In this video Marcin talks with members of the UAB Solar House team.

In 2017, they designed and built a 1,000 sq. ft. off-grid solar house for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. After the competition, it was relocated to UAB’s campus, where it now serves as part of a sustainability demonstration project.

The UAB Solar House is fully powered by solar energy and “islanded”, completely disconnected from the city’s electrical grid. It was built to maximize energy efficiency while maintaining comfort and usability. The space includes a fully equipped kitchen, living/dining area, jack-and-jill bathroom, individual climate control in each room, and a smart TV for presentations. It also features a large porch and outdoor gathering area, surrounded by native gardens.

Full documentation of the project is available. The design is replicable, and there’s potential for adaptation to modular or open-source construction methods (e.g. OSE’s toolkit and build system).

For more information see https://www.uab.edu/sustainability/solar-house-community

From the description:

Dr. Joshua Pearce discusses how to accelerate knowledge transfer with open hardware with examples from his FAST lab at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada - as well as business models the open source scientific hardware companies can use. https://www.appropedia.org/FAST

OSE is teaming up with FAST to accelerate open hardware development. I (Marcin) am applying to be a visiting Thompson Fellow at Western. In this collaboration - my main duties would be to give guest lectures and mini-seminars on OSE primarily through TCELI (https://www.eng.uwo.ca/tc/); establish research collaborations between UWO and OSE starting to focus on open source scaling - set up a path to get more of OSE work in the scientific literature so we can create more career paths of open hardware ; make a path for OSE to leverage Canadian government funding through FAST - set up OSE Canada, and plan an something like a big showcase of OSE awesomeness in the Winter term.

This would contribute to a student pipeline from Western University feeding into the OSE Apprenticeship and Fellowship programs, and is a win-win for open source acceleration towards the open source economy. This will also contribute to OSE College Tour 2025, where we visit top universities in search for open source opt-outs. Ripe territory, for example as 1 in 8 students at Western do not fit and do not finish. This means that there is a significant population of people for whom the integrated, convergent collaboration of the OSE program is potentially a good fit.

From the description:

Existential hope is a thing. Foresight Institute (https://foresight.org/technologies/fo...) is working on it. Foresight is a sensemaking, futurist, mid-course correction, appropriate technology, metacrisis, existentical hope institution. Check out discussion with Beatrice Erkers - https://www.existentialhope.com/team/.... They have a Fellowship that covers Existential Hope, and Open Source Ecology work may fit in that paradigm. Check out their library - "From Existential Angst to Existential Hope" - https://www.existentialhope.com/exist.... And "Meta-Tools for Progress" - https://www.existentialhope.com/meta-.... Definitely big picture thinking.

The OSE opinion is that social technology is more important. At a time of exploding hardware tech and retarded social tech - namely the lack of a collaborative abundance mindset - the key threat to society is not technology but humanity's incapacity to steward this technology properly. Stewarding technology properly is more of a personal development issue, less of a technology issue.

In this video, Marcin speaks with Big Skills Tiny Homes. Big Skills Tiny Homes has an education program similar to what OSE is launching for the Apprenticeships and Fellowships. They are also a Factory Build Modular Home producer and have training hubs for producing Accessory Dwelling Units .

Marcin speaks with participants about open agriculture experiments in the Global Village Construction Set and autonomous open software and open hardware add-ons for a commercial tractor. Looking towards automation of agriculture and foundation grading, and autonomous materials logistics in the framework of zero marginal cost economics. Future plans to talk to Agrilab regarding open source hydraulic tractors such as OSEs.

From the video description:

Talking to Emily Aiken ( / emilyaiken ) and Brian Blair from The Story Studio https://www.thestorystudio.com/ about getting the word out on the OSE Apprenticeship and announcing today, the OSE Fellowship - A $100k work-study grant for young people to rebuild civilization. It's a 4 year commitment to build yourself an abundance mindset.

Open Source Ecology announces apprenticeship and fellowship programs. The first cohort of Fellows begins on September 1, 2025.

From the YouTube Video Description:

Ladies and gentlemen, we are taking the next major step towards scaling the work of OSE. We are starting a 4 year program for civilization re-design/build. Forget about trade school or college - we are offering a radical, transformative alternative.

In 4 years or less - you will learn to build seed eco-homes as 24 person crew - in only 5 days from start to finish. This part will pay the bills - but the skill set you will learn is much broader. Apply today - http://bit.ly/43YMlkw

See our blog for all the ways you can build or acquire a Seed Eco-Home - (https://www.opensourceecology.org/seed-eco-home-builds/)

This announcement was posted about a month ago. Since then there are a couple other videos relevant to the apprenticeship fellowship:

• Sponsoring Students for the OSE Apprenticeship
• GI Bill Apprenticeships
• Meet an Apprenticeship Applicant - Charles

This website by Dr. Damon M. Centola with the Annenberg School for Communication has a lot of interesting information and scientific research on topics related to spreading information and creating change.

I found this somewhat recent report from RAND that highlights Costa Rican leadership in mitigating CO2 emissions. The notable thing is the artist who interpreted the data was explicitly inspired by solarpunk ideas and art.

I post this in OSE because policy is insanely important for realizing the grand vision of OSE. Even though OSE focuses on tools to empower individual or at least small-scale enterprises, many of the more compelling aspects of the OSE and solarpunk visions will be helped by the kind of long-term policies championed by Costa Rica.

Happy to link swap.

The technology is here now. This house is a boring square cracker box, which you would expect from Habitat for Humanity and a proof of concept. However, the freedom of 3-D printing allows you to make almost any shape that you can imagine that is physically possible.

Modern houses are shaped the way they are because of ease of construction and cost effectiveness, mostly.

How can we use the new freedom offered by the technology to make entirely new structures that take advantage of the freedom of form and reduced waste in construction?

I’m thinking of things like amazing windows and passive climate control structures inspired by how termites manage the climate in their mounds. Does anyone have any interesting forms or shapes they’d make?

Really it’s an amazing project and the linked resources are great at explaining what Open Source Ecology is. Thank you for introducing it.

What, specifically, is this community for? What are the parameters of the conversations you want to encourage? I suppose I’m looking for some idea of community mission statement. Is that something we can have a conversation about?

The D3D Giga is a 6x6x6 ft 3D Printer based on the D3D Universal 3D Printer.

There are a lot of videos covering the progress of this project on the YouTube Channel, including a 7 day timelapse of a build.There are also videos on creating a shredder and filament maker.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Jpysxw3Ty-wq6VEqmqCQ9s4JgBN6W15 (All 3D Printer Playlist)

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Jpysxw3Ty-5a8InkvPIbbKDx-INHo06 (Shredder Playlist)

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Jpysxw3Ty84rZumrfRvwRXFKq5uwbGq (Filament Playlist)

Photos and video are available at https://photos.app.goo.gl/bJtNmwN8T6WA5SW7

To help with this project, get started at https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Get_Involved

I noticed some updates to the open source ecology wiki for a book called The Effective Executive.

The above link takes you to a digest of 10 ideas from the book. The value of these ideas is to encourage organizations of smart people to be more effective.

As the current steward of this space, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.

I am Goldfishlaser. I volunteered as a developer during 2020 for OSE, but outside that, I am more of a fan of the project than anyone official.

As mod, I will work to ensure that every member, regardless of their background, feels comfortable and respected here. Please refrain from harassment, discrimination, or any form of toxicity.

I'll make it a priority to keep you informed about any decisions affecting the community. Your input will always be valued, and I encourage you to reach out to me with any concerns.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to drop a comment below.

If it's your first time hearing about this project, watching this TEDx talk by founder Marcin Jakubowski can help you get started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S63Cy64p2lQ

Last week, Minnesota governor Tim Walz signed an omnibus bill that includes a comprehensive right to repair law requiring manufacturers to make spare parts, repair information, and tools available to consumers and repair shops. This law builds on smaller, but still significant, wins in Colorado, Massachusetts, and New York. California could be next. "The Right to Repair" Act (S.B. 244), just passed the California Senate and is on its way to the State Assembly.

The right to repair movement has a lot of momentum. In 2022, Colorado passed a law that gave wheelchair users access to the resources they need to repair their own chairs, and the state followed that up with another targeted bill giving farmers and ranchers the right to repair agricultural equipment. Massachusetts has passed several measures around car repairs. Last year we also got the first broad consumer right to repair legislation in New York, though that bill took a big step backward at the last moment.

After a disappointing loss in California last year, we are happy to see California’s legislators revisit the issues with the new "Right to Repair" Act. The bill requires manufacturers of electronic and appliance products to provide repair manuals, replacement parts, and tools. It includes all of the same types of products covered by Minnesota’s legislation, and explicitly adds products sold to schools, businesses, and local governments outside of retail sale. This is especially important in schools, where Chromebooks have short lifespans. Combined with the Song-Beverly Act, S.B. 244 sets a specific timeline on how long manufacturers must provide access to parts, tools and documentation for repair: at least three years for products wholesale priced between $50 and $99.99, and at least seven years for products over $100. In contrast, Minnesota's bill specifies that manufacturer's don't have to sell parts after the product is off the market.

S.B. 244 is not perfect. Like Minnesota's new law, it doesn’t cover cars, farm equipment, medical devices, industrial equipment, or video game consoles. But thankfully S.B. 244 doesn't include the confusing language around cybersecurity that the Minnesota law has. Overall, it raises the bar.

Minnesota's right to repair law is the broadest yet, and will likely benefit people around the nation, especially when it comes to repair manual availability. If California passes S.B. 244 those benefits will broaden, while still leaving room for improvements in the future.

The "Right to Repair" Act is a great step forward, but we must keep fighting for the right to repair ALL of your devices, including cars, medical devices, farm equipment, and everything in between.

If you're a Californian, you can help! Please take action to support the "Right to Repair" Act today.