Project needs

Prototypers and Fabricators

We are currently ramping up production of GVCS machines to help bootstrap further development. If you are a custom fabricator or if you have workshop experience, please contact Marcin Jakubowski.

Technical Contributors and Subject Matter Experts

We are looking for people to help in design, CAD, prototyping and other technical aspects of the GVCS. See the Subject matter experts areas of interest, and contact us if you can help.

Project Directors and Managers

On the technical front, we are looking for Project Directors for each of the 50 technologies. On the organizational front, we are looking for development assistance to manage our growth as an organization. Contact the Project Director for more information.

Mentors, Advisors, and Reviewers

If you are an experienced professional who wants to give back to the community, we are looking for:
(1) mentors to guide us in various areas;
(2) advisors to serve in a project advisory capacity; and
(3) reviewers for carrying out peer review at different stages of technical development.
Contact the Project Director if you would like to help.

Programmers and Computer Support

We are looking for help in developing our web and collaboration infrastructure towards a scalable, open source product development platform. Contact Elifarley Cruz to find out more.

Documentary Producers and Video Editing

Half of our job at OSE is to share instructional and inspirational content. We are looking for assistance in extended documentation work on-site, and for off-site support in video editing and production. Contact Project Director Marcin Jakubowski if you are interested in helping to document this history-in-the-making.

Artists and Designers

We need artists and designers to create slideshows, design assets and animations for our instructionals and marketing materials, and to continually re-invent and update the aesthetic presentation of OSE’s work. Contact OSE Media Director Isaiah Saxon to submit portfolios.

Resource Developers

We are interested in building a resource development team to help fund OSE development through the nonprofit sector. Contact us if you are interested in joining this effort.

Wiki Contributors

Everyone is welcome to contribute to our wiki. Sign in, check the forums for what’s what, and begin contributing! Easy to use, well-organized instructional content is vital to our core mission.

Forums

For general discussion and technical development discussion on the GVCS, join our Forums.

Lecture Tours

OSE Founder, Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D., is available for speaking engagements to inform, motivate, and inspire audiences. Please contact Nikolay Georgiev for further details.

Press Interviews and Other Media Requests

Please contact Nikolay Georgiev to make arrangements. Read our Press Procedure.

Visiting Factor e Farm

We welcome visits to Factor e Farm, our experimental farm and co-laboratory in the Kansas City area. We have set aside Saturday afternoons for visits. See more information here.

Work Days and Workshops at Factor e Farm

To receive updates about workshops and other hands-on events at Factor e Farm, join the Factor e Farm Google Group.

Email Updates

Sign up to our email list to receive special announcements about collaboration, progress, and events.

Dedicated Project Visits

Most of practical GVCS development to date has happened on the ground at Factor e Farm. Our residency program provides opportunities for intensive development of the GVCS. Dedicated Project Visitors have a choice to work on the development of: (1), the GVCS tools; (2), supporting infrastructure; (3), agricultural operations; or (4), organizational development. We expect applicants to formulate their own proposals based on current GVCS priorities, and to be highly self-motivated. To apply, read more about the program and submit a proposal.

Specific Project Needs

• CNC Torch Table – New Gecko (https://www.geckodrive.com/) drive arrived yesterday. $800 materials cost is determined for 4×8 foot torch table; interested in the USB-based Open Capitalist Controller.
  • Needs: millable circuit design for controller.
• Open Source Tractor – Producing Prototype III; producing CAM files with Will.
  • Needs: shakedown of digital fabrication strategy.
• Power Cube – Prototype III being developed; minor adjustment of structure; proof of concept is acceptable.
  • Needs: CAD drawings for modified prototype.
• Bulldozer – identified a subject matter expert helping on metal-to-metal track drive and motor coupling.
  • Needs: motor coupling and direct drive design. Design and fabrication of high-torque, direct drive hydraulic motors.
• CEB Press – Production run of 4 machines; full fabrication drawings being prepared by Rick Berry, hopefully within 2 weeks.
  • Needs: replication by others.
• CEB Press controller – first independent replication.
  • Needs: circuit milling of controller. 3D printing of circuit mounts.
• Open Source Car - working on Urbee-like design, but hydraulic hybrid drive.
  • Needs: continuing of collaboration discussion with Urbee leadership; they expressed interest in open-sourcing their platform.
• 50 kW Wind Turbine – onawi.org identified as a group who can source older 50-500kW turbine plans for machines from the 1980s.
  • Needs: followup contact with Onawi. Other backup options.
• Solar Concentrator - negotiating with Solar Fire and Cohabitat Group on solar electric-greenhouse-house autonomous food/energy/housing system. This is not the scalable linear Fresnel design of interest, but makes a good prototype because the Solar Fire has a proven reflector/collector system at $2000 materials cost for 30 square meters of collector surface.
  • Needs: resultion of hailstorm damage, mirror cleaning, and solar tracking.
• CNC Multimachine – design phase in progress.
  • Needs: CAD design. prototyping – remote or as a Dedicated Project Visit. Fabrication of hydraulic motors and pumps will be our first major technological recursion endeavor using the Multimachine. This is not a Pat Delaney Multimachine but a specific instance designed for high replicability. Looking for collaboration with Delaney group.
• Open Capitalist Platform – This could be a huge step towards the scalable open source product development. First step would be to systems engineer this platform and communicate it as a comprehensive block diagram.
• Industrial Robot – We are considering acquiring these robots and documenting the control procedure as applied to torching and welding. LinuxCNC can handle the controls. From this experience, build a prototype with hydraulic drive for high torque.
  • Needs: SME with experience in hydraulic-drive industrial robots.
• Induction Furnace – 1200W open source version identified; investigating generation of variable frequency.
  • Needs: comprehensive systems engineering of design, broken down according to the Open Capitalist Platform for product development. Evaluating 1200W kit as initial testbed without frequency control.
• Modern Steam Engine – collaborating on a 7 hp steam engine kit; found sources of piston rings. Engine should be available in August, but does not follow OSE Specifications.
  • Needs: Uniflow, bump valve design modern engine should be designed from the ground up for scalability. Looking for systems engineer to integrate this from SACA resources.
• Universal Power Supply – subject matter expert on power inverter identified.
  • Needs: system engineering design for breakdown according to the Open Capitalist Platform.
• CNC Circuit Mill – evaluating SnapLock CNC as our platform; open source stepper motor controller – leaning towards Open Capitalist Controller.
  • Needs: Systems design from hardware choice to software.
• 3D scanner – Thad Getterman is exploring computer vision applications. We are interested in an open source version of the David 3D Scanner system.
  • Needs: system engineering strategy
• CEB Construction – 3000 square foot workshop continuing where we left off last year – building starting July 1; professional construction drawings for CEB Nanohabitat units for Factor e Farm – collaboration with Cohabitat Group.
  • Needs: architecture detail design drawings
• Education – potential collaboration with Angola University – first university in Angola.
  • Needs: funding to develop the rest of the GVCS so we have the substance to teach about.
• Public Relations – negotiating with Leifur Thor of California regarding role as spokesperson.
  • Needs: Others taking initiative in learning about us to the point that they could speak on our behalf to generate support and resources. High public speaking and networking abilities are required.
• Fabrication – production run ongoing; 3 fabricators coming next month; expected to last until May 31.
  • Needs: more capable people on site.
• Technical Director – There is a wealth of individuals approaching the project currently. We are looking for a full time Technical Director to collaborate on development. This is not a hiring opportunity but a collaboration opportunity. We are looking for exceptionally motivated individuals with a systems engineering and project management experience, and with familiarity with open source culture. In absence of these skills, we are willing to entertain exceptional individuals who have exceptional problem-solving skills. We are providing the branding and identity of Open Source Ecology, and the collaborator is expected to generate progress on and support for the project to make their activity self-supporting. The goal is to leverage existing resources as a technological integrator, by working with diverse SMEs on design and prototyping work. The main deliverable is developing and implementing an initial design of the Open Capitalist Platform, and developing a strategy for making it self-supporting via the contributions of direct stakeholders. Full time commitment is required.
• Resource Developers – We are looking for a number of individuals worldwide to develop resources for the project either via the nonprofit sector or via private, voluntary contributions. The first task is generating a resource development materials package, with media developed under the guidance of our media director.

Software

• CAD Software
  • gSchem is part of gEDA and it does everything for electronic schematics that Eagle does but it's open source
  • KiCad is an Open Source electronics CAD program, and Eagle is a more widely recognized proprietary standard. KiCad and Eagle use the same extensions but file formats aren't interoperable, sadly. However, Eagle CAD works on Linux and is gratis for the lower-feature version. The free/gratis version should be able to open files such as .sch.
    Need: We are looking for somebody to develop open source electronics CAD software that can open Eagle files. Is this possible? How do we resolve this issue for electronics design, such that open source software can be interoperable with closed software? Contact Marcin Jakubowski.
    • You need a .ULP file.
      • eagle2kicad*.ulp -- data for KiCAD PCB suite
      • eagle2ad_sch.ulp -- Generate schematics in Protel / Altium format
      • export_cadence_telesis.ulp -- Exports netlist from Eagle to Allegro
• Open Source CRM platform
  • Open ERP is an ERP and CRM system. It can automate a lot of the marketing, documentation, distribution, sales, etc.
  • See CiviCRM
  • Marcin: "I am looking first at a Information Architecture map of the functions that our Civi platform will feature - ie, design work, prior to implementation. With our limited resources, we could use help in drafting design documents, not only for us, but so others can learn and the open source world moves forward.
    In fact, I would like to call out for a sound design that can then be replicated readily by other organizations. Something akin to Highrise - an open source highrise.
    The problem is that there is no access to turnkey, high performance Civi instances. Let's create that in the open source, so that there's a clear product that we can point people to.
    The problem statement could be: Let's do an open source Highrise platform. Just add group email ability to it, and a map to map the locations of participants, and put a front end on it where users can crowdmap important resources. Basically - an open source instance of [Highrise + Crowdmap].
    As the most simple question: why has nobody to date created a replicable, open source version of Highrise? That seems to be a simple and much-needed solution. Insights? I hear many woes of there being no 'open source CRM platform' or people spending many thousands on a Drupal platform that is still now working after 2 years. This proposition could start to address that.'
    • Bang: The problem with CRM is that it is a capitalist paradigm solution to selling people junk they don't want or need... hence no open source solution. Another major driving force behind CRM has been making money off corporations through big software implementations. If you just want to share your designs, then use a public facing server with PDF documents and a link to the other formats. Host the formats in a repository like git, cvs, svn, etc and let people fork it from there.
      • If you just want a web based contact manager(e.g. Highrise) then you can use iCalendar, CalDAV, WebDAV, etc. It sounds like you might need some kind of open source collaborative groupware, such as SOGo.
      • You can use openstreetmap.org or their source code to do what you want with crowdmap

Research Needs

• Academician with practical experience for a rigorous economic and ergonomic analysis of the following critique, based on real data and scientific inquiry. Familiarity with industrial process design, ergonomic analysis, engineering systems analysis, and sociology is a prerequisite:
  • Terrible waste of a good idea. I don't want to point out a very long list of problems, but the core of it is that you are following a path that requires a terribly big network of raw materials and people to make it work.
  • Please don't write me off as some troll clubbing your ideas, I should explain that I am a Master metalsmith , welder , machinist {pre CNC}. Thirty years of making things using old low tech material and methods. I jokingly tell my students that I wanted to be a planetary colonist and found Earth was the only available choice.
  • I have made metal from ore and tell people that I can make almost anything that was made before 1900. All that said , there is one rule of thumb I use describing progress in tech. No matter how much time a piece of new tech seams to save , you pay for it with larger infrastructure needed to support it , total number of people goes up , need for connection and transport goes up. You are stuck in that same problem. I tried once to estimate the minimum number of people it would take to have a modern tech world and stopped at 40 million people ,without covering all bases.
    • This doesn't require an academician or an analysis. Simply look at what materials you use(bill of materials) and see what it takes for that part to come about. If you need moon rocks, then yeah it takes 40 million people to put up a rocket in space. If you need steel, yeah it takes a bunch of smelting but not 40 million people, maybe 2 or 3.

See Also

• Development