Mon 10 Oct 2011
Posted by Marcin
Friends, we are finally kicking off our Kickstarter to go The Last Mile on the construction part of the Global Village Construction Set:
Here is a direct link to the Kickstarter page. These are exciting times as our resources continue to increase towards rapid deployment and growth.
Wed 13 Jul 2011
Posted by Nikolay
We are planning to improve the True Fans campaign through implementing the 5 motivators of giving as shared by Taylor Conroy in his TED talk:
You can see the flow of interactions in the following illustration.
More details can be found in the Microfunding Proposal on the Wiki.
For the successful completion of this project we need 3-4 web developers ready to commit to this Dedicated Remote Collaboration. Experience with PHP frameworks is very desirable. Please add yourself to the Team and if you have any questions or need more details send email to Nikolay Georgiev.
Wed 5 Jan 2011
Posted by Marcin
Happy New Year!
Over the holidays, I got a chance to meet Juliet Schor (author of Plenitude) in New York City. Juliet teaches at Boston College, and she co-founded the Center for the New American Dream. She wrote about Factor e Farm in her recent book, Plenitude: The Economics of True Wealth. She recently got a McArthur Foundation grant to do a case study on Factor e Farm. What I love about Juliet is that her core message is a mouthpiece for the practical work of Factor e Farm. I feel like I am listening to myself speak when I listen to Juliet. Her core message is that we can improve the economic system far beyond its present morasse of inefficiency and artificial scarcity.
Juliet Schor and Plenitude from Marcin Jakubowski on Vimeo.
Wed 18 Aug 2010
Posted by Marcin
Here is an update on the crowd funding. The LifeTrac Completion and PowerCube Prototype II funding baskets are filled. The Liberator and Soil Pulverizer Prototype II baskets are still low. On August 18, with less than a week to go, we’re at $1795 of $4700 – or at 38% of our goal. We were at $1175 after 4 days of beginnining this campaign. We can still pull off some magic.
We need to fill these baskets to be able to pursue our building adventures of this year. The way we look at it – this year’s building adventures will serve to demonstrate the feasibility of building high-quality, scalable, low-cost accommodations. We want to be able to accommodate up to 12 Dedicated Project Visitors and full-time participants by next year – which is key to our plan for upgrading operations along the lines of scalable, open source product development. So chip in. If we don’t get the resources in time, that means that we’ll just have to spend more time soliciting donations from friends and supporters.
Yesterday we had a photo shoot on the 150 ton hole puncher – which is getting published in Make Magazine.
Fri 6 Aug 2010
Posted by Marcin
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge from Buckminster Fuller Institute on Vimeo.
Mon 31 May 2010
Posted by Marcin
The following is a project from another group, but it is close to our goals. Chip in if you want to see this happen – a 100W open source, laser cutter for under $5k. If successful, this project will be a direct contribution to RepLab and the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). We will be able to build on this design to both scale and optimize cost-to-power performance. I suspect we’ll be able to build this laser cutter for $2k in materials. Power electronics, one of the GVCS technologies, will be involved in the power stage for this laser cutter, at higher power versions of the device. In the meantime, 100W gets you ability to cut plastics and wood, and to etch metal, and with multiple-pass cuts, may be able to cut sub-millimeter thin metal. Along with RepRap, this open source laser cutter would be 2 solid contributions to RepLab and to open source economic development. Read more about the open source laser cutter initiative here. Go to Kickstarter for more info from the source, where you can also donate.
Wed 2 Sep 2009
Posted by Marcin
Lawrence has finalized the open source torch table design, after 11 days at Factor e Farm. 
Today, we are preparing the workshop space and he’s putting together the frame. Our goal is to complete the prototype in the stated 30 day period.
The design has come a long way since our initial work from 2008 and redesign of 2009. The open source torch table has now reached the technical design stage, according to our open source product development method. 
The project is part of our flexible fabrication workshop infrastructure,
which we discussed initially in an earlier post.
We now have the completed and documented design for an open source, GPL license or compatible, CNC torch table. You can download the Blender design file, which is dimensionally correct and contains the entire design. This design is now up for review, so please comment if you have experience with building CNC machines, or if you can direct other qualified individuals to this work.
We challenge, once again, anybody to propose any further simplification that does not reduce performance. The design uses stock steel throughout, with consistency of parts in the x, y, and z directions. The only fabrication requirement is bolting, after all the steel is cut. This lends itself well to selling CNC torch table kits at competitive cost, especially because the torch table is designed to be self-replicating. With a plasma torch head, one can cut out all the metal parts required to build another torch table!
In this sense, RepRap is our brother, and in fact, we will join the happy family of Arduino controller and RepRap motor drivers to reduce the electronics costs of future torch tables by about 75% below the present $460. The dream of open source fabrication infrastructure is coming alive – at Factor e Farm.
We have a complete bill of materials (BOM). Complete sourcing information is provided in the BOM. The summary BOM is shown here for reference, including parts we bought and outstanding parts:
The torch table features designed into the Prototype 1 build include:
These are the technical merits. We must add on the organizational milestones. Lawrence is presently succeeding in doubling Factor e Farm’s technical development capacity under his Dedicated Project Visit (DPV) – by demonstrating capacity to succeed in his stated goals. This has encouraging implications for scaling the project in general – as Lawrence is well on his way to demonstrating the power of well-thought out DPVs in terms of their ability to move design and build efforts forward. Personally, I am inspired – because we’re seeing that aligned effort can accomplish a great deal.
The above should be compelling reason for supporting our first torch table prototype build – as a part of a greater process towards optimized, open source product release. We’re equipped with a robust design, initial review is complete, we invite any further comments, and we are ready to move. Our outstanding costs are $800 for the Everlast plasma cutter , and under $600 for remaining gantry parts – for a total outstanding cost of $1358 including shipping. See BOM above. And then, ChipIn:
Hear Lawrence’s comment on the topic: (more…)
Sat 15 Nov 2008
Posted by Marcin
With outstanding performance results on the CEB press, we are getting ever closer to the planned product release date of April 1, 2009. We are employing a Product Release Fund as part of our open source product release strategy, with the primary aim of addressing the freeloader dilemma in funding this open source project.
While progress on crowd support funding has been quite satisfactory, it is nowhere near the level where we can afford rapid project acceleration towards the full Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). The point is – we believe that deploying the GVCS will benefit the world immensely – many times over what people are contributing. Thus, fundraising the miniscule quantities (about $2 million for the entire GVCS) that we believe will change the world profoundly – should be no problem. This is not so in practice.
The Product Release Fund encourages people to donate. This Fund is aimed primarily at those who are interested in building the CEB machine themselves or who are interested in fabrication as a small enterprise.
The fund works as follows.
The above encourages anyone who is really interested in a low-cost Liberator to contribute prior to product release – which is the time when support is needed the most. $20 is peanuts for someone to pay when materials cost $2k, and the next cheapest competition costs $25k. Our quota is less than the price of one CEB machine from any of the cometitors.
The freeloader dilemma is only partially solved with this concept, though. Most people will not be producers of the machine – most will buy it from someone else. Production will happen whether they contribute or not – though it may take longer for us to get there.
We are looking for comments and suggestions on this concept. We are on the untested frontiers of open product development – so your suggestions are welcome. If we can demonstrate that the rewards are worthy – how do we motivate people to contribute? Is it simply about a larger marketing effort?
Sun 2 Nov 2008
Posted by Marcin
Thank you to all the people that supported us for the month of October – our transition to support via crowd funding. The October funding and corresponding progress were a major success. Here is the progress report.
Overview: We are on our way to neocommercialization of the CEB press, starting with the building of a flexible, digital fabrication facility. This building addition is planned to feature CEB walls, a living roof, solar design, CEB masonry stove, sauna, and off-grid operation. The month of October was taken up primarily by field testing of the open source LifeTrac/CEB/rototiller/toothbar bucket/backhoe combination – as applied to site and earth preparation for CEB construction. We also built a number of roof trusses.
Funding: Our goal was $3125, and we collected a total of $2705 in value. The highest third-party donation was $600, and the lowest was $5. There were only 17 donations, with an average of $159. We received $240 in direct material/tool donations.
Accomplishments: This month, we completed the entire CEB construction infrastructure. The tractor, tooth-bar bucket, backhoe, and rototiller are in working order for CEB block production. We moved about 60 tons of soil, 
sufficient for approximately 8000 bricks. We completed several of the 25 total trusses (32 foot long)
for the roof and got gravel
delivered to the site.
In addition, we built one Hexayurt, 
received an insulated army tent on loan for a year
, and published our initial CEB CSM business plan.
Tooling and inftrastructure upgrades: We received a miter saw
for truss construction. We upgraded our acetylene torch setup from a 150 to a 250 lb oxygen bottle.
We installed 8 of the 14 solar panels
, installed the inverter, and an open source on-demand water heater
for our shower. This heater is quite useful, so we documented its construction:
We purchased a larger metal grinder.
We also got a stove donated for the Hexayurt, and a hot water heater that we’ll heat with stove flue gases.We also bent out the tines on the tiller, and added a 4th tine set.
Funding allocation: The resource allocation is as follows. Initially, we proposed about $2300 in building materials, and $800 in stipends. We received $2725. The stipends were not paid out. Alex left. Bob went away for 2 weeks to work. This money was allocated additional building materials.
Note: items in italics were not yet purchased. The total resources needed (about $500) carry over into the November funding cycle.
Challenges: The main one was the tractor breaking at the main joint. This was fixed. Weight distribution is still poor, because the front loader sticks out too much at the front. It should be closer to the tractor body. Even with 1500 of weights on the back (dead battery banks), the back wheels almost begin to come off the ground when the front loader is filled with soil.
Commentary: The development path is full of challenges and decision forks – constant, on-the-feet problem solving is required. Nothing, outside of the general direction, goes as planned – one can plan only after experience in an experimental program like this. Demoralization for the team is a constant issue, which I address personally by regular meditation and mind-body practice. Indeed, the deeper the challenge, the deeper the solution. That’s been the history in my experience – unsolved issues linger for no more than a few days at a time, and typically they are addressed either the same day or day after.
Next month plan: We are in the thick of brick pressing and building. The month of November will be completion of the CEB CSM workshop facility – so we can begin work on the digital fabrication XYZ torch table in December.
We are also planning a sawmill prototype for November as proposed before: 
. The sawmill is relevant to the replication of the CEB CSM business model – where self-generated lumber allows low-cost construction of facilities. This falls under the scenario of decentralization technology-based Global Village creation.The total budget for November, described on our wiki, is $3400. So please continue your support by donating here – so we can bring a revolutionary, open source business model to life.
Sat 25 Oct 2008
Posted by Marcin
We have released v0.1 of the OSE CEB Proposal, which is a summary of our product release plan for the CEB press. This helps put the entire CEB project in perspective to supporters. The abstract reads:
Herein we provide a short overview of the Open Source Ecology (OSE) enterprise development model and deployment plan. The plan is for Community Supported Manufacturing (CSM) of a high performance, open source, Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press – The Liberator – to begin by end of March, 2009. This is OSE’s first product release. We propose an innovative economic model, with replicability as one of its key features.
Here is a simplified product ecology from the proposal:
You can download the proposal here. Please circulate widely. Please comment here or at the OSE wiki.
This is your last chance to support us for the month of October. We have under a week left, and are over 3/4 of the way to reaching our proposed goal. Please donate here.
