Open Source Everything Store

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HintLightbulb.png Hint: For Enterprise Development, the Open Source Everything Store entry is a shareable wiki template that includes sales functionality - for collaboratively developed products sharing a common economic core - like Linux shares its kernel. These sales templates can be embedded in other websites to create store-front functionality.

Basics

The Open Source Everything Store (OSES) is a concept for public, collaborative open source product development. OSE is currently developing this as a means to mass creation of right livelihood by creating sustainable, regenerative, circular economies. The end goal is a transition from a world of people on the treadmill to a world of economic freedom where individuals pursue Self-Determination - doing what they truly love in their life as opposed to being constrained by economic pressure. These two world lead to much different realities - and OSE believes in a reality free from ecocide and war - which is just the default of an economic system in which we all participate. We aim to do better.

We envision OSES as part of a solution. OSES may be implemented as a publicly-developed online or physical store where products are developed via open collaboration. See Value Proposition of Open Source. The idea is that with the open source microfactory - either in its garage-scale or full (400 square meter) modular form - practical production can take place. The Garage scale form can consist of 3D printers and recycling of plastic to 3D printing filament, or a CNC torch table or router for cutting parts from metal or wood - or a CNC circuit maker for producing circuits, a small laser cutter, and other garage-scale tools - a wide array of household consumer products can be made. Scaled up to a larger flexible fabrication facility with a full range of digital fabrication, heavy metal working, and automation equipment, just about anything that current industry produces can be produced in a collaborative way.

Economically speaking, the ideal outcome of the Open Source Everything Store is Distributed Market Substitution of the space currently held by Walmart and Amazon.

Microfactories could operate largely on waste plastic as feedstocks, or scrap metal if an induction furnace inferastructure is avialable. The desktop microfactory could be a small business - thousands of which can be set up around the world to produce common goods - to relocalize economic production.

The challenge is quality standards - such that various products can be made reliably from well-documented, proven, quality-controlled blueprints. This can be addressed by Distributed Production Engineering with Distributed Quality Control.

We estimate that by using the Desktop Microfactory on the scale of 400 square meters - and adding easy-to-source, off-the shelf components - up to 80% of all household goods can be produced. The market size of this is in the trillions of dollars.

Common goods such as vaccuum cleaners, digital cameras, aerial drones - and larger items such as chairs or plastic lumber - can all be printed with a 3D printer. The circuit mill adds the necessary circuits to these devices, and a small laser cutter expands the capacity to other useful parts. Metal cutting, milling, and induction furnaces allow the production of engines and vehicles using scrap metal as a feedstock.

The Open Source Everything Store can bring the vision of distributed manufacturing and distributive enterprise to reality - as long as the product design is open source and the design/build toolchain is fully open source - so it is accessible to a large audience. The effects on the distribution of wealth can likewise be significant.

Development

To get there, we are scaling our STEAM Camps to cultivate a development team versed in tools of open source product development. To arrive at the necessary design quality - we plan on starting well-funded Incentive Challenges from 2020 on.

Structure of the Online Version of the Store

  • Store should be made of modular components that can be embedded readily in different online locations
  • Modular components allow for high flexibility, and simplicity of platform
  • PayPal Buy Button can be the simplest Store function for buying online, with a form filled out for the person's address.
  • A template for the wiki is desirable.
  • Modular components can be embedded in a collaborator's platform of choice: wiki, wordpress, etc.
  • Using the OSE wiki, attractively structured pages can be made.
  • Others can use the OSE Wiki to embed their own OSES pages - thereby turning the wiki into a selling platform
  • OSE store pages can be locked from editing, and others' pages can be locked for security as well. People with a reputation may be considered for admin access to lock their stores (so that for example the PayPal address is not changed)

Community Building

  • One aspect of OSES is creation of a new culture. The rules are hard core distributive, fair, progressive, transparent, and ethical.
  • It's an online marketplace with a revenue model for distributed production, open design, all GPL, DEOS (Distributive Enterprise Open Source)

Unique Value Proposition

See the Value Proposition of Open Source.

The unique value proposition is that we do not stop at the open source products themselves. We also publish the open source production engineering, distributed quality control, and supply chain information so that anyone anywhere in the world can begin economically-significant production.

Thus - the Open Source Everything Store has 2 main classes of products: (1) the products per se, and (2), the production of the products. For the first - a customer can buy a product just like on any other website. For the second - an entrepreneur can buy training to begin production of that product. The Open Source Everything Store would offer both free materials for entrepreneurial startup - or it would offer a premium coaching package with class time where an entrepreneur can save time by learning directly from practitioners. Thus, the economic model is completely distributive of wealth - consistent with OSE's goals of creating the Open Source Economy via Distributive Enterprise.

The goal is to relocalize production, with an explicit aim of making products more ecological. Part of the explicit intent is eco-friendly production. We believe that this is feasible when people begin to use more locally-sourced feedstocks. As such, a connection to the natural resource base of the planet is made within enterprise. Producers are incentivized to go clean, as they must steward their community's natural resources if they do not want to see a visible negative environmental impact.

Introduction

This is a concept of a Distributive Enterprise that OSE is working on.

It's like Amazon, except fulfilled by on-demand, distributed, digital manufacturing where all designs are open source. The web templates for products and shopping baskets are also open source, so that anyone can benefit from reduced barriers to entry. The idea is that we enter a post scarcity economy. The traditional world knows the concept of commodification - when there is a product glut and only those with economies of scale survive - as in Walmart. Our goal is to make distributed, small-scale production feasible instead, which can distribute wealth far and wide as in Jeffersonian democracy.

Store Standards

The Open Source Everything Store is an open source standard for open product development relevant to consumer goods whose production returns to the scale of every town and city. The Open Source Everything Store starts with a wide array of popular consumer goods. These are made of plastics, circuits, and standard off-the-shelf components. Good examples are aerial drones, digital cameras, microscopes, 3D printers, 3D printing filaments, voltmeters, power supplies - and a plethora of others. These all can be fabricated readily using home-scale digital fabrication - the open source desktop microfactory - to get many people involved in democratizing production. No, really. Specifically, just by using a 3D printer, CNC circuit mill, and laser cutter - these products can be fabricated readily by anyone interested in doing so - with under $1000 investment required to set up production. If plastic filament production is included here, then waste plastic can be recycled into useful 3D printing filament, and can thus be part of a plastics recycling operation. If a clay 3D printer is used - then ceramic products can be added to the product line.

Product Template

Open source code will be provided for anyone to use, with the finished product listing on the website that looks like this:

edit

Candidate Products

  • MVP implementation started - Kits - Superfridge Conversion
  • OSE's 3D printer and CNC circuit mill
  • Camera Kit - camera with infrared sensor, tripod, rail, stabilizer, wireless mike, corded mike, robust time lapse capacity, wireless download, extra battery pack, solar charger
  • Electric Motors
  • Stepper Motors
  • See Design Jams for product ideas

Collaboration Specification

This is the social contract for motivating contributors.

OSE Certification

There is already the OSHWA Certification for certifying open source hardware products. This means that the products comply with the OSHWA Definition and OSI standards. OSE goes two steps further, (1) to certify that products are designed for collaborative, distributed development and production (OSE Certified TM label; and (2), to certify that products lend themselves to promoting a historic transfer of wealth, by following principles of Distributive Enterprise. This is the Distributive Certified TM label.

For products to be listed in the Open Source Everything Store (OSES), they must pass requirements for, at minimum, OSE Certified. These OSES standards will be defined during the first ever Open Source Microfactory Startup Camp of 2019.

Internal Links

External Links