May 1 Update

Scaling the OSE organization has left me in some of the most grueling time over the last 2 months. This is because we’re innovating on about 20 points at a time – a critical formative stage of the project and I am taking a crash course in social entrepreneurship scaling. So we’re starting with a 2 Year Plan, to be released in 10 days, as we build out the team. Brianna and Jose are at Factor e Farm, Aaron is working full time remotely as Development Director, Yoonseo is arriving May 9, and you can see 20+ recent video interviews for a preview of who may be joining us. We’re building the team, and here are the evolving role descriptions – email aaron at opensourceecology dot org to set up an interview. We need a team, and we foresee a solid development core managing a larger number of apprentices, while bootstrap funding this with production earnings. This involves a carefully-orchestrated team ecology leveraging generation of education materials, training newcomers, workshop work, agriculture, and construction –  building the substance of an open source civilization as we go along. It’s also time to rumble the tractors for waterworks and agriculture, and build a simplified OSE Microhouse in under a week for less than $5k. We’re looking for a Farm Director, Construction Director (Floyd is currently our Construction Manager, finishing HabLab), and Production Director.

To ensure project continuity, we’re going back to the roots of production, as opposed to the nonprofit sector, which clouded our thinking since hundreds of thousands of dollars poured in from that source. After bouncing a bit like a pinball in that world, it is sound to refocus on Distributive Enterprise as the core of our work. We did get our own nonprofit incorporated, and we are going for tax-exempt status. However, the core will be scaling production to $20k/month earning as indicated in initial earning predictions from last year’s production run. We’re taking the 4 tools of the Civilization Starter Kit v0.01 from Beta to Full Product Release – or release of a Distributive Enterprise Business Model and training program. Distributive Enterprise creation is part of the ~120 steps indicated in the Extreme Manufacturing platform Control Panel. The CEB Press has a new prototype, and, 3 tractors are being upgraded to the Quick Connect Wheels. There are numerous collaborations in the background, but I can’t say that we’re ready to engage them head-on prior to recruiting project management talent for rigorous execution. At the same time, I will lead the strategic development half my time and remain hands-on in the other half. One of my fundamental goals is still to demonstrate the limits of what a single person can do in terms of creating their own living environment.

Andrew Bateman, our documenter-to-be – unfortunately did not make it from Canada due to visa issues. It seems that we need to apply for visa-granting status – as our audience is global. As such, we still need to recruit Factor e Farm Documenter.

Moving Forward

We have loose ends to tie up with product shipments and Kickstarter. We’ll be moving into HabLab in a week. This is an exciting time as we are defining the organization, and the stakes are huge. It’s about optimizing access to innovation. Let’s do it. As Lilla Watson said:

If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.