Factor e Farm has been building Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) machines since 2008. That year, I announced the Global Village Construction Set concept for the first time in a presentation at the U. Missouri, Columbia.
As of today, at least 62 protototypes have been built in 4 countries:
All entries in the icons in the graphic are hyperlinked to pictures and documentation. You need to click here to access the above document directly and double click on the icon to go to the link. (note: 3 most recent builds are not shown)
Let us know if you know of any more replications – we don’t know if the above list is comprehensive. See more information on the wiki.
The graph above indicates project scaling towards the open source economy – paper on this forthcoming in the next issue of the MIT Innovations Journal. We are currently recruiting 4 machine designers, and we aim to get our prototyping rate to 4 prototypes per month at Factor e Farm by March of 2013. Since the success of the CEB Press Collaborative Production Run, we are shifting our recruiting to a focus on machine designers instead of fabricators. We found that production runs with 6-8 people using the Fabrication Diagram swarming method allow us to build a machine rapidly – within 1-4 days – provided that complete fabrication instructions are prepared carefully ahead of time.
More generally, here is a perspective on the evolution of open source hardware – care of the Open Source Hardware Association leadership:
4 per month is ambitious to say the least. I wanted to also compliment the timeline. Very well done.
Are there plans for the items in the Global Village Construction Set for purchase?
No, they are freely dowloadable. If you would like to support us financially, go to http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Support_Open_Source_Ecology
[…] 6 independent replications of our brick press have been made to date. Our second replicator commented (see http://opensourceecology.org/w/index.php?title=Shuttleworth_Fellowship_2013_Submission#2._Dan_S.-_Second_Replication) – To my mind, the GVCS Liberator is the single most important technology for global housing anywhere. No machine produces the uniformity and strength of block for the cost as this machine. […]
Does 66 prototypes mean 66 different tools, or are some of these redundant repeats. I have the impression it is still a work in process. Is there a list of these tools? Can tools be added? I commented elsewhere that an alcohol still and spirulina tank could be useful. Also a Montessori education would have individuals with a ready mindset for hands on initiatives. I would like to do such a village in Tarija Bolivia where I am moving.