Scott Deerwester

Scott Deerwester <scott@p3international.org> to Marcin Jakubowski <joseph.dolittle@gmail.com>, date Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 9:08 PM subject Re: Interesting

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In short, we're interested in doing just about anything within a relatively broad scope, provided that:

  * The resources required would be accessible to, say, a village of
    500 people, each of whom live on $1 a day
  * Such people can demonstrably improve their standard of living
    using whatever it is
  * It's straight forward enough to learn that we can teach an
    intelligent 18 year old how to do it in a week or two

We're in the startup stages, and are still finalizing our funding, so, at least in the immediate term, what we can actually do is a lot more limited. As we build teams and allocate resources in the coming months, that'll change, but perhaps there are things that we could even get going with now?

I'd be very excited about either solar collectors or sawmills and, I suspect, a good many other things that you're keen to see in the field. Talk to me!

Marcin Jakubowski wrote: > Ok. How can you use what we're doing to help with your work? How can > you help us move the technologies forward? We are approaching it from > a 'global village construction set' perspective. This may be applied > to extreme poverty, or green development of America. Let me know your > thoughts. > > The solar concentrator tech is of immediate relevance. So are tools > such as opensourcemachine.org <http://opensourcemachine.org> or CEB > presses, sawmills, greenhouses. > > What can we do immediately? Enterprise development in all these areas, > by the people. > > Marcin > > On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 4:44 PM, Scott Deerwester - Show quoted text - > <scott@p3international.org <mailto:scott@p3international.org>> wrote: > > Read about you in Boing Boing, read about the compress earth > blocks and > followed the rabbit trail. We're in the process of starting a > center in > Indiana. Our focus is to learn, practice and pass on knowledge that is > appropriate to the lives of people living in extreme poverty. > Particular > areas of interest include: > > * Alternate crops as a means of increasing food security > * Appropriate/sustainable agriculture > * Alternate energy > * Village-appropriate engineering > > From the sound of it, there's a lot of common ground between us. > > Marcin Jakubowski wrote: > > We're in Missouri, Michigan, and Iceland. > > > > Where did you hear about us, and what are your interests? > > > > Please read our press release, below. > > > > Thanks, > > Marcin > > http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Overview > > > > > > ---- > > > > We have come up with a breakthrough model of production based on > open > > source, peer-to-peer methods. We are putting the model into practice > > right now. > > > > Using this method, we have produced a prototype for the world's > first, > > open source, high-performance (3-5 blocks/minute) compressed earth > > block press ( http://blog.opensourceecology.org/?p=91). P2P foundation > > claims that this may be the most important social experiment in the > > world - > > > http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/marcin-jakubowskis-open-farm-the-most-important-social-experiment-in-the-world/2008/01/22. > > Steve Bosserman, organizational consultant – explains the > economics of > > this method here- > > > http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/steve_bosserman/2008/02/09/giving_it_away_making_money.htm > > > > > > We have recently grabbed the attention of BoingBoing and Wired > > Magazine blogs: > > http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/25/open-source-compress.html and > > http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2008/02/the-liberator-a.html > > > > Following inspired discussions with a number of p2p > collaborators, we > > are calling this method Production Commons development. It is > > essentially an organized effort for open engineering and product R&D > > for the public interest, and it is applicable to any product within > > the current industrial system. The basic business model is: > > > > 1. People volunteer time and resources to develop products > > 2. Production facilities are built with voluntary contributions > > 3. A product is made available at the cost of production – materials > > and labor > > > > We are simply eliminating the development, intellectual property, > > capitalization, overhead, competitive waste, and other costs- to > > create a novel way to produce physical goods. This is identical > to the > > open source software model in terms of sharing development costs, > > except we added physical production into the mix. > > > > With this said, we want to ask you how we can work together. Is > there > > a way that you can use what we are presently doing to help with your > > work? Is there a way that you can help us apply the model to other > > products (see Overview link below)? On our side, we are > interested in > > developing a world-class organization that can lead the above > process, > > including the development of state-of-the-art open source digital > > fabrication facilities for optimized production. > > > > Sincerely, > > Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D. > > Open Source Ecology, founder > > http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Overview > > http://blog.opensourceecology.org/ > > > > Vinay just informed me of a great post on our work on BoingBoing, a > > Directory of Wonderful Things. That's great. Recently, Steve > Bosserman > > wrote a great post on how open source products can make economic > > sense, with the CEB press as a case in point. P2P Foundation claims > > that the work of Factor e Farm may be the most important social > > experiment in the world. Michel Bauwens wrote a further review > of the > > economic model based on Steve Bosserman's post. I comment that > this is > > just the tip of the iceberg regarding the transformative economic > > potential. > > > > We are getting ready to fund and build the computer-controlled XYZ > > acetylene torch cutting table for rapid fabrication of the CEB > press. > > Economics here are under $1500 for parts, and turnkey machines > > sellable at about $2500. We are aiming for industrial duty > > performance, good precision, fraction of the competition's cost. The > > person who helped with the design used to run a manufacturing > > business, and sold a machine upon which we're basing ours- for $30k. > > > > The heat is on with all kinds of new and strengthened relationships. > > The Commons is a common theme. Stan Rhodes is doing serious > work on a > > transformative model for collaborative property tenure, and > appears to > > be coming up with a coherent proposition for a Peer Trust Network > > System. Over the ocean, Josef Davies Coates is doing work on > creating > > a collaborative, land-based community. He is the only person I know > > of, besides myself, who treats land is the number one priority. > > > > > > > > On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:16 PM, Scott Deerwester > > <scott@p3international.org <mailto:scott@p3international.org> > <mailto:scott@p3international.org