Toward an Open Source Civilization: (Innovations Case Narrative: Open Source Ecology)

Abstract

design and manufacture, devices like tractors, bread ovens, and circuit makers. Much as Wikipedia has sought to democratize access to knowledge and the open source software movement has attempted to democratize computing, Open Source Ecology seeks to democratize human wellbeing and the industrial tools that help to create it. As Digital Democracy founder Mark Belinsky put it, we make “victory gardening tools for your victory garden.” We design our tools in a nontraditional way with nontraditional goals in mind, and we design them to work with each other. We call our interconnected set of devices the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS), which, upon completion, will include 50 simple modular open source tools that are designed to provide modern comforts and basic material autonomy. The GVCS tools are designed simply so they can be used to replicate themselves and are easy to modify and customize. Much like the Erector Sets we used in our childhoods, the tools have interchangeable Lego-like modular components and quick-connect couplers. The open, collaborative nature of the GVCS project means that the toolset can, in principle, be independently adapted for the American farmer, the African technologist, or the pioneering lunar colonist. If the plans for the iPhone were open sourced, the average consumer, innovator, or manufacturer would still be helpless to replicate one, let alone participate in its design, because to make an iPhone, everything has to fall in to place. Governments need to function effectively, ships must sail and trains need to leave the station on time, workers need to show up on the job, the weather needs to cooperate, and all the materials in the supply chain must be on hand. At that point, the highly proprietary equipment and manufacturing processes are put in motion. The robust image of our modern economy in fact depends on a small miracle taking place each day within our labyrinthine supply chain. In contrast to the iPhone’s