The Open Factory - an Open Hardware factory in an Irish Ecovillage. Yes, I'm involved.

[Vinay Gupta (Hexayurt Shelter Project)]

http://blip.tv/the-hexayurt-project/the-open-factory-vinay-gupta-1-of-2-5336955

First 20 minutes covers all of the basic concepts, but here's the
pitch in three bulletpoints

1> We've got a 750 square meter manufacturing (zoned light industrial)
facility with the foundation poured last week, open for business late
this year.

2> We've got a world-class confluence of greens, many specialized in
construction and engineering, trying to make a living in rural Ireland

3> What if we started a new manufacturing movement, with fully Open
Hardware products *and* lifecycle environmental impact assessments
done for each product (and additional support services for best
environmental performance)?

The goal is to create a manufacturing parallel to Organic Food - a
high standard, semi-luxury brand which shows the way for all other
manufacturers to a clean, green supply chain, and shows you can make a
living with such moral, ethical, high quality products.

We don't have a name for this theoretical "Manufactured Organic" name.
Permafacture, obviously, is a term that I'd consider, but I'm not sure
we're anywhere near that standard yet. Anyway, I hope you'll find the
talk interesting and stimulating, and please feel free to circulate it
/ blog on it / etc. if you think the ideas have spreadability and
staying power.

You can read more about the Cloughjordan ecovillage project itself
here: http://cloughpedia.howtolivewiki.com - I particularly recommend
the Picasa Map.

Enjoy,

Vinay

--
Vinay Gupta
Free Science and Engineering in the Global Public Interest

http://hexayurt.com - free/open next generation human sheltering
http://hexayurt.com/plan - the whole systems, big picture vision

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an
invincible summer" - Albert Camus

Twitter/Skype/Gizmo/Gtalk/AIM: hexayurt
UK Cell : +44 (0) 7500 895568 / USA VOIP (+1) 775-743-1851

[Devin Balkind]

This is fantastic.  Free/libre/open source technology + ecovillages = new paradigm.  While I think the 'new manufacturing movement' has already begun and is in full swing at factor e farm in Missouri, the incorporation of open manufacturing and ecovillage living is tremendously powerful and a next steps - as well as a critical one - for the future we all want to see.

I'd focus on naming your space before trying to coin a term for the nascent permamanufacturing movement. :)

Excited for more updates.

[Vinay Gupta - Hexayurt Project]

Yep. Agree 100% Devin. I dunno if you know my history with OSE, but
I've been a supporter of the project from before the beginning (I
actually set up the first wiki and registered the domain names!)

There's a lot of interest here about possibly setting up a replication
site for the OSE systems. I'm cautious - the technical know-how
required to successfully do what's being done at OSE is a substantial
barrier to entry. I think it's more likely that we'll start with
simpler products and work up, but in a couple of years if we get
enough momentum to assemble the necessary skill base, it's the obvious
next step!

Cheers,

Vinay

[Devin Balkind]

I wasn't aware of your history with OSE.  I'm surprised there isn't a "Project History" page on the wiki.  I think that would be helpful to the increasingly large community of folks interested in the project.

I've been exploring spaces for open hardware in the Northeastern US with the intention of building OSE tools as well.  There are a lot of people in this region with relevant fabrication skills.  What's lacking is a design language that allows people at Factor e Farm to more effectively document their work.  I think the OSE project is positioned to introduce such a language.  I haven't proposed any solutions but I'd like to talk with you and others about documentation standards.  The GVCS is cool, but the GVCS documented in a universally understood symbol language is a lot cooler!

[Devin Balkind]

Hi Vinay.  I'm surprised there isn't a 'history of OSE' page on their wiki.  That could be very useful for everyone.

I'm organizing (at least trying to) an open hardware fabrication space in New York and have found there's a lot of skilled fabricators but the lack of documentation standards means that they also need hardcore engineering and trouble shooting skills to build any of the OSE tools.  I know a bunch of people that would like to engage in a conversation about documentation standards and design language for open hardware.  Is that conversation already underway?

[Bryan Bishop]

On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 7:50 PM, Devin Balkind wrote:

I know a bunch of people that would like to engage in a conversation about documentation standards and design language for open hardware.  Is that conversation already underway?

Here's one aspect of it:

http://gnusha.org/skdb/package_spec.html

http://diyhpl.us/cgit/skdb/plain/doc/package_spec.yaml

... which is, "KEEP EVERYTHING IN GIT", more or less.

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

[Vinay Gupta (Hexayurt Shelter Project)]

Documentation is Hard. The entire DIY book industry exists to tell people how to put up shelves. All the Hexayurt Project really does is document a pretty simple building design, and that's enough to keep us running around pretty busily.

But documentation means scaling, and that's important, so...

V>

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[Devin Balkind]

Thanks for the links Bryan.  They were helpful.

What's your favorite example of good hardware documentation?

[Nathan Cravens]

Makerbot presents well.

http://www.makerbot.com/docs/