PopTech Social Innovation Fellows Application

http://poptech.org/sifellows

by Marcin

'''Can you tell us a little bit about the person you wish to nominate, including why you feel they would be an ideal candidate for the program? (max 1000 characters)'''

I am the founder of Open Source Ecology. We are working on the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS)- 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.

My current challenge is scaling the platform – by developing a robust, scalable, open source product development methodology that will enable open source methods to penetrate to a significant market share of global production (2% within 5 years). The intended goal is developing the open source, distributive economy – an economy that optimizes not only production, but also, distribution of wealth. It is critical that if we want to address pressing world issues – we need to increase the rate of innovation. Our proposed solution is scaling open product development – because the key to economic democracy and freedom is open access to distributed productive potential. '''Can you give a brief description of the nominee’s work? (max 1000 characters) *'''

My work aims to develop a viable open source product development methodology that can be adopted even by mainstream corporations. To this end, we are developing the Extreme Manufacturing methodology – an agile process for rapid, scalable development of hardware innovation. As our first test bed, we are applying this methodology to the completion of 40 prototypes of the remaining GVCS machines in 6 months - by the end of 2012. The specific target product is the Open Source Microfactory – a flexible, digital fabrication facility, about 4000 square feet in size, that can produce all of the 50 GVCS machines, anywhere, largely via closed-loop manufacturing cycles using local energy resources. The Microfactory is intended to be a replicable, Distributive Enterprise – an enterprise whose core business model involves helping social entrepreneurs to replicate the same enterprise – and produce local cars, fuels, tractors, renewable energy systems, microfactories, etc.

'''What are some of the outcomes/impacts of this work? (max 1000 characters) *'''

To date, we have 3 entrepreneurs who are currently starting up enterprises producing OSE CEB Presses and Power Cubes. We expect 100 enterprises starting up within a year of GVCS completion by year-end 2013, and 2% global market share of all economically significant production by 2018 – bacause the GVCS spans many key sectors of economic production. This means 2% penetration of the Open Source Economy into the marketplace in the form of Distributive Enterprise. Since these enterprises follow OSE Specifications (modularity, lifetime design, open economic development, ecological integrity, social justice principles) – this implies a potential solution to several pressing world issues. The impact lies in open blueprints, developed via global collaboration, feeding local production facilities – the next industrial revolution – marked by optimal design feeding enterprise, as opposed to enforcement of mediocrity through competitive waste.

'''Tell us about any awards or recognition the nominee has received. Please provide us with as much information as you can. (max 1000 characters) * '''

TED Fellow 2011; Huffington Post Best of TED 2011 (Top 6th TED talk); TED Senior Fellow 2012, Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow 2012 ($360k); $1M offer of support from a confidential source. The project is at a turning point.

'''Is there anything else you would like to share to help us to better understand the nominee? (max 1000 characters) ''' I want to create a significant contribution to the open source economy - as a means of taking the rate of material innovation into warp speed - paving a way for pursuit of higher purpose. I would like to create a revenue stream to create a funding/support platform for distributive enterpreneurship training - as a disruptive platform for scaling deep solutions to pressing issues. I would like to create a program akin to Thiel Fellows (20 Under 20) but focusing on Distributive Entrepreneurship. However, I don't yet have the managerial experience for scaling the project, so I need help through mentorship and advice from leading worldchangers who are seasoned in organizational scaling of impact.