Testimonials
Contents
Introduction
This page aims to capture various testimonials and feedback regarding various programs and activities of OSE.
Housing Work
- Thank you for the work you are doing, it grows more valuable daily given world events. -Randy Gulak June 2022
Professional Development with 3D Printing
- This was the coolest thing I've done all year...I say that because it was totally out of my daily pattern and it was great to take a personal point of interested and do a deep dive that I could not have done otherwise. - Katie Swan, Crossroads Preparatory Academy, Kansas City, Dec 1-3, 2021.
3D Printer Orders
- 2022, On ordering the OSE 3D printer: The most important factor in my decision is the OSE concept. Nothing compares with the OSE concept, end of story. - Craig Michael Justus.
Summer X Interest
Kevin C
The values and goals of your organization really speak to me. Having to rely on commercial products to fulfil my needs creates a lot of problems. Not knowing the composition of the products, the ethics of the companies that make them, being unable to source them when in a new area, having the companies discontinue or change the products after you've grown accustomed to using them. Being able to make more of the things I use every day, and being able to understand how they work and repair them, appeal to me. I've been using open source software for years, and bringing the concept into the physical world sounds fun. I've also wanted to understand more about physical technology for some time.
Programs
- (OSE) can provide education, certification, content and real world applications to design, source, build product, build enterprise at a FRACTION of the cost of most groups you've ever talked to. - Jesse Beaudin communicating with Veterans reintegration groups, 2021
Summer X 2014
Text:
Architecture student’s open source experience makes her more open minded Lily McCullough in front of the Stuckeman Family Building Lily McCullough in front of the Stuckeman Family Building Credit: Stephanie Swindle / Penn State. Creative Commons
September 5, 2014
By Stephanie Swindle
On a Friday evening during her first semester in the architecture program at Penn State, Lily McCullough went to a department-sponsored lecture by Open Source Ecology founder Marcin Jakubowski. Little did she know that attending his lecture would lead her to Maysville, Missouri, the following summer to attend his workshop on building a Microhouse, where she would learn how to weld and bake bread, make international friendships, and figure out what she wants to do with her life.
“It was a week-long experiment,” said McCullough. “There were 50 people from all over the world, different ages and experience levels, working together on different machines to create a sustainable house from local materials.”
The workshop, led by Jakubowski and his team, taught participants to apply masonry techniques, use machinery, and understand the values of open source design. Participants used onsite Missouri clay to create Compressed Earth Blocks (CEBs), which are the basis for Open Source’s rapid, low-cost building projects, the Microhouses.
“In comparison with other technologies and materials like straw or cob, CEBs are cleaner and easier to work with and still have a high sustainability value,” explained McCullough.
Jakubowski’s open source principles gained national attention when he gave a TED talk on the subject in 2011. After receiving his doctorate in fusion physics, he started Open Source Ecology to help solve global problems of design by creating blue prints for the Global Village Construction Set, designs of 50 machines required for modern building and living.
“I feel like I can relate to him because he’s young and started Open Source Ecology right after college. I’m thinking about the same problems in studio now,” said McCullough, whose first-year design-build studio section was taught by Peter Aeschbacher, recipient of the 2014 Penn State President’s Award for Engagement with Students.
McCullough’s experience in Maysville was not limited to the workshop curriculum. It also included late-night jam sessions with participants who brought musical instruments and others who created makeshift drums from their five-gallon work buckets. An intern from France taught her to bake bread, while another taught her to weld.
“It was fantastic and enlightening, eye-opening, and a little bit scary at points, but so worth it!” she exclaimed.
The trip also was McCullough’s first time flying alone. “It was like a big, frightening rollercoaster. I could see the structures of the cities from 3,000 feet up in the air,” she added.
McCullough’s travels will continue soon, as she is already planning to join Penn State’s Students for Environmentally-Enlightened Design (SEED) group when they travel to New Orleans in October. She is also coordinating a trip to reconnect with other workshop participants over winter break. She and one of the participants have decided to collaborate on a project proposal in the near future. McCullough also has a standing invitation from Open Source Ecology to return as an intern next summer, an opportunity that will further her goal to work in open source design and construction after college.
“After going to the workshop, I know that open source building is what I want to do. I prefer it over traditional design. I’m thinking of starting a club here at Penn State,” she said.
A native of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, McCullough comes from a Nittany Lion family -- her brother earned a Penn State degree in telecommunications and two of her sisters are current students here. McCullough’s father, with whom she credits her love of architecture and tinkering in general, received his associate’s degree in engineering from Penn State.
Now in her sophomore year, McCullough is currently working on her submission for the Corbelletti Design Competition, which will be held in the Stuckeman Family Building on Sept. 12. During the few hours that she is not in studio, McCullough spends her time learning guitar and working on her car, a 1995 Geo Tracker.
When asked about what she gained from the workshop, McCullough said, “I think it made me a more open-minded student. I’m more interested in hands-on work and more concerned with the structural aspects and logistics of design and building.”
She thought for a moment and continued, “I came back happier.”
To read more about Jakubowski and Open Source Ecology, visit http://opensourceecology.org.
Noam Chomsky
Interesting ideas. I don't know of anything quite like it.
-Noam Chomsky, in response to contact by Edward Miller, 2009
Original Message -----
From: "Miller, Edward B." <EMILLER@monm.edu> To: <chomsky@mit.edu> Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 8:08 PM Subject: 21st Century Kibbutz
Hello again Professor Chomsky,
I am working with an organization dedicated to building Open Source eco-villages which are self-sufficient, and I will be staying with them at least over the summer. The idea is to bring down costs to the point where it becomes trivially cheap to collaborate and freely express one's creativity, as we have begun to see online as concepts like Wikipedia supersede the old corporate models. The idea should have extraordinary relevance to combating poverty as well.
Here is are some short videos of the farm:
http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Distillations
If you have any thoughts, or could put us in contact with other similarly minded people, it would be appreciated.
Mechanical Engineering Magazine
These guys aren’t Amish—they want to build their own car. They believe in technology. They just want it created and used at a more human scale.
Jeffrey Winters, Associate Editor of ME, reviewed the work of Open Source Ecology.
Apprenticeship
Regarding purpose of the apprenticeship - And yes, that apprenticeship. You had me at "If you want to change the world and do so for a living, this is your chance.".. - Richard Henegar Jr, 2021
Personal Notes
- In 2022, from Bart Ziegler, long time supporter of over a decade - Hopeful in every way that you are the paradigm of success, or at the very least have been able to taste some success in your tireless and brilliant effort.
Workshops
responses (open to the public)
