I can make it to the Saturday Shopbot workshop. I leave for Austin tomorrow.
Based on the bus schedule, I will arrive at 9pm. Bryan, will you meet me at
the bus station? I may be offline until I arrive, so call me to confirm
these plans: 936.240.9194

SXSW is coming up. We can meet up as an "Open Manufacturing" group hosted by
the Austin Lab during this event. Bryan, you know Austin, your lab, and
upcoming events. When would be a good time to meet at the Austin Lab while
fabrication is in the air?

Once we decide a meet-up place and time, let's "go viral" (whatever that
means! Fenn? ;P) on the promotion within related communities in Austin and
elsewhere. It would be much easier if these related communities were on this
list; a single e-mail thread would then suffice. So, with that frame, let's
tell people about this list.

Marcin, you ready for a bus trip? Bryan, Marcin: Is this too soon?

Nathan

I think you might be jumping the gun on this. If you want to go see a
shopbot router doing its thing and a bunch of old guys standing around
talking about different grades of plywood, well.. I wouldnt take two
day-long bus rides for that. On the other hand, Austin could be a fun
change of pace. I havent been here long enough to act as a tour guide.

The fabratory isnt much more than a woodworking shop right now. I'm not
sure what you're expecting.

the shop area: (Most of this stuff is for Les's furniture business.)
http://fennetic.net/pub/camera/inventory/shop_southwest.jpg
http://fennetic.net/pub/camera/inventory/shop_northeast.jpg

the electronics area to-be (all of my worldly possessions)
http://fennetic.net/pub/camera/inventory/conference_room2.jpg

If a hundred enthusiasts descended upon the place, I wouldnt know what to
do with them. I don't even have a key! So I dont think you're correct in
ramping up promotional activities before it's ready. Probably the best
thing to be doing is to try to find people or groups that might be willing
to fund the lab.

The best thing to be doing is organizing a process by which open source fab
lab components are taken through development to product release, one by one.
This has huge potential for support. I propose getting a team to
design/develop - and outsource expert help to actually build the tools.

What I see happening in our organizational evolution at Factor e Farm - is a
product development process generally defined as:

1. Define specifications.
2. Recruit bids from 3 builders/prototypers who verify specifications
3. Proposal is written.
4. Crowds and stakeholders produce funding
5. The prototyper is put to work at Factor e Farm (or similar venue) to
buld, after funding quota is reached.
6. Every step is documented, product is released

This addresses major accountability gaps that we're facing at Factor e Farm.
We need an effective process where we deliver product, to specifications and
on schedule.

I think some version of the above process is both realistic and fungible.
There is no rocket science to the OS Fab Lab.

So I would like some serious discussion on OS Fab Lab component development
pipeline. The above is just a suggestion, I'd just like to talk about a
process that works.

Design counts. Simple design is needed, and as an example, I would simplify
MechMate greatly to eliminate numerous custom cut components, replacing them
with stock metal. Our torch table (
http://www.globalswadeshi.net/group/opensourcetorchtable/forum/topics...)
is an adaptation of MechMate after this simplification process.

Marcin

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 6:59 AM, ben lipkowitz <f...@sdf.lonestar.org>wrote:

--
----

Nobody said that building the world's first open source village would be
easy.

-- Anonymous, 2009

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a
hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build
a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

Fenn,

Thanks for the pics. Post videos when you can. Does the lab have a wiki or
page yet other than openmanufacturing.net? I will make a wiki for the lab
with the pics you linked and the list of characters.

http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Bryan_Bishop

I suppose my sense of "cabin fever" played a factor, but I've come to grips
with that. As much as I'd like to have a chat with you and the Austin crew
on sight, I can be more helpful here for now.

Probably the best

Right.

The best thing to be doing is organizing a process by which open source fab

That bit is now here:
http://www.appropedia.org/Fab_Lab_Organization

Marcin, this is a healthy dose of organizational strategy. Please develop
these ideas further in a new topic by starting with these questions or
anything else you can think of:

What is in your OS Fab Lab component development pipeline? What component do
we attend to first, second, third and so on in order to rapidly fabricate
lab facilities?

These questions need this in mind:

As Fenn mentioned, we need people to fund the project. Just as important, we
need people to build the project. Once the "what to build" and benefits are
presented clearly we can then attract "who will build" and "who will fund."

Marcin, explain this in the context of Factor e Farm. Fenn, Bryan: explain
this in the context of the Austin lab. Overlap strategies when determining
the mutual needs, like that of MechMate construction or otherwise.

I'm out "on the hunt." If this topic isn't up before I return, I'll begin
it.

Nathan

In particular, most of the programming and engineering work has gone
into the construction of the pipeline and toolchain tools (yay for
verbal redundancy). In particular, this is so that engineering doesn't
take place on wikis, or in videos, or in crazy-ass weird places where
it doesn't really belong. So, that's partly why I have been having
such a negative reaction to your recent links to wiki articles and
requests for us to do all of the legwork for you re: googling up
tutorials related to development toolchain technologies. But maybe a
good start would be if you were to put up old openmanufacturing emails
on to the wiki so that we don't have to repeat ourselves on some of
the technical aspects of the toolchain?

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507