Open Source Ecology
From Miiu.org
Open Source Ecology (OSE) is a network of farmers, engineers and other supporters developing and testing the Global Village Construction Set, a set of tools to build replicable, open source, modern, off-grid resilient communities. The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.
Key Features of the GVCS
- Open Source - They freely publish their 3-D designs, schematics, instructional videos, budgets, and product manuals on their open source wiki and they harness open collaboration with technical contributors.
- Low-Cost - The cost of making or buying their machines are, on average, 8x cheaper than buying from an Industrial Manufacturer, including an average labor cost for a GVCS fabricator.
- Modular - Motors, parts, assemblies, and power units can interchange, where units can be grouped together to diversify the functionality that is achievable from a small set of units.
- User-Serviceable - Design-for-disassembly allows the user to take apart, maintain, and fix tools readily without the need to rely on expensive repairmen.
- DIY - (do-it-yourself) The user gains control of designing, producing, and modifying the GVCS tool set.
- Closed Loop Manufacturing - Metal is an essential component of advanced civilization, and the OSE platform allows for recycling metal into virgin feedstock for producing further GVCS technologies - thereby allowing for cradle-to-cradle manufacturing cycles.
- High Performance - Performance standards must match or exceed those of industrial counterparts for the GVCS to be viable.
- Flexible Fabrication - It has been demonstrated that the flexible use of generalized machinery in appropriate-scale production is a viable alternative to centralized production.
- Distributive Economics - OSE encourage the replication of enterprises that derive from the GVCS platform as a route to truly free enterprise - along the ideals of Jeffersonian democracy.
- Industrial Efficiency - In order to provide a viable choice for a resilient lifestyle, the GVCS platform matches or exceeds productivity standards of industrial counterparts.
Learn more, download plans, watch videos at http://opensourceecology.org/
