OSE Chapters at Universities
Big Picture
Solving pressing world issues. Industry is not going to do it. But a critical mass effort of people that don't understand that it can't be done - can do it. Startups can do it.
So take for example large technical problems, such as renewable energy storage using hydrogen, community-based production of PV, open source microfactories replacing Amazon, and general afforestation of the Earth. These are technical issues that can reform economies towards democratic - and thus are socio-technical problems if we include the bigger picture.
So let's gather a large team of University chapters that work on larger problems. With collaborative literacy and practical skills of Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camps, and other Extreme Manufacturing builds, we can inspire the next generation of students to develop technology that matters. So that we solve distribution as the last unsolved frontier of the human economic system.
Thus we gather University Chapters to work on larger problems.
Video
Related video where we discuss student chapters starting at 3:30.
STEAM Camp Log - see Mar 6, 2020.
How to Start
OSE can help you start a chapter and work with you on how to fund it. We can offer support by providing the necessary technology, training for participants to get hands-on skills, training for those who are actually interested in running immersion learning workshops on the Open Source Microfactory, we can offer guidance on student projects related to the Global Village Construction Set, and we can offer summer school for immersion enterprise training.
- Founders - Start with 2 co-founders who get the ball rolling. These individuals must be interested in promoting the OSE Vision, and must have some familiarity with OSE's work based on participating in OSE development work, Extreme Builds, or other educational programs.
- Club Formation - Co-Founders approach their respective University student club office to register a club with the university. Club charter is filed, and officers are selected.
- OSE Charter - Founders work with OSE to develop a charter, which specifies a year-long critical path for the club. The focus is on creating a collaborative team across disciplines: design, architecture, engineering, enterprise, writing, videography, marketing, documentation, software development, art, publishing, and more. The critical path should revolve either around the particular year's Incentive Challenge - a public, collaborative contest where we develop meaningful products with intent of distributing production - or another project of particular interest to the Chapter. The incentive challenge for 2020 has the Professional Grade, 3D Printed Cordless Drill - intended for creating distributed production of cordless drills (see OSE Incentive Challenge)
- Chapter Launch - It would be useful to invite an OSE Ambassador or OSE Founder to the event to stimulate interest. A lecture followed by a 1-2 day collaborative design training course would be ideal.
- Resources and Funding - Chapter secures meeting space or working space at the Unviersity. Chapter applies for university student club funding to build up their productive infrastructure, such as a Desktop Microfactory with 3D printers and plastic recycling as a good entry level program for teaching collaborative design while cleaning up the environment.
- Operation - Chapter begins development, but the full power comes when we have 100 chapters working on the same project for extreme development velocity and continuity. Think of solving one pressing world issue per year as a combined effort of Chapters, STEAM Camps, Summer X, and Incentive Challenge every year. Typical activities include onboarding with 3 webinars - Intro to OSE and Collaborative Literacy; Intro to OSE's Collaborative Development Protocol; introduction to FreeCAD and part libraries. Chapters coordinate with other chapters for regular Design Sprints, and chapters coordinate a date for a real Extreme Build in a select location during a weekend or school break.
- Outcomes - Goal clarity means that we are developing real products collaboratively - ones that focus on technology with a purpose for solving pressing world issues. That means that we tackle problems larger than any single individual - or even a dedicated organization - can solve. We do this by large-scale collaboration using effective collaboration tachniques that leverage open collaboration - and therefore zero competitive waste. One route is common products, and the other route is impossible projects with massive transformative purpose. On the one hand, we are clear that a transition to the open source economy means that we take common products - and rework them to fit a circular economy based on cities producing all that they need. The concept is simple, execution is hard, and implications are significant. On the other hand - we work on impossible problems - such as afforesting the earth, solving energy storage, or providing affordable housing. The latter are inspiring - and we are creating an effort to turn that inspiration into execution.
Operational Notes
- Willingness to work as a team - OSE Chapters, in order to coordinate on effective development, are designed to collaborate on development with other chapters around the world. This increases development velocity, and allows meaningful results to be obtained on short time periods
- Ideally, OSE Chapters meet for an extreme build or other hands-on build event to implement what they have been designing together. This solidifies team connections, and refines the design work that has been carried out. The printciple here is that together, large-scale projects can be accomplished easily - such as building a microfactory for a school over spring break or over a vacation.
Strategies
- See Ian Log for 2020 brainstorm
