Eric, Can we arrange a time for a quick chat on Skype? You can find me at sureshf. Over the coming couple of weeks I want to talk to a few folk that are working in this space to get a better feel for what is actually going on. Right now I'm still operating at a pretty theoretical level.
You obviously know a lot about the space and have an informed perspective. If this works for you, just give me a couple of times and I'll confirm. Thanks for your interest. Suresh On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 8:50 AM, Eric Hunting <[email protected]> wrote: > Actively, there's Open Pario (http://openpario.mime.oregonstate.edu:3000/) > Samuel mentioned earlier and the Open Innovation directory project ( > http://open-innovation-projects.org/) and harkopen ( > http://twitter.com/harkopen) and Open Source Machine ( > http://opensourcemachine.org/), which are both more blog-like directories. > I strongly suspect that at some point Sourceforge will get into the act too, > once the idea of open hardware reaches a certain critical mass in the > traditional open software community. I've noticed there seems to be some > reluctance in that community to embrace this concept, as if many see it as a > passing fad. Maybe the current open hardware projects haven't been > sufficiently structured enough to be taken seriously by programmers. Or > maybe they're just getting old. That community seems to have been missing > the boat or coming on late on a number of things lately, like the OLPC, the > software package revolution, net-appliance-based personal computing (what I > call distributed computers), ubiquitous computing, open microprocessors, > virtual computers (based on programmable gate arrays), etc. > > There's also my own ToolBook concept, but that's still just a proposal and > it's more focused on the notion of a publishing cooperative as a means of > economic support for open hardware development within a collaborative > community of Makers, writers, and graphic/media artists. The basic idea is > that it's pursuing free and open designs and technologies and a > collectivization of open industrial knowledge but are earning a basic living > for its participants and supporting the overhead of this work and shared > workshop facilities by the income from publishing media about it. (it > sometimes looks like Make Media is evolving in this direction, but won't > actually commit to something like this) It would also have a world outreach > side where it would be using some of its first-world income to support > third-world knowledge and appropriate technology distribution through mobile > fab labs -which, of course, gives our Maker community very practical things > to devise open hardware solutions for. (like the flat-pak refrigerator > concept we've been discussing in Open Manufacturing lately) > > I'd be happy to contribute where I can, though I've been stretched thin > lately. I'm trying to find a way to transition out of the college textbook > brokering business I've really come to dislike. (it's gotten to where it's > hard for me to even read a book for pleasure anymore because every time I > pick one up the thought of the blatant and ubiquitous corruption in > academia, the mafia-like practices of the publishers, the growing right-wing > political corruption of textbook content and its export overseas, the casual > lying and cheating of everyone in the industry at the expense of students, > and the worsening resentment of the students themselves just fills me with a > sense of disgust) I've two key projects that may lead to this; a T-slot > Sourcebook project which is intended to be an introduction to the potential > of extruded aluminum T-slot profiles -like the old 80:20 system and the new > MakeBeam- and the Utilihab project, which is the development of an open > source plug-in house-building system based on larger T-slot profiles. (see > http://tmp2.wikia.com/wiki/File:T-SlotPavilion1b.jpg > http://tmp2.wikia.com/wiki/File:T-SlotPavilion1a.jpg > http://tmp2.wikia.com/wiki/File:MarineEcoVillage.jpg > http://tmp2.wikia.com/wiki/File:MarineEcoVillage12.jpg) But I'm sort of > stymied by a lack of at-hand workshop facilities. Projects like yours, > though, may help as they establish networks of fabricators I might be able > to contract production from and also as a way of hosting info for these > projects for their own promotion. I'm also very active in the space advocacy > community and have been working for some years on a futurist writing project > called TMP2 (http://tmp2.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) which, if I ever find > sufficient illustration, is also intended to produce a book and simple Venus > Project style films. So you'll have to bear with me if I'm behind the curve > a lot. > > Eric Hunting > [email protected] > > > > On Jan 9, 2010, at 1:42 PM, Suresh Fernando wrote: > > > Eric, > > > > Thanks for the detailed response! > > > > Are you aware of any projects in addition to > > http://www.100kgarages.com/that you feel are trying to do something similar? > > > > Also, we are in the process of putting a team together to scale this > process up. Your understanding of the issues in the space would be > invaluable. Let me know if you would be interested in getting involved in > some way. > > > > Regards, > > > > Suresh > > -- Suresh Fernando WEBSITE: http://radical-inclusion.com WEBSITE: http://wiki.openkollab.com BLOG: http://sureshfernando.wordpress.com TWITTER: http://twitter.com/sureshf FACEBOOK: facebook.com/suresh.fernando 604-889-8167--
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