| Open Source Ecology | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | OSE |
| Headquarters | Factor e Farm, 745 SW Willow Road, Cameron, Missouri, United States .[1][2] |
| Leader | Marcin Jakubowski |
| Budget | $4,000 monthly |
| Website | Opensourceecology.org |
Open Source Ecology (OSE) is a network of farmers, engineers and supporters, whose main goal is the eventual manufacturing of the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). As described by Open Source Ecology "the DVCS is an open technological platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small civilization with modern comforts."[3] Groups in Oberlin, Ohio, Pennsylvania , New York and California are developing blueprints, and building prototypes in order to pass them on to Missouri.[4][5] The devices themselves are on the Factor e Farm in rural Missouri, built and tested.
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Marcin Jakubowski, a physicist, founded the group in 2003.[6] In the final year of his doctoral thesis at the University of Wisconsin, he had the feeling that science 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 was announced in 2011 during a Ted Talk that Jakubowski presented on the subject.[7]Shortly after, the GVCS won Make magazine's Green Project Contest. The Internet blogs Gizmodo and Grist produced detailed features on OSE.
Open Source Ecology is also developing in Europe as OSE Europe. [1]
The Factor e Farm is the main headquarters, where the machines are prototyped and tested. The farm itself also serves as a prototype. The residents grow their own food, collect rainwater, and produce all their electricity by solar panels.[8]
During October, 2011 the first successful duplication of a Global Village Construction Set product by a third party group was completed. Jason Smith along with James Slade and his organization Creation Flame '[2] developed a functioning open source CEB press.[9] A group in Baltimore, Maryland, and a group in Dallas, Texas have also begun production of GVCS machines.[10]