A DIY Civilization

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



A DIY Civilization
Can we create the machines of modern life sustainably, cheaply, and close to home?

by Colleen Shaddox
posted Mar 26, 2012


A baker’s oven, a backhoe, a well drilling rig. According to social entrepreneur Marcin Jakubowski, these are a few of the 50 machines essential for any society to sustain a modern, comfortable lifestyle.

But these machines are not only essential, explains Leifur Thor, they’re also expensive, hard to repair and designed to be obsolete in a few years. Thor volunteers with Open Source Ecology, a non-profit Jakubowski founded to develop the Global Village Construction Set. The set will comprise durable, modular machines that people can build and maintain themselves with sustainable, locally available materials—often scrap metal. OSE will give the plans away to anyone who wants them. The money a farmer would have sent to a large corporation to buy a hay cutter will stay in the community. The environmental impact of shipping heavy equipment long distances will disappear. These machines are designed to cost roughly a fifth of what factory-produced models do.

"We’re obsessed with the idea that whatever we’re creating is going to have the maximum benefit, for the lowest cost, for the longest time," says Thor. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/a-diy-civilization

[xchrom]

1. that is so cool...

[Bosso 63]

2. Very cool, more things need to be built like this.

From MAKE magazine, The Maker's Bill of Rights


Meaningful and specific parts lists shall be included.

Cases shall be easy to open.

Batteries should be replaceable.

Special tools are allowed only for darn good reasons.

Profiting by selling expensive special tools is wrong and not making special tools available is even worse.

Torx is OK; tamperproof is rarely OK.

Components, not entire sub-assemblies, shall be replaceable.

Consumables, like fuses and filters, shall be easy to access.

Circuit boards shall be commented.

Power from USB is good; power from proprietary power adapters is bad.

Standard connecters shall have pinouts defined.

If it snaps shut, it shall snap open.

Screws better than glues.

Docs and drivers shall have permalinks and shall reside for all perpetuity at archive.org.

Ease of repair shall be a design ideal, not an afterthought.

Metric or standard, not both.

Schematics shall be included.

[longship]

3. Do you hear this Apple?

I have, and love my iPhone. But if the battery goes bad I can't buy and replace it myself. My old iPod is a brick because of this.

Stupid, stupid Apple.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.