A More Efficient, 'Open' Manufacturing Economy

Marcin Jakubowski | Huffington Post | November 23, 2012

Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) -- an open source, collaborative project. The GVCS is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different industrial machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts. Our tools are designed to be simple, modular and last a lifetime. 

Our work is about regenerating the world around us. It's about cleaning up our own economies so we are not forced to steal from others -- by producing locally, within our own communities. - Marcin Jakubowski

We are showing the results that come from having zero competitive waste. Our approach is collaborative. Our business model is helping others replicate our enterprise. So, we freely publish online all our machine designs so that anyone can learn and replicate our technologies, development methods, even our organizational model.

As Eric Von Hippel, a leading open technology proponent, suggests, products are best designed and modified by those who actually use them, and user-centered innovation offers great advantages over the manufacturer-centric development systems that were the mainstay of the last century.

The question is not whether open or proprietary will triumph. The real question is: do we want an efficient economy?