Crowdsource Funding

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Thu 2 Oct 2008

Crowd Funding Progress Report – Week 1, Month 1

Posted by Marcin

We started our first crowd funding cycle one week ago – for October. We collected $1254 to date – not bad. The goals are  – and our timeline for October is  – . We’re moving along. The Babington burner is flaring, , Bob is here, , and the Hexayurt is up. One Hexayurt is enough for now – unless we get more people. We’re looking for volunteers, and if our funding goals succeed, we will provide a $400 stipend. Let us know if you’d like to come here. Sasha wrote an excellent post on our work as well. Please spread the word on finding people. Remember that we are supported entirely by volunteer efforts.

It’s exciting and difficult work. Decision forks and dangers abound. We are up on our feet, and feel like we’re making history. We could taste the sweet flavor of progress for the common good – with the global community behind us. I wish I could communicate the feeling of historic events unfolding – starting to tap the potential of a globally-linked co-laboratory. Only a modicum of directed energy – integrated in a well-organized form – can change the world. Please contribute – we are collecting until the end of this month for the October cycle.

Categories: Accomplishments, Crowdsource Funding, Volunteers

[8] Comments

Sat 27 Sep 2008

Progress

Posted by Marcin

Ecology and technology. The tractor is borne of plants and rock – transformed to rubber and steel.

It’s munching up the soil – with the tiller. It is site preparation for the first Hexayurt – in minutes as opposed to 2 days with 3 people with heavy hoe by hand. We are on schedule as shown at:

. The crowd funding already paid for materials. Bob is here. The site is prepared. Tomorrow you’ll see pictures of the Hexayurt – temporary shelter for Bob and others as we get going with CEB construction.

The tractor is going through shakedown – hydraulic pressure adjustments, electrical switch upgrade for turning the tractor on, a 1100 pound weight on the back.

We are still looking for at least 2 more people – do you have any suggestions? We aim to be in production of the CEB presses themselves in 6 months – with 4 per week capacity. We won’t need the crowd funding as much then – once we’re producing. In the meantime, donate to accelerate that progress. It’s the critical startup stage.

This crowd funding is like a virtual reality game – except we are your real-life players – with product and video footage to show it.

Categories: Agroecotechnology, Construction, Crowdsource Funding

[2] Comments

Thu 25 Sep 2008

Crowdsource Funding

Posted by Marcin

We finally kicked off our crowdsource funding yesterday – or online donations. You can chip in to our project here.

We are migrating towards full direct support by such small online donations. The bottom line is – with the collected resources, we plan on delivering:

This is within the context of our 6 month technology tree development as in the last post. We have learned that progress goes only as fast as how many collaborators we find. For example, when Bob and Stewart were here- we were able to get major progress done on LifeTrac, plus intstall a biodiesel reactor. In reference to the above timeline, here is all that we’ll be able to do without your support:

As such, we invite you to contribute. The basic goal is to get people here, build a CEB workshop and living environment, and develop the CEB press to a marketable, open source product – including an open business model for community-supported manufacturing. We aim to have product in six months by March – after going through a second and third prototype of the CEB press, documenting the fabrication procedure clearly, and optimizing fabrication. We aim to develop a production capacity of 4 CEB presses per week – in a digital fabrication scenario.

All this is supposed to happen from contributions to our funding basket, on a monthly basis, starting for the month of October. So pump your wallet and contribute, so that we reach the point of earnings from actual CEB production as soon as possible. We already have orders, so we just need to deliver. There’s tranformative potential in developing a self-sustaining model for a peer-based open engineering and development program. We’re shooting for that as a prerequisite to a world-class open product development facility.

If you are interested in coming here for the CEB building phase of our work – we’re looking for people. We have two people coming, we need at least two more. The budget contains a small stipend for participants. Contact us for details.

Categories: Crowdsource Funding

[3] Comments

Mon 22 Sep 2008

Factor e Live – Episode 9 – Rototiller, More Solar Panels, Biodiesel Reactor + Crowdsource Funding

Posted by Marcin

Here is the continuing saga with the open source tractor. We built a quick attach plate for rapid interchanging of implements. We built an open source rototiller as the first such implement. Now we can switch readily between the tiller and loader bucket – as needed for CEB construction.

We also show how we put together our biodiesel reactor. We document further solar panel fabrication and testing, and other fruits of Factor e Farm.

The next step is an enhanced program of core technology tree development and crowdsource research. In the next 6 months, we hope to have the following infrastructure technologies designed, built, and deployed:

This is not a small task. To get there, the immediate plan is:

  • Get people here – 4 others in total, plus Brittany and I. We will house the team in 7/16 inch, painted, oriented strand board (OSB) Hexayurts – temporary for the next month as CEB housing comes into place.
  • We work on housing and central heating as the prime objectives. Uninsulated Hexayurts are good only for about another month – until winter comes. Thus, we’ll dedicate one person of the team to work full time on central heating. Two options are a CEB brick stove – and Babington-burner flamethrower with heat exchange coil, running on waste waste vegetable oil – waste oil of insufficient quality for biodiesel production.
  • This is not happening without some crowdsource contributions. We’re setting up a crowdsource funding basket for this phase
    • The budget is $7.18 per sheet of OSB, times 18 pieces, or $130 in materials, plus flashing to make the joints (tape is not strong enough), for a total of about $150 each – times 3 temporary buildings like this, or a grand total of $450:
    • $400 stipend per month for new recruits, times 4
    • $1100 in cement, gravel, insulation, doors, and other building materials for CEB construction
      • $3150 total for the next month

    Chip in at our wiki. The main program is getting people here and building. The background work is crowdsource research to get the technology tree above growing – mainly the biofuel, fab, steam engine, and solar turbine integration. More on this later.

Categories: Accomplishments, Collaborators, Construction, Crowdsource Funding, Digital Fabrication

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