Open Source Architecture Forums
Basics
- "Open-Source Architecture Community brings together like-minded users and developers who share a common goal: that the built environment can be designed, constructed, operated, and recycled with free software, increased transparency, and a more ethical approach"
Corrospondence
Ayo
I however would like to invite you to join an online community: https://community.osarch.org/ of people working in the AEC and using / making open source software. This blurb from a mission statement under development says more:
The Open-Source Architecture Community brings together like-minded users and developers who share a common goal: that the built environment can be designed, constructed, operated, and recycled with free software, increased transparency, and a more ethical approach. We believe this can be achieved by sharing, testing and developing FOSS and by establishing collaboration workflows based on open standards and open formats with a user-centric philosophy.
Chief among the preoccupations within the group is how to achieve interoperability of data between FOSS tools such as FreeCAD and BlenderBim and providing / improving BIM offerings in FOSS tools. Core developers for those tools are active members of the group. We have monthly meetups (first Saturday of each month) during which there would be one or two presentations of new tools or interesting updates / use cases for existing ones. I've pitched to have you present at one of the Meetups. It seems this can happen for Saturday 3rd of October if you're available. Here's the thread where we talked about this: https://community.osarch.org/discussion/134/1st-august-20-00-utc-monthly-meetup#latest
Besides the meetup, it would be great to have you join the forum, lots of discussions there resonate with the work OSE is doing and useful collaboration can come from interacting there. For example, there has been an interest in working on an open design project to stress test the open source tool chain being developed together: https://community.osarch.org/discussion/60/possibility-of-an-open-design-project#latest. Perhaps this interest can be fed into the Extreme Enterprise Event.
Some feedback / question on the Extreme Enterprise Event:
1) Ambiguity in the project title: Extreme Enterprise Event leaves out any reference to open source tooling, building or making which would have helped in cutting straight through to a target audience (what type of enterprise?). 2) Need for an 'elevator pitch' - two - paragraph description. True there is a lot to unpack but that heightens the need for a concise summary that can be sent to prospective collaborators with links for more details. 3) It's not explicitly clear how the Extreme Enterprise Event gets people to show up, compared to previous efforts with the STEAM camps and other Extreme Build Events. The scale at 2000 participants creates added complexity in terms of logistics and recruitment of participants but gives no guarantees that people would show up. Having priority to have a seed-eco home built is not enough of an incentive to participate in the build (getting a big discount in the price of the product if you participate in developing it however would be clear as an incentive). The need for affordable housing for example does not mean I would automatically be interested in the hard work of collaborating in its design and build, especially if I don't have the aptitude for that kind of stuff, and if I do, it does not mean I have the means to invest in an affordable home. I see the reference to how owning a distributive enterprise and earning an income from the skills learnt becomes an incentive, but it's not very clear in the messaging so far. 4) Need for the messaging to have a stronger focus on what the participants / collaborators stand to gain than what OSE is trying to achieve internally. If that messaging is compelling enough, OSE's motive of having people show up would stand a stronger chance of getting fulfilled. The crux of what I think this messaging needs to address is already contained here: https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Extreme_Enterprise#Value_Proposition, I suggest it gets condensed and added to the elevator pitch and referenced earlier when giving presentations, etc 5) Definition of roles being recruited for and requisite call to action.....Sign up as a collaborator by clicking here to register, Register here as an instructor for....., Sign up by clicking here if interested in being supported by OSE to set up a distributive enterprise.
You most likely have these on your radar already, just stuff I pondered about while digesting the material.
Best regards,
-ayo.
