Zbynek Winkler
On Tue, 21 Aug 2018 at 19:06, Marcin Jakubowski <marcin@opensourceecology.org> wrote:
- Please tell me more about your learning goals - are you considering replicating a working microfactory - or is this a hobby for you?
Currently I make money as a SW developer for the car industry. It is not bad, but everything is closed source, nobody has access to anything, you probably cannot even image. The result is that the corporation is wealthier and wealthier and I can feed my family but not much else. I consider open source development superior in every way so I'd like to move into it. Your business model based on teaching workshops seems like one possible way to do it. So I'd like to try. In the long run I'd like to be able to run a company doing open source development - I have lots friends who would love to work in such a company but due to different reasons are unwilling to take the risks associated with starting/building it.
So my first goal is to basically do something very similar to OSE Fellowship - be a sustainable one person enterprise, doing open source development of useful things and making a living based on that. If I need to pivot from teaching to let's say selling kits or anything else, I am willing to do so. We will see. As I grow I plan to hire other people doing the same.
I hope you don't mind if I compare you and OSE to Free Software Foundation. To extend the comparison I'd like to become like Suse or Redhat. I believe that way the development of the open source hardware can be made much faster because according to my experience not that many people want to start own companies or work as a sole trader, most people around me want to be employed. [It is my understanding that you/OSE don't want to hire people, correct me if I am wrong]
So, replicating the whole microfactory is on the radar (near field :-)). Further along I see stuff like http://www.appropedia.org/MOST_open-source_metal_3-D_printer_v2 or even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_engineered_net_shaping or http://www.thermwood.com/lsam_home.htm https://www.e-ci.com/baam/
I also see the combination of additive and subtractive manufacturing within one machine as very interesting/useful.
So much for the long term. I have Prusa factory half an hour drive away as an inspiration :-).
