are you?
- Name - Mike Newman
- Location (city, country) - Columbus OH
- Contact Information (email, phone, Skype) - newman (dot) 396 (at) osu (dot) edu
- Introductory Video -
- Hobbies and Pastimes - Spent my 20's as a musician, while I developed my worldview. Now I study engineering and am a volunteer manager at Columbus' premiere hackerspace, the Columbus Idea Foundry.
WHY are you motivated to support/develop this work?
- Do you endorse open source culture?
100%! The internet seems to promise a world without information and opportunity asymmetry. I believe opening information promotes a more direct meritocracy, with success achieved directly through hard work, not inherited benefit.
- Why are you interested in collaborating with us?
You are doing my life's work. In my 20's, I saw the program battlebots and wondered why we couldn't plow a field with something like the bots I saw. A worldview began to develop exactly like that of Marcin's, with all the same motivations and conclusions save a few caveats. I am interested in controlling these machines through robotics, and I have focused my energies on producing a comsumer technology to fund my true aims. This led me to seek the skillset of an engineer so my dreams could be made reality. It only makes sense to attempt to align my efforts with an already established front.
- Are you interested in teaching about the GVCS?
Yes, and I have a burgeoning venue in which to do it. The hackerspace at which I volunteer is becoming thoroughly enmeshed with local arts and industry, participating in public and private functions and hosting them internally.
- Are you interested in economic relocalization possibilities arising from the GVCS?
I believe the empowerment of the individual to serve their own needs can only benefit a society. Opportunity asymmetry has dissuaded too many from reaching their true potentials. Technology has too long been yoked to a corporate bottom line, and distributed r and d must now begin about how to manage our resources more effectively for the human race. I believe decentralization is that key. People are never as engaged and creative as when they are fully invested, and there is no greater investment than working for ones own needs. Decentralization also means one gets a full return on their respective effort expenditure, not simply a portion with most controlled by employers. It was necessary at the dawn of the industrial revolution to have centralized capital because that was the way forward for technology. No longer so in the digital age. I don't begin to understand how higher services like medical centers and public works will function under what I call the calling paradigm, but with more and more people free to contribute to their success, I can only assume we will handle it.
- Do you want to use the GVCS technologies yourself? Do you want to build them yourself?
Yes and Yes. My girlfriend and I dream of owning and operating an organic farm that supports the local community and her restaurant. We would like to be able to make all our own energy and have a carbon reducing footprint. I will be aiming to build these tools or ones very similar to use with robotic control, as I don't aim to be a farmer the rest of my life. I just wanna bang on my drum all day:)(Actually, I had hoped with my system in place I could then have time to viralize that technology, aiding others through example.)
- Are you interested in starting up enterprise using the GVCS technologies?
See prior.
- Are you interested in having the GVCS technologies fabricated by your local custom fabricator?
- 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?
I am interested in disseminating the information necessary for the population of the third world to bootstrap themselves. Any and all aid I can give towards that endeavor, including economic aid, is of course naturally assumed.
- 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?
We are already attempting to do this at the Idea Foundry.
- Are you interested in the potential of the GVCS for developing local food systems?
Yes, see above.
- Are you interested in doing academic studies/papers, publishing books, or doing other analysis of our efforts?
Not especially, no, I'm more hands on.
- Are you interested in financial investment opportunities arising from our work?
Yes.
- Are you interested in the distributive economic aspects of our work, and if so, how do you see this playing out?
See above.
- Are you interested in building renewable energy production facilities based on open hardware (solar concentrator electric, wind, biomass power)?
See above. I really might should have read through all these before going all out, huh? I think from now on I'm going to answer yes or no, with elaboration only when not previously covered.
- Are you interested in building resilient communities based on access to the GVCS?
Yes
- Are you interested in creating a bug-out hut using GVCS technologies?
Ummm, huh?
- How do you think that the GVCS can help alleviate the instabilities of global monetary systems?
Upphh, guess yes doesn't suffice here huh? teehee, see above.
- How do you think that the GVCS can address issues related to resource conflicts?
As decentralization occurs, I believe that will occur with population densities as well. I think we'll naturally see a growth in resources over time, from more careful management, as well as a better distibution of resource taxing, as cities wane and shipping declines. Dependence on fossil fuels declines, as does dependence on energy in general as local production is more efficiently procured.
- How do you think that the GVCS can address issues of overpopulation?
See above.
- How do you think that the GVCS can address issues of resource depletion and environmental degradation?
- Do you have any other comments that you'd like to make?
I will ostensibly be graduating in spring of 2012 and will certainly be considering a place among at you at that time if I am wanted. Until then, I believe I might be able to help you with the prototyping here in Columbus at the IF. Check out our facilities at columbusideafoundry.com. I will be committed there this summer full time as I attempt produce the aforementioned consumer product to fund my work. However, if we can find funding, as the ideafoundry has rent to pay, etc. I would be very interested in producing projects at the foundry for testing. Perhaps I could seek funding through kickstarter for a specific project.
- What should happen so that you become more involved with the project?
I need to graduate.
- What are you missing in the project?
I may have missed it, but I am see an opening for robotization of the tools.
- What are your suggestions for improvement of the project?
robot
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)
internet viralizing is all I can claim to this point. I have been tracking you guys for a while, prior to the MAKE articles, I found you through my own investigations on the web for just such an organization.
Communications
- I wrote for a local magazine for a time, covering adventure and technology stories, as well as aiding my girlfriend who was the food editor. I can write fairly well when called upon, though I prefer to spend my time with technology.
Design
- I am a Senior Mechanical Engineering student at OSU. As such I am proficient in Inventor and Solidworks, as well as general machine design.
Building
- I have been a professional metal fabricator. I can cut and weld pretty well. I am not yet a machinist, but I possess the knowledge to do it if needed.
Electronics and Magnetics
- I have a knowledge base imparted from my curriculum and embedded control projects at the foundry.
Automation
- Yes, built my own cnc.
Metallurgy
- I have a basic metallurgical knowledge from my curriculum and plan to develop that further this summer as I have casting facilities available at the foundry.
Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
HOW can you help?
- How are you interested in contributing to the work of GVCS development?
I want to do prototype design collaboration and fab from here this summer, and potentially join you next summer after graduation.
- Can you volunteer to work with us, and if so, how many hours per week?
- 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?
- Are you interested in Dedicated Project Visit?
- Are you interested in purchasing equipment from us to help bootstrap development?
- Are you interested in bidding for consulting/design/prototyping work?
Ahh, yes, and here would have been the appropriate place to say so, but I've said it alot already.
- Are you a True Fan? If not, why not?
As a student, I simply cannot afford to spend any extra money.
- Would you like to see yourself working with us on a full-time basis?
Absolutely, I don't think there is a more important job on the planet.
- 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.
Yes
