Archive for February, 2009
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Open Source Product Devopment Pipeline
So here’s the next best thing since sliced bread. We’re working on a streamlined pipeline for open source product development, and I think we’ve hit it on the head. Or at the very least, we’re clarifying the process required for this method to succeed.
Read about the method here.
In summary, this process means that we …
2 Comments » - Posted in Open Source Product Development Pipeline by Marcin
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Large Hopper Mechanism
Based on some feedback from the CEB Hopper Problem Statement in the last post, here is a conceptual solution. This solution is readily doable using techniques available to us, and requires an additional ~$400 in CEB infrastructure material costs.
We can adapt our existing rototiller to make a rapidly spinning (500 rpm?) soil pulverizer in …
9 Comments » - Posted in Compressed Earth Block Press by Marcin
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Development Update
There’s nothing as valuable for us at this point in our organizational evolution as completing the full CEB product cycle, to take the CEB press from prototype to market.
We spawned some publicity, and much is happening in the background. The viral marketing seems to be working, as new collaborators are contacting us now on …
7 Comments » - Posted in Accomplishments,Compressed Earth Block Press by Marcin
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Green Roof
Well, not really green in winter, but it will soon be.
Today we put straw and earth on top of the CEB workshop addition – for a living roof. Without LifeTrac assist, this would have been an arduous task. With LifeTrac, we were able to do most of the work in about 4 hours today. …
3 Comments » - Posted in Accomplishments,Biotecture,LifeTrac by Marcin
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
CEB, Hexacube, and Hexayurt: Side by Side
We are posting a video update on the CEB flex fab workshop addition, plus news on the first Hexacube solar cubicle that we built in the short time that Nate and Ama were here on a visit. There is interesting information on our newly built stove – a hybrid wood/oil masonry stove with hot …
11 Comments » - Posted in Accomplishments,Compressed Earth Block Press,Guests,Hexacube by Marcin
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Factor e Farm in Five Minutes
Thanks to Mathew, one of our True Fans, we now have a publicity 4-pager for anyone who wants a quick overview of Factor e Farm. This is useful for spreading the word, and I’ll be taking copies with me to any presentation that I give. You can download a copy here (1.6M, pdf).
1 Comment » - Posted in Viral Village by Marcin
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Solar Power Generator Update
Today, someone passed on an important link. The Swiss company Nolaris is building a solar concentrator power system that matches the Factor e Farm Solar Power Generator very closely. In particular – both systems use flat mirrors in a linear fresnel configuration, and a water-filled collector tube. Nolaris is using a turbine, while we …
9 Comments » - Posted in Community Supported Manufacturing,Solar Power Generator by Marcin
Friday, February 20th, 2009
Ama and Nate Visit Factor e Farm
Nate and Ama have been visiting Factor e for the past few days after hearing about us through our WWOOF page. They are a great, very knowledgeable couple. They have been on the road visiting many other farms to find a place to settle down, and they shared their pictures and stories of travels …
7 Comments » - Posted in Animals,Visiting by Jeremy
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
OSE Social Network Presence Established
An OSE presence has been established on many popular social networking sites, and we are now looking for someone to manage them and direct outreach and community development. They are all updated with ping.fm. We welcome everyone to direct people to whichever of these sites you think can help spread the word about OSE. …
4 Comments » - Posted in 1000 True Fans - 1000 Global Villages,Organizational Development,People by Jeremy
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Integrated Development Strategy
We are carrying on fiery discussion on an integrated strategy towards the world’s first replicable, open source, global village. We started an OSE Development Network for True Fans and dedicated collaborators at the Global Swadeshi forum. A diagram is below, and you can go to the wiki for further explanation of the diagram.
