Open Source Ecology


Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, architects and supporters, whose main goal is the eventual manufacturing of the Global Village Construction Set. As described by Open Source Ecology "the GVCS is an open technological platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 types of industrial machines that it takes to build a small civilization with modern comforts". Groups in Oberlin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and California are developing blueprints, and building prototypes in order to pass them on to Missouri. The devices are built and tested on the Factor e Farm in rural Missouri. Recently, 3D-Print reports OSE has been experimenting with RepRap 3-D printers as suggested by academics for sustainable development.

History

Marcin Jakubowski founded the group in 2003. In the final year of his doctoral thesis at the University of Wisconsin, he felt that his work was too closed off from the world's problems, and he wanted to go a different way. After graduation, he devoted himself entirely to OSE.
OSE made it to the world stage in 2011 when Jakubowski presented his Global Village Construction Set TED Talk. Soon, the GVCS won Make magazine's Green Project Contest. The Internet blogs Gizmodo and Grist produced detailed features on OSE. Jakubowski has since become a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and TED Senior Fellow.
In December 2013, Marcin married Catarina Mota. She co-chaired the Open Hardware Summit 2012, served on the board of directors of the Open Source Hardware Association, taught as an adjunct faculty member at ITP-NYU, and was a fellow of the National Science and Technology Foundation of Portugal.
Catarina finished her PhD dissertation on the social impact of open and collaborative practices for the development of physical goods and technologies. She was a visiting scholar at ITP-NYU, Research Chair at the Open Source Hardware Association, TED Fellow, and member of NYC Resistor.
Open Source Ecology is also developing in Europe as OSE Europe.
In 2016, OSE and the Open Building Institute joined forces to make affordable, ecological housing widely accessible.< The initiative has prototyped the Seed Eco-Home – a 1400 square foot home with the help of 50 people in a 5-day period – demonstrating that OSE's Extreme Manufacturing techniques can be apply to rapid swarm builds of large structures. Materials for the Seed Eco-Home cost around US$30,000. Further, OBI has prototyped the Aquaponic Greenhouse – which was also built in 5 days with 50 people.

Factor e Farm

The Factor e Farm is the headquarters where the machines are prototyped and tested. The farm also serves as a prototype. Using the Open Source Ecology principles, Marcin and Catarina have built four prototype modules which comprise their home. An added greenhouse demonstrates how a family can grow vegetables and fish. Outside, there is also a large garden including fruit trees.

Current progress

In 2020, OSE is planning its most ambitious collaborative design effort by hosting an - to produce a professional grade, open source, 3D printed cordless drill that can be manufactured in distributed locations around the world. This project is intended to provide a proof-of-concept for the efficiency of open source development applied to hardware - in addition to its proven success with software.
In 2019, OSE began running its .
In 2018, the project achieved .
In 2014, 12 of the 50 machines were designed, blueprinted, and prototyped, with four of those reaching the documentation stage.
On October 2011 a Kickstarter fundraising campaign collected US$63,573 for project expenses and the construction of a training facility. The project has been funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation and is a semifinalist in the Focus Forward Film Festival.

Awards and recognition

The Global Village Construction Set comprises 50 industrial machines:
CategoryGlobal Village Construction Set
Habitat
Compressed earth block press v4Concrete mixerSawmillBulldozer Backhoe
Agriculture
Tractor: LifeTrac v3SeederHay rakeMicrotractorRototillerSpaderHay cutterTrencherBakery ovenDairy milking machineMicrocombine harvesterBalerWell-drilling rig
Industry
MultimachineIronworkerLaser cutterWelderPlasma cutterInduction furnaceCNC torch tableMetal rollerWire and rod millPress forgeUniversal rotorDrill press3D printer3D scannerCNC circuit millIndustrial robotWoodchipper / Hammermill
Energy
Power Cube: PowerCube v7Gasifier burnerSolar concentratorElectric motor / generatorHydraulic motorNickel–iron batterySteam engineSteam generatorWind turbinePelletizerUniversal power supply
Materials
Aluminium extractor Bioplastic extruder
Transportation
CarTruck

GVCS replication

The first time the Global Village Construction Set product was created by another group was in October, 2011; Jason Smith with James Slade and his organization Creation Flame developed a functioning open source CEB press. A group in Baltimore, Maryland, and a group in Dallas, Texas also began manufacturing GVCS machines.