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Newsletter 09 – New Design Hacking Research Program “Modularize It!” + Licensing Open Design @Mifactori

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/ English Version Below /

DEUTSCHE VERSION

Hallo liebe Lesende,

die Dinge kommen langsam in Bewegung für den Winter und diesmal haben wir 2 interessante Neuigkeiten.

# 1 Open Design & Lizenzen bei Mifactori (MFPP)

Will man als Designer*in wirklich nachhaltig gestalten, kommt man um eine Beschäftigung mit Schutzrechten nicht herum. Allerdings haben die wenigsten Designer*innen darauf Lust. In unserem Blogpost erklären wir aber nochmal in einfacher Sprache die Grundlagen und stellen vor allem unsere neue “Lizenz” vor, mit der wir bei Mifactori unsere Design Rights (Geschmacksmuster) open machen!

LINK: https://mifactori.de/openness-mifactori-the-legal-side/

# 2 Modularize It!

Wir beginnen ein neues Programm zu Modularität! Modularität ist ein Schlüssel zu Nachhaltigkeit im Design. Auf welches modulare System sollte ich aber setzen für maximale Nachhaltigkeitswirkung? Worauf meine kreativen Energien konzentrieren? Das Programm “Modularize It” bringt Design, Wissenschaft und Hacking zusammen für gute Antworten!

Das Projekt ist als offener Förderantrag veröffentlicht, d.h. momentan gibt es nur eine Projektbeschreibung und offene Rohversionen der Schlüsselarbeitsdokumente. Jedoch kann man mit der Idee und dem Programm bereits aktiv arbeiten bzw. die Entwicklung mit voranbringen losgelöst von uns oder mit uns.

LINK: https://mifactori.de/modularize-it/

# 3 Shopping: Climate Change Survival Christmas Angels

Weihnachten rückt näher. Und auf Nachfrage produzieren wir auch dieses Jahr wieder einen Schwung der Mifactori Klimawandel-Überlebens-Weihnachtsengel. Meldet euch bei uns, wenn ihr sie für euch oder andere haben möchtet.

LINK: https://mifactori.de/engel/

OK. Soviel für heute. Bleibt dran. In den nächsten Wochen kommt der neue 2019er Schwung unserer Open-Design-Lampen gepaart mit einer ganzen Reihe von methodischen Ideen und Erkenntnissen zu Open Design!

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ENGLISH VERSION

Hello dear readers,

things start to move faster for the winter and this time we have 2 new things for you!

# 1 Open Design & Licenses at Mifactori (MFPP)

If you really want to design sustainably as a designer you can’t avoid dealing with intellectual property rights accordingly. In our post we explain the basics in simple language and present our new “license” with which we at Mifactori make our design rights open!

LINK: https://mifactori.de/openness-mifactori-the-legal-side/

# 2 Modularize It!

We published a new program on modularity  – “Modularize it”! Modularity is a key to sustainability in design. But which modular system should I use for maximum sustainability impact? The program “Modularize It” brings design, science and hacking together for good answers!

The project is published as an open funding application. This means  currently there is only project description and open raw versions of the key working documents. However, you can already work actively with the idea and the program and advance the development with us or on your own.

LINK: https://mifactori.de/modularize-it/

# 3 Shopping: Climate Change Survival Christmas Angels

Christmas is getting closer. And upon request we will again produce a couple of the Mifactori Climate Change Survival Christmas Angels this year. Contact us if you want them for you or others.

LINK: https://mifactori.de/engel/

OK. So much for today. Stay tuned. In the coming weeks the new 2019 bunch our Open Design lamps will be out coupled with explanations of new methodical ideas and insights regarding Open Design!

 

Stay tuned and sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t already.

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Lightning Talk: Hacking Modularity

Log

Link

opencircularity.info/hacking-modularity


[ o°]

 


Hi,

I am an artist, designer and activist and also educator exploring openness and other design strategies for a sustainable world of products and cities pre & post climate change. We share a lot of our stuff at the page of our Design & Activism Studio Mifactori and here on Open Circularity. But for the next 9 minutes let’s just focus on one thing: Modularity.

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Modularity & Sustainability

I am going to talk to you about modularity. Modularity is one design strategy for sustainability . It enables repair and reuse and therefor helps to reduce the production of new objects. But designers often only get half of this right. And our message to them is:

ARTICLE: Don’t invent a new modular system try to use (hack into) an existing one.

(Click on article just explain the free universal construction kit.) 

YES! Interoperability is key!

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Example 1 – Pre-Use

There are a several strategies we explore for this. One of it is PRE-USE.

→ ARTICLE: Pre-Use Introduction | Read more: Pre-Use-Collection on FlickrPre-Use Category, Pre-Use Workshop for Academics

(Explain it brief and show some images.)

Example 2 – Open Design @Mifactori

Another is our OPEN DESIGN research. We are going to publish a lot more info about this, but for many years we do this research on creating a lamp or any objects that are just made with standard parts

→ TALK/ARTICLE: The Mifactori Open Design Lamp

(scroll just quickly through the images.) 

The idea here is to really only use standard parts you can get everywhere. And thus make sure everything is interconnectable and reusable in many many different ways.

We learned a bunch from that – what this means for the whole strategy of a product  and when the new iteration is coming out we will share these insights. Some are already in the talk linked above.

Example 3 – Lego Meccano Hybrids

A very simple example: Drill holes into Lego and make it connectable with Meccano style parts.

→ POST: Lego Meccano Hybrids | Related: Lego Hookrails, PET-Palace

(scroll just quickly through the images of link 1.)

Example 4 – Circular Street Waste

Here we tried to modularize with Kids waste like furniture or plastic parts:

WORKSHOP HOW TO: Circular Street Waste | More like this: Transformers Workshop

 

M☉dularize ❙t!(Hacking Modularity with the help of Science)

BUT! Since we are here at Science Hack Day Berlin I made sure that another very interesting approach or project is published made to tickle also your scientific bones!

→ ARTICLE – M☉odularize ❙t!

DOCUMENT: Criteria to rate modular solutions Version 0.1 .PAD

(go through the article explain it briefly in the time you have left) 

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Quick Summary: The project proposes a rating system for modular solutions. The solutions are rated for example after categories like how common they are, how open, how hackable, how sustainable, how upcycling friendly and so on. The higher a solution is rated the more it can be recommended to be used in your designs.

And you can increase the rating of a system through hacking! Where to focus our energy if we want to turn the world into a lego like building system that will help us to survive climate change? 

This is about SCALE (the subject of this years SHDB).

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Work with it at SHDB!

You can work with this here at SHDB! Here are a few ideas:

  • Count the available modular solutions here in this room (or on the street outside). Rate them – maybe with your own much simpler rating system. Hack the solutions to play with the rating.
  • More serious: Take the rating system and improve it – create a Version 0.2 – and present us an example.
  • . . .

 

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Sign up to our Newsletter to get news from us!

Visit and share our pages – Mifactori, Lars Zimmermann, Open Circularity

Follow us on Social Media (we are on a lot of channels for example as @mifactori on instagram or @bricktick on twitter.)

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Link [ o°]

opencircularity.info/hacking-modularity

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(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Newsletter 08 – Two Exhibitions, Mifactori at Instagram, Talks, Workshops & an “Observatory for Open Hardware”

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/ English Version Below /

DEUTSCHE VERSION

Hallo,

der Sommer ist vorbei und alles geht wieder los! Wir haben ein aufregendes Jahr vor uns mit vielen neuen Projekten in der Pipeline. Fangen wir langsam an mit 6 Meldungen.

# 1 Mifactori ist auf Instagram

Immer wieder hat man uns gesagt, wir sollten auf Instagram sein, vor allem mit all dem visuellen Content von Mifactori. OK. Probieren wir aus. Wir sind jetzt auf Instagram. Wir posten erstmal ein paar alte Projekte und dann geht es mit neuen Sachen weiter! Folgt uns dort gern.

LINK: https://www.instagram.com/mifactori/

# 2 Neue Talks und Workshops dokumentiert

September ist Konferenzzeit und auch unser Kalender war voll. Entstanden sind dabei Dokumentationen zweier neuer Workshops und eines neuen Talks. Der Talk und einer der Workshops drehen sich um Circular & Open-Design-Fragen. Der Workshop “Klimastraße” experimentiert eine Idee zur bottom up Wandlung unserer Städte im Stile eines zellulären Automaten – von Straße zu Straße. Einiges werden wir später wieder aufgreifen. Aber wer die ersten Entwicklungsschritte sehen will, kann sich Inputs und Beschreibungen gern schon ansehen.

LINK: https://opencircularity.info/talks/

# 3 Zwei Ausstellungen

In den letzten Monaten haben wir zwei Ausstellungen realisiert. Eine davon sehr klein zum Thema Circular Design mit den Studierenden an der HBKsaar. Die andere steht in Berlin und präsentiert die Ergebnisse unsers Ökostadt-Projektes “Palast der Projekte”. Die Berliner Ausstellung läuft noch und freut sich über Besuch. Infos dazu gibt es hinterm Link:

LINK: https://mifactori.de/2-exhibitions/

# 4 OSCEdays Berlin – das Programm ist fertig !

Wie bereits angekündigt, finden auch 2019 wieder die Open Source Circular Economy Days Berlin statt. Wir organisieren das Event gemeinsam mit dem Baumhaus im Baumhaus. Das Programm fürs Event ist jetzt fertig und online publiziert und verspricht sehr sehr interessant zu werden. Wir konzentrieren uns auf die Zero-Waste-Stadt und Zero-Waste-Kieze und machen große kollaborative Sessions, deren Ergebnisse nicht für die Schublade sein werden. Wenn ihr in Berlin seid oder es hierher schafft, kommt vorbei. Wir sind zwar eigentlich schon voll, aber trotzdem kann man sich noch Tickets klicken. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

LINK: https://hackmd.io/FQBzT-YKTgqIfj4KKaChBA

# 5 OHO – Das “Open Hardware Observatory” ist online !

Ganz am Rand haben wir die Entstehung eines sehr interessanten Projektes begleitet und beraten (z.B. mit der angenommenen Namensidee). Jetzt ist es soweit! Das Open Hardware Observatory (kurz OHO) ist online! “OHO ist eine Suchmaschine für offene Hardware, offenes Design und Maker-Projekte. OHO durchsucht das Web und macht seine Inhalte für dich zugänglich.” OHO wird entwickelt von der Open-Source-Ecology-Germany-Gruppe. Sehr gut! Vielen Dank dafür.

LINK: https://en.oho.wiki/wiki/Home (Englisch) | https://de.oho.wiki/wiki/Home (Deutsch)

# 6 Open Structures ist zurück!

Das Open-Structures-Projekt ist und war immer eines der schönsten Projekte, welches wir kennen. Wir haben es mal beraten, empfehlen es oft und erwähnen es bestimmt in jedem zweiten Vortrag. Die Projekt-Seite war zuletzt down. Aber jetzt ist sie wieder da und ist vollkommen neu gestaltet! Wir haben die neue Seite und aktuelle Projektversion noch nicht ganz verstanden und es wird wohl noch dran gebaut. Aber in jedem Falle lohnt sich schonmal ein Blick.

LINK: https://openstructures.net

OK. Das war es für heute. Bleibt dran. Es wird ein hoffentlich sehr produktiver Winter, frei nach dem alten Berliner Sprichwort: “Im Winter strebste. Im Frühling werbste. Im Sommer lebste. Und eines Tages im Herbste … sterbste.”

 

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ENGLISH VERSION:

Hello,

the summer is over and everything starts again! We have an exciting year ahead of us with many new projects in the pipeline. Let’s start slow with just 6 news for you.

# 1 Mifactori is on Instagram

Again and again we were told to be on Instagram, especially with all the visual content from Mifactori. OK. Let’s try it out. We’re on Instagram now. We post some old projects first and then we go on with new stuff! Follow us there pls.

LINK: https://www.instagram.com/mifactori/

# 2 New Talks and Workshops documented

September is conference time and also our calendar was full. The result is now the documentation of two new workshops and one new talk. The talk and one of the workshops are about Circular & Open Design questions. The workshop “Klimastraße” (“Climate Street”) experiments an idea for bottom up transformation of our cities from street to street – like a cellular automat. We will pick up on some of this later. But if you want to see the first steps of development, you are welcome to have a look at the public documents:

LINK: https://opencircularity.info/talks/

# 3 Two exhibitions

In the last months we made two exhibitions. One of them very small on the topic of Circular Design with the students at the HBKsaar as part of our semester as guest professor at the university there. The other is located in Berlin and presents the results of our eco-city project “Palace of Projects”. The Berlin exhibition still stands and is looking forward to visitors! Please go if you can. Info behind this link.

LINK: https://mifactori.de/2-exhibitions/

# 4 OSCEdays Berlin – the program is online !

As already announced, the Open Source Circular Economy Days Berlin will take place again in 2019. We organize the event together with Baumhaus Berlin. The program for the event is now finished and published online and promises a very nice event. We concentrate on Zero-Waste-Cities and Districts and do big collaborative sessions with results that will be used! If you’re in Berlin or make it here, come along. We’re actually already full, but you can still click a ticket anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

LINK: https://hackmd.io/FQBzT-YKTgqIfj4KKaChBA

# 5 OHO – The “Open Hardware Observatory” is online!

From farer away we accompanied and advised (e.g. with the final name idea) the emergence of a very interesting project which is finally online: The Open Hardware Observatory (OHO) is out! “OHO is a search engine for open hardware, open design and maker projects. OHO crawls the web and makes its content accessible to you.” OHO is developed by the Open Source Ecology Germany Group. Very good! Thank you very much for that.

LINK: https://en.oho.wiki/wiki/Home (English)

# 6 Open Structures is back!

The Open Structures project is and has always been one of the most beautiful projects we know of. We have advised it once, recommend it often and certainly mention it in every second presentation. The project page was down lately. But now it’s back and it’s completely redesigned! We haven’t quite understood the new page and the new version of the project yet, and it’s obviously still under construction. But in any case it’s worth taking a look.

LINK: https://openstructures.net

OK, That’s it for today. Stay tuned. It will hopefully be a very productive winter, based on the old Berlin proverb: “In winter strived. In the spring you advertised. In summer lived. And one day in autumn … died.” (Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator)

Stay tuned and sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t already.

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“Open Source & Repair” | Podium & Discussion

Log

Podium @FIXFEST 2019, September 21st, 2019, Berlin, Host: Lars Zimmermann (Open Circularity)

Link

opencircularity.info/os-podium-fixfest/

 


 

Hello!

What are we going to discuss here?

 

Open Source or Free Hardware & Repair

 

Ok. What is Open Source Hardware?

 

From Open Source Software to Open Source Hardware …

 

The definition of open source hardware:

Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware’s source, the design from which it is made, is available in the preferred format for making modifications to it. Ideally, open source hardware uses readily-available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure, unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximize the ability of individuals to make and use hardware. Open source hardware gives people the freedom to control their technology while sharing knowledge and encouraging commerce through the open exchange of designs.


Ok. Sounds like it could help with repair. But how? Let’s see.

We have 5 inputs from people that are invested into open source hardware or open and free culture at all for a long time and made and make contributions to it. They will give us some input and share their ideas how open source relates to repair. After that we will go into an open discussion with you, answer questions and so on.

 

Inputs

7min each

Martin HäuerOpen Source Ecology Germany; DIN SPEC for Open Hardware; Link 1, Link 2

Robert Mies; TU Berlin; Research Project OPEN! & OPEN!NEXT

Hannah Perner-Wilson; Kobakant; Open Wearables & DIY

Erik Grun; Free Software Foundation Europe; Freie Software

Lars Zimmermann, Mifactori & Open Circularity, Open Circular Design

 

Discussion

Now it is your time to talk. You can make statements but also ask questions.

Potential Questions/Conversation Starters

How to license? 

How to build it? 

How to make it grow? 

What policies can it inspire? 

How can I help the movement? 

 


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We run a small but fine event on Open Source, Circular Economy and City Neighbourhoods – Open Source Circular Economy Day Berlin – October 12 & 13 2019. Drop by – and we also still have space in our program, if you want to suggest something, we are happy to hear about your idea.

 

opencircularity.info/os-podium-fixfest/

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Workshop: PreUse, or DIY Circularity For Everyone!

Workshop Log 

Link

opencircularity.info/pre-use-workshop

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SUMMER SCHOOL

.

Hi,

My name is Lars Zimmermann, I am a designer, artist and activist from Berlin. I run a studio for open circular design called → Mifactori.

In this workshop we will discuss briefly Openness as an enabler for Circularity and go deeper into one strategy of Open Circular Design called “Pre-Use” and explore it with a little practical exercise

\(●◠‿◠●)/ !  

Let’s go!

Open Source

The core of our work around circularity is to campaign for Open Source as a driver for Circular Economy.

Question 1: Who of you knows what Open Source means?

Discussion … | Definition of Open Source Software | Definition of Open Source Hardware

Question 2: Why do you think it could help us with enabling circularity?

Discussion … | What Is Open Source Circular Economy / Bold summary sentence in english version

Open Circular Design

Open Source is not just about sharing building plans under open licenses. It also is about designing things for Open Source for collaboration. Use tools, parts and methods many people can understand and access.

As designers of products we translated Open Source for us one step further to “Open Circular Design” and attached a couple of concrete design strategies to it.

→ Article “What Is Open Circular Design”

EXPLANATION
.

I am going to explain the strategies briefly. But first let’s have a look at 3 of our current prototypes.

Lamps, Stool, Table

Step 1: Briefly explain the prototypes.

Step 2: Briefly explain all strategies except Pre-Use

Pre-Use

Ok. Let’s have a look at this strategy. What I am going to show to you or talk about isn’t really that special and not new. On the contrary. And this is what makes it so good!

Let’s dive into it:

→ Pre-Use article 

EXPLANATION
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Step 1: Explanation of basic concept

Step 2: Showing Examples on Flickr | Category | @Home

Step 3: Going through the things from the article

1. Modularity | Extra-Link: „Hacking Modularity“

2. Reduce |  Extralink: „Talk: Mifactori Open Design Lamp“

3. DIY Circularity | Extra-Link: „Hacking & Wealth“

4. Circular Design Inspiration

5. Education | Extra-Links: (1) Palast der Projekte – Explain the palace & the font, (2) Modular Fashion Workshop, (3) Modular Fashion Poster, (4) Manifest: Make Nachhaltigkeitsbildung Nachhaltig! 

.

And Now: You ヽ(`Д´)ノ  !

Here is our plan. We will create a little online exhibition about sustainable circular life. Everyone of you will create one piece for the exhibition. Here is how:

“Exhibition infrastructure”

TASK 1: Go and find some fasteners – clamps, strings, nuts and bolts in your home. Make sure they are pre-use compatible so tape does not count.

TASK 2: Other than that you can use everything you can find in your home to make an infrastructure or exhibition piece. But remember: Pre-Use! Leave it intact!

“Exhibition Piece”

TASK 3: You learned a lot circularity already. Take out one thing that inspired you, if possible something practical for example a zero waste strategy. Exhibit it. As said, you can make the thing yourself using pre-use techniques or find something you already have in your home, pockets or current environment and exhibit it with pre-use exhibition infrastructure.

You have XX min for that task. After that we will come together and everyone will briefly show and explain their exhibition piece. I will take screenshots.

Collaborative Exhibition Documentation

If we have time.

I took a picture of your piece and uploaded it to this → public Pad (What Is A Pad)

Please add two or three sentences under your picture.

FINAL READING, DISCUSSION, BYE BYE

We/I have a newsletter. Sign Up for more. 

And here is our social media profiles for Mifactori and Open Circularity. Pls follow.

.

 


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PLATE VERSION

Hello,

my name is Lars Zimmermann. I am artist, designer and activist running a studio for open circular design called Mifactori, sometimes work as a teacher or professor for open design & sustainable city making. I create theory mostly on modularity, openness and circularity and organise events – for example in the past an event called “Open Source Circular Economy Days”.

And today – it is pretty early in the morning (at least for a Berlin based designer & artist 😉 ) we are going to do a little practical morning exercize. 

\(●◠‿◠●)/ !  

But I’ll start with some theory before we go into practice.

 

PreUse

What I am going to show to you or talk about isn’t really that special and not new. On the contrary. But for me it is a very inspiring way to think about modularity for circularity.

I like to use the term “PreUse” for it and I’ve written an article about it. Let’s dive into it.

→ Pre-Use article 

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Explanation
.

Step 1: Explanation of basic concept

Step 2: Showing Examples on Flickr | Category | @Home

Step 3: Going through the things from the article

1. Modularity | Extra-Link: “Hacking Modularity”

2. Reduce |  Extralink: “Talk: Mifactori Open Design Lamp”

3. DIY Circularity | Extra-Link: “Hacking & Wealth”

4. Circular Design Inspiration

5. Education | Extra-Links: (1) Palast der Projekte – Explain the palace & the font, (2) Modular Fashion Workshop, (3) Modular Fashion Poster, (4) Manifest: Make Nachhaltigkeitsbildung Nachhaltig! 

.

And Now: You ヽ(`Д´)ノ  !

OK. Here is what I planned for us to do. I brought a box full of fasteners with me. I am going to show them to you in a minute. We will use them to create an “exhibition of sustainable circular life” here in this space. You can use everything you can find here in this space as infrastructure or exhibition pieces. But remember: Pre-Use! Leave it intact!

So here are our steps:

A – Setting up the exhibition

I suggest you split into groups of 3, 4 or 5 people. You get your fasteners and you discuss what you want to exhibit. Maybe you have something cool in your pocket or you see in this space or you can build it or mimic it with your bodies … Then create exhibition infrastructure from the stuff we have here and your fasteners – a pedestal, a board… We have XX minutes time for this. 

B – Visiting the exhibition

When the exhibition is set up we’ll open it! You can go around and see what the others have built. Try to figure out what you see. Discuss it with others – not the builders. | Maybe we’ll add an explanation round in the end with the builders. Let’s see if this is necessary.

C – Cleaning Up 

When we are done with the exhibition let’s take everything apart and put it back in its place. That is an interesting experience. Most of the time at least.

D – Discussion 

When we are done cleaning up and have a couple of minutes left, let’s sit down and discuss a little bit what we have made and saw. Ask questions. Make comments, and so on.

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Questions (Conversation Starters) 

How would this look like if it was made to be an X and an Y? (Refer to something from the exhibition.) 

Modularity… Boundaries? Potentials? For Circularity & Climate Change Survival?  

DIY Circularity? What can citizens do for circular economy and design? What is their role? How to get them involved? What could activists do? 

Collection of stories. Everyone has pre-used something in their life! Tell us your example? 

*

thanks

UPDATE: Some RESULTS here on Instagram or here on Twitter

 

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We run a small but fine event on Open Source, Circular Economy and City Neighbourhoods – Open Source Circular Economy Day BerlinOctober 12 & 13 2019. Drop by – and we also still have space in our program, if you want to suggest something, we are happy to hear about your idea.

Meta

Workshop Description from the programme: 

Title If Everything was Made from Lego There Would be no
Garbage – Hacking Things Modular with Pre-use!

Description Modularity is a key to a more sustainable world of products and consumption. This workshop will introduce two interesting concepts about “modularity for sustainable circularity”. We will discuss “Pre-Use” and “Hacking Modularity”. Pre-Use means to use something for something different than it was intended for but in a way that it still works for the initially intended use afterwards. Hacking Modularity points to the idea that the majority of things around us are not modular but approaching things like a hacker can change that at least for some things. After a quick theoretical introduction to these concepts participants will build quick own statues and hacks at the conference venue using pre-use techniques.

 

Workshop: “Klima-Modell-Straße: Bürger machen Kreislaufstadt!”

Workshop-Log

Link

opencircularity.info/modellstrasse-workshop-de

Interaktion


Hi,

ich heiße Lars Zimmermann. Ich bin Künstler, Designer und Aktivist und beschäftige mich mit Circular Economy (Kreislaufwirtschaft) und Circular Design für unsere Produkte, Leben und Städte. Das mache ich z.B. mit dem Design- und Aktivismus-Studio Mifactori.

Wir treffen uns hier unter dem Titel “Zirkuläre Wirtschaft (Circular Economy), zirkuläre Stadt und zirkuläres Design”. Ich werde erst ein bisschen was zu Circular Economy und Circular Design erzählen und dann werden wir ein paar dieser Ideen auf die klimafreundliche und post-Klimawandel-Stadt beziehen und im Workshop gemeinsam erarbeiten, was wir hier machen könn(t)en – als Bürger.

 

1. Circular Economy & Design

Ausführlichere Einleitung hier

In der zirkulären Wirtschaft geht es vor allem um physische Produkte und darum wie wir sie herstellen, verbreiten und ge- oder verbrauchen. Es geht fast immer irgendwie darum “Müll” zu vermeiden und stattdessen die Ressourcen in der Wirtschaft zu halten.

Warum ist das fürs Klima relevant? Weil 40% der von uns erzeugten Klimaemissionen aus dem Konsum kommen (als ohne Essen, Mobilität, Heizen)!

POPULÄRE SPIELART: Circular Economy | Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Definition | Diagram | Diagramm Mirror 

POPULÄRE SPIELART: Cradle to Cradle

Erklärung 1 | Erklärung 2

UNSERE SPIELART: Open Source Circular Economy  & Pre- & Post-Klimawandel-Design 

Open Source Circular Economy DaysVideo OSCE | Theorie @Mifactori

Einschub: Pre- & Post-Klimawandel @Mifactori?

Wir haben lange Zeit darüber gesprochen, wie wir mit besserem Produktdesign schädliche Umweltfolgen und den Klimawandel aufhalten können. Aber selbst wenn die Ideen da sind, scheint es doch eher unwahrscheinlich, dass der Klimawandel nicht kommt. Deshalb ist gutes Design heute beides: Es hilft dabei, den Klimawandel nicht weiter voranzutreiben und zugleich hilft es dabei, ihn zu überleben, d.h. mit den enormen Herausforderungen, vor die er uns stellen wird, elegant umgehen zu können.

Circular Economy und Circular Design sind nicht zwangsläufig nachhaltig! Es gibt unter diesen Labels vieles, was einem unter Klima- und echten Nachhaltigkeitsgesichtspunkten die Fragezeichen ins Gesicht treibt. Aber es gibt auch einiges an Ideen darin, die wir für Nachhaltigkeit in unserem Klima-Sinne fruchtbar machen können! Um die geht es hier!

“BUTTER BEI DIE FISCHE” & HANDS ON: Was heißt das für Design und “Making”? Das “Baue Kreisläufe”-Poster, verfügbar in 8 Sprachen

Kostenfreier Poster Download, 9 Sprachversionen, editierbares Format Poster-Werkstatt im OSCEdays-Forum

Beispiel-Links

 

2. Zirkuläre Stadt: Ein Bottom Up Gedankenmodell

Es geht also um Umgestaltung! Aber wie machbar ist sie?

Produkte? Ja.

Produkte ändern sich schnell. Es ist zumindest vorstellbar, dass wir sie am Reißbrett neu aufsetzen und anders aus unseren Fabriken fließen lassen. Vorstellbar ja, wenn auch praktisch trotzdem eigentlich unrealistisch.

Aber Städte?

Aber Städte? Die ändern sich noch viel langsamer! Das Problem ist, dass unsere Städte heute zum allergrößten Teil nicht nachhaltig funktionieren und den Klimawandel mit vorantreiben.  Die Art wie sie gebaut sind, wie sie unser Leben strukturieren und uns dabei zu Leben beibringen, ist nicht nachhaltig! Aktuelle Städte zwingen uns meist nicht-nachhaltige-Lebens- und sogar Denkweisen auf. Aber eine Stadt kann man nicht mal eben abreißen und ersetzen! Städtebau ist enorm ressourcen-, energie- und klimaintensiv!

Städte müssen wir “hacken”!

Was machen wir also? Die Antwort (unser Vorschlag): Wir müssen Städte hacken! (Ausführlichere Erklärung mit Text und Re:publica-Vortrags-Video dazu hier).

Was heißt Hacken? Es geht um kleine Eingriffe in schon vorhandene Infrastruktur, die diese Infrastruktur damit komplett auf den Kopf stellen, zu etwas anderem werden lassen. Keine großen Bauvorhaben also.

→ Hacking Beispiele

Mit Mifactori suchen wir seit vielen Jahren immer mal wieder meist im Rahmen von Events, Förderungen oder Lehrveranstaltungen viele Hacking-Ideen zusammen und stellen die Sammlung offen zur Verfügung. Lasst uns mal ein paar davon angucken.

Beispiel-Links

Übersichtsbild aus dem City-Hacking-Mission-Statement

 

  

3. Workshop: Modellstraße!

Gut. Es gibt eine Idee, die ich mit euch gern mal diskutieren würde und an der wir hier im Workshop gemeinsam arbeiten könn(t)en. Sie ist ein bisschen verwandt zur gerade vorgestellten 50%-Campaign-Idee. Sie heißt “Modellstraße”und geht so:

Es geht um Stadtveränderung auf Straßenlevel. Also immer eine Straße tut sich zusammen. Wie in einem zellulären Automaten wandeln sich kleine Einheiten, stoßen ihre Nachbarn an, die ändern sich auch und so ändert sich langsam die ganze Stadt.

Die Idee ist, dass sich die Bewohner*innen einer Straße zusammenfinden und gemeinsam aktiv werden, um aus ihrer Straße eine Klima-Modell-Straße zu machen. Eine Straße könnte auch offiziell als „Klima-Modell-Straße“ „zertifiziert“ werden, wenn sich eine Institution findet, die das macht (Greenpeace oder ähnliches). Oder es könnte einfach dezentral ohne Institution funktionieren.

Für die Klima-Modell-Straße gibt es einen Katalog mit 100 einfachen Maßnahmen/Aktionen (oder 50 oder 25), die man machen kann in der Straße. Jede Maßnahme ist mit einer leicht nachvollziehbaren Anleitung hinterlegt und im Web verfügbar. Etwa so wie die frühere „The City Is Open Source“-City-Hacking-Seite mal aussah oder Instagram einfach aussieht.  

Maßnahmen-Katalog mit Aktionen

Eine Straße entscheidet sich, welche Maßnahmen sie davon umsetzen will. Es müssen nicht alle sein. Ein paar reichen. Stück für Stück. Aber je mehr man umsetzt, desto besser natürlich und desto mehr “Punkte” bekommt man vielleicht. So wird sie zur Klima-Modell-Straße.

Der Ablauf könnte ungefähr so aussehen:

Schritt 1: Straßenschild aufhängen, Ankündigung machen

Eine Person oder Personengruppe hängt unter das Straßenschild der Straße noch ein weiteres Straßenschild, darauf steht „Modellstraße“. Parallel werden Flyer überall verteilt und Gespräche geführt – Ziel ist eine Einladung zum Straßenparlament.

Update: Vielleicht ist “Klimastraße” der bessere Name!

Schritt 2: Das Straßenparlament

Das Straßenparlament trifft sich und wählt aus dem Katalog Maßnahmen aus, die umgesetzt werden sollen. Entscheidet gemeinsam darüber und legt sich einen Plan fest, wie das geschehen soll. Außerdem entscheidet, wie das Vorgehen weiter gestaltet sein soll: zukünftige Treffen, Arbeitswochenenden, Kommunikationswege usw.

Schritt 3: Schrittweise Umwandlung

Wenn ein Ziel erreicht ist, kann man sich das nächste vornehmen. Die Umwandlung kommt voran…

All das ist auf der Webseite immer mit guten Anleitungen und Best-Practices hinterlegt z.B. dazu „Wie berufe ich ein Straßenparlament ein?“ „Wie moderiere ich es?“ „Wie kommuniziere ich in der Straße?“

 

Fragen, Fragen, Fragen | Zum Workshop

Ok. Das ist die Idee. Sehr roh, sehr grob. Ich finde sie schön erstmal. Aber vor allem sind noch viele offene Fragen dazu zu klären! Ich möchte im Workshop diese Idee mit euch diskutieren und wenn möglich weiterentwickeln.

Vorschlag: Ihr teilt euch jetzt in 5er Gruppen. Und in eurer Gruppe entscheidet ihr euch für eine der beiden Fragen von unten, diskutiert dazu und entwickelt Antworten. Dann stellen wir uns das vor. Ich werde es dokumentieren. Und so beginnt die Entwicklung dieser Idee, die dann andernorts fortgeführt werden kann.

Frage 1: Kommunikation & Organisation

Wie kann man so etwas organisieren? Da stellen sich viele Unterfragen:

  1. Welche „Institution“ veröffentlicht den Katalog? Wie ist der Katalog legitimiert? Wer updated ihn?
  2. Wie kann man in der Straße kommunizieren? Wie berufe ich als Bewohner*in das Parlament ein? Gibt es hinterher eine Webseite, auf der Fortschritte dargestellt werden? Oder organisiert sich die Straße in einer WhatsApp-Gruppe oder etwas in der Art? Wie stellt man Fortschritte den Bewohner*innen dar und vorbeikommenden Passant*innen?
  3. Wie geht man mit Widerspruch in der Straße um? Wenn „nur“ 50% der Bewohner*innen sich für das Projekt einsetzen, aber 3 immer ihre SUVs in der Straße parken … Gibt es Streit? Ist eine „Ökodiktatur“ ein potentielles Problem? Kann man das abfedern? Oder will es gar provozieren?
  4. Welche Fragen muss man noch stellen?

Frage 2: Maßnahmen für den Katalog?

Erfindet Maßnahmen für unseren Klima-Modell-Straßen-Maßnahmen-Katalog. Welche Maßnahmen könnten das sein? Was können die Bewohner*innen einer Straße auch umsetzen? Was bringt ihnen auch frühe Erfolge, die sie motiviert halten, sich auch schwerere Aufgaben vorzunehmen?

Hier ein paar einfache Ideen: Cargo-Bike-Stellflächen markieren | Insektenfreundliche Bepflanzung oder sogar Lebensmittelanbau auf den Grünflächen | Ein Sharing-System für die Bewohner*innen der Straße | Ein Veganer*innentreff | …

OK. Wer hat Lust an Frage 1 zu arbeiten – geht bitte in diese Raumhälfte – wer hat Lust auf Frage 2 – dann in diese Raumhälfte. Dann teilt euch nochmal in kleinere Gruppen. Stifte und Zettel gibt es bei mir.

Präsentation und Dokumentation

Modellstraßen offenes PadModellstraße geschlossenes Pad (Sicherungen) 

The Mifactori Open Design Lamp | Talk

Talk-Log

Link

opencircularity.info/odl


 

Hi,

nice to see you all again. When I was asked to share a presentation on this meeting I asked myself …

 

What else can I say to you

… about Open Hardware that you don’t already know or that was not said already?

Well then I thought of something I just understood myself a couple of weeks ago. It is a tiny thing. But maybe interesting enough.

Let me start here:

 

Why isn’t Open Source Hardware more successful?

There are a couple of reasons. I am sure you have your opinions too. But I think one of them is:

 

 

 

Because we have to (re)invent the hardware designs for it

Well…

This seems an obvious answer for someone who just worked as a guest professor in design at a university (full course is also here). “If you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.” 

But hear me out.

Let’s start with another look a the Open Hardware Definition:

Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design. (…) Ideally, open source hardware uses readily-available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure, unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximize the ability of individuals to make and use hardware.

 

  Makes it easy to copy! 

Makes it easy to document! 

And these are two of the things that make open hardware so much harder compared to software. The documentation is more complex and you can’t copy hardware usually by clicking a button. So the design strategies above are an attempt to fix that.

 

 

I tell you a little story about that…

In 2015 I started to develop A LAMP.

My Goal: 

I wanted to make an open source circular lamp. A lamp that is easy to build, modular (all parts reusable for something else) and recyclable. So I picked

  • only standard Parts and
  • mostly recyclable materials. 

This was the first result in

2015

And it continued like this

Hiebo-CM-Uhcholl-rec1
Hiebo-CM-Uhcholl1-1024x768

OK (°°)

This triggered a letter exchange with the scientist Andre Wendler called:

“Open Source Circular Design ist unfassbar hässlich!”

translates to:

“Open Source Circular Design is incredibly ugly!”

It is a very interesting text that was printed in the book “Die Welt reparieren – Open Source & Selbermachen als postkapitalistische Praxis” transprict, 2016.

The book is Open Access (and available as PDF) and the original article of course still on my blog. It is worth reading I think and pretty successful. I still met surprisingly often people who know the text.

The text tackles things like:

  • The common idea that Open Source = DIY and that it is not DIY!
  • How sophisticated our industrialized world and its factories are.
  • How much do users want to get involved with their stuff?
  • How to make sustainable design?

and more.

I made progress with the lamps (I think)

I continued to search with this design principles for a lamp that is constructed like this and still beautiful.

 

2017

I got to this in 2017

Hiebo 4 Pic 2
Hiebo 4 Assembly Step 0 Pic 1

 

2018

And then to this in 2018. This bulk was called “Hypercircularity Lamps”. And there are videos for each lamp.

Mifactori Hypercircularity Lamp No5 D
Mifactori Hypercircularity Lamp No9 C1
Mifactori Hypercircularity Lamp No6 C1

 

2019

Well. And now I am here (no really good pics available yet)

DSC08063
DSC08049
DSC07873
Mifactori Open Design Lamp - Transparent Development

 

And here is what I’ve learned.

There will be an extended blogpost about this. It is already written. But other stuff is missing. You’ll find it here: https://miactori.de/open-design-lamp

Presentation Mode: Open 2 separate windows and slim them to 50% and put them next to each other. On the right this text on the left the album part with the latest lamps.

No Final Design Needed!

I alway thought that I might end up with a final design. But I never did. And I don’t need to. Classical industrial designers need to…

“Every industrial designer has basically the same problem. There might be close to infinite alternatives to the details in the design of a lamp. Just think about how many colors there are. But at some point the designer need to make a decision. Because the factories in the past still most of them today can’t produce infinite iterations of a lamp at a low price point. You have this one design and you adjust the whole production and distribution process to it to get to an incredible low price point. The key is mass production! Mass production is cheap. So get to one design and adjust the mass production process to it.

Well, but with my lamps this was not the case. Because they only consist of standard parts that are mostly already mass produced in highly efficient processes. No machines no production line has to be set up for them. It is just the question of individual combinations of standard parts. I don’t have to align a production process to an individual lamp. Only – when I sell the lamps – a packaging and marketing process.”

Like Lego ?

Somehow this is well compared with Lego. How many Lego parts are there? A lot! But it is not an infinite number. (…) Lego has a highly efficient process to mass manufacture these parts. (…) And there is a basically infinite number of things you can do with these parts. (…) And what is good way to sell these parts? It is sets of course. Lego gets down to one set – like I come down to a new and nice iteration of a lamp … But of course there is more to learn from Lego. 

. .^. .
°(◠‿◕)°

Excursus: The Lego Ecosystem

Ok. It is obvious now, that we can learn a lot from Lego and the culture that has emerged around Lego – especially since the design protection for the Lego Bricks has expired and there is a growing number of competitors bringing more and more high quality products to the market. So let’s have a quick look into the Lego Ecosystem.

  • Lego Ideas: Legos own open innovation platform
  • Lego – Digital Designer: A software to create things (and instructions?)
  • Lego Competitors: All produce compatible bricks, many add things to the system Lego does not produce for example light-bricks, bendable bricks or weapons
  • The #Lego hashtag on all kinds of platforms.
  • A huge fandom on Youtube with hundreds probably thousands of channels dedicated to Lego – from gossip to marketing to MOCs (MOC = My Own Creation) – from informative & fun to super nerdy (1)!
  • A huge realm of all kinds of start ups, kickstarters and hackers that make use of the Lego bricks in many different ways. Example: faBrickation, Example: Lego Hookrails, Example: “Lego Hacks” search term 
  • *! Bricklink! An incredible database of all Lego sets ever sold and all bricks ever produced connecting them with each other plus with resellers of individual parts. So you can “rebrick” a set and the platform generates the cheapest price by picking the cheapest offers from all resellers.
  • *! Rebrickable! People share their MOCs, often with instructions, sometimes they sell the instructions! Rebrickable is connected to Bricklink: You can order the parts with one click – for the cheapest price!
  • … What did I miss?

I think Lego is for us as ppl. interested in open hardware and its possible ecosystems a super interesting case to study! What possibilities emerge with what techniques of #documentation, #communication, #businessmaking & #design?

And what issues occur for example around licensing questions even after the core wen open? (Click Link: 1, 2, 3)

. .^. .
°(◠‿◕)°

 

OK! And now? What to do with this insights?

Ok. What do we learn from that? For my Open Design Lamp and for Open Design (on this – lower – level of complexity and even beyond) at all?

A lot! To much to fit it all in here or even understand right now. Maybe you can help? Here are a few things for the start:

 

–A– Design & Documentation: What Makes The Lamp? Recurring Solutions

The lamp is now a collection of ideas how to elegantly turn standard parts into a lamp or parts of a lamp.

  • (The hook for the bulk holder.
  • The lamp shades.
  • The ring nut as a base.
  • The knurled screw for the hinges.)

These ideas occur in many different lamps. These standard solutions are the lamp. And in my documentation I’ll focus on them. I’ll probably document them well and then refer from different lamps to this documentation of just components. And the rest is play.

So the product is not a standard product but a collection of flexible solutions to create products.

 

–B– Library Of Parts?

Would it be nice or make sense to have a library of parts – all nuts and bolts that were ever used – and have them connected to existing lamps? Like Bricklink. But for this lamp?

Not sure. Although the number of Lego parts is quite high – there is a finite number of parts. With the lamp not so much! Because with this lamp you have

  1.  all possible nuts and bolts on this planet – which is a much much higher number than Lego Parts and
  2. the design invites all kinds of scraps and other materials for example for the base.

So there is no finite library of parts. Or the effort to create such a library would be too much, to expensive = not make any sense economically!

Ok. What does this mean? A BOM makes sense for an individual lamp (set). But not for “the system”. What kind of system is it? 

 

–C– Remix Over Prior Art! Make Legal Protection Impossible! (?)

I think this is a really interesting question, idea or insight! Or problem …

If you really want to keep the design open, you should avoid brillant new and unseen solutions. Nothing where “Design Rights” could become a problem or even patents. Non registered design rights are granted automatically for the first 3 years. This i a problem you have to deal with as a designer aiming for openness, if you depend on others need to be able to securely remix it. So here is the task: Create a legally risk free situation by not being too inventive! Remix existing culture in a way that keeps it remixable.

“This is the spirit of Openness! Hack the patent system that often blocks sustainability – that is very often an enemy of sustainable climate friendly design – hack it by going around it …”

I have not thought this through entirely! But is sounds interesting. It could be a way to go around some of the problems our current legal situation with property rights creates for Open Hardware and Open Design. “Create Boring Designs!” That is exciting!

 

–D– Business Model?

Ok. How can I – or how can the Open Design & Activism Studio Mifactori make money with the lamp?

Well. Luckily in my neighborhood there is an unusual amount of little lamp shops. I plan to go there and ask them if they want to try and put my lamps on the shelf. That is easy. Let’s see, what I’ll learn from that.

But what other potential business models are there? Well, according to my own book chapter on open hardware business models: 

  • put them in online shops (next to the local shops)
  • I could try and get a deal with people that sell lamp parts or lamps – I do the marketing with my talks, further development, set development, community monitoring and so on – they sell the parts.
  • The brand “Mifactori” and “Mifactori Open Design Lamp” is protected (potentially). If established people might buy the original or pay to be allowed to use that name. (Similar to the point above)
  • Custom made work! The lamp is just advertisement for my design work and might bring me jobs – to design sustainable things, or office environments or exhibition infrastructure and so on! I am not too keen to run a selling business anyway. I enjoy to come up with new things and document them.
  • + your ideas? 

REMEMBER! The interesting thing is that no selling business has to be established here for the lamp. All these parts are already available. They have a business model! The lamp is just a communication and distribution process on top.

OK. That’s it from me. I had a couple of questions. Maybe we can have a discussion about them or something else.

 

Newsletter 07 – OSCEdays Berlin 2019! Rectangalize It & Open Funding Applications!

txt-version download

/ English Version Below /

DEUTSCHE VERSION

Hallo,

eine Event-Ankündigung, ein neues Programm und eine neue Praxis!

# 1 OSCEdays Berlin 2019

Auch in diesem Jahr gibt es wieder Open Source Circular Economy Days Berlin! Diesmal arbeiten wir mit dem Baumhaus Berlin zusammen und unser Thema ist “Zero Waste Kiez”, d.h. wir werden uns damit beschäftigen, wie offenes Wissen Nachbarschaften zirkulär machen kann. Der Call For Content ist bereits raus und auch Tickets kann man sich schon klicken. Alle Infos dazu gibt es hier:

http://www.emergentberlinfest.de/index.php/oscedays-berlin-2019/?lang=de

# 2 FFFS Solution 1: Offene Förderanträge Online!

In unserem Projekt “Fixing Funding For Sustainability” (FFFS) finden wir Stellen, an denen die Finanzierung von Nachhaltigkeit kaputt ist und schlagen jeweils Reparaturmaßnahmen vor. Der Vorschlag zur ersten Folge lässt sich grob zusammenfassen mit “Offene Förderanträge”. Und wir haben beschlossen, damit einfach anzufangen und in Zukunft unsere Ideen in offenen Förderanträgen zu publizieren und so mit potentiellen Förderern zu kommunizieren. Die Praxis ist beschrieben und gemeinsam mit einem offenen Förderformular veröffentlicht und wir laden alle ein, sie gemeinsam mit uns zu nutzen! Lasst und mit offenen Förderanträgen mehr aus dem aktuell wenigen Geld machen, welches für die Nachhaltigkeit zur Verfügung steht!

Mehr dazu hier: http://mifactori.de/offene-foerderantraege/

# 3 Rectangalize It \☐/ !

Wir haben in Kopenhagen Stykka besucht. Stykka stellt aus Plattenmaterial individualisierte Büroumgebungen her mit intelligenten automatisierten Prozessen. Dabei fällt sehr viel Platten-Restmüll an, wie man ihn auch in Fablabs z.B. findet. In diesem Posting geht es darum, Ideen zu finden, wie man diesen Restmüll vermeiden kann bzw. automatisiert intelligent damit umgehen kann: Rectangalize it \☐/!

Dabei ist das Posting der Auftakt und Beitrag eines neuen Mifactori-Programmes, indem wir offen nach modularen Lösungen mit Grundformen suchen. Im Posting gibt es außerdem Bilder der ersten Prototypen der nächsten Open Design Hypercircularity Lamps von Mifactori und sogar Vector-Dateien zum Download für eigene Experimente im Lasercutter.

Hier geht es zum Post: http://mifactori.de/rectangalize-it/

Das war es für heute. Im nächsten Newsletter wird es um Ausstellungen von Mifactori gehen und die Ergebnisse der Studierenden aus unserem Gastprofessur-Atelierprojektes an der HBKsaar “Openness Make The World Go Round”.

Stay tuned und meldet euch zum Newsletter an, falls ihr das nicht schon getan habt.

NEWSLETTER SIGN UP: http://eepurl.com/gfjH91

*

*

ENGLISH VERSION

Hello,

an event announcement, a new program and a new practice!

# 1 OSCEdays Berlin 2019

This year again we’ll have Open Source Circular Economy Days Berlin! This time we work together with Baumhaus Berlin and our topic is “Zero Waste Kiez” i.e. we will experiment and discuss how open knowledge can make neighbourhoods circular. The Call For Content is out and you can also get tickets already. You can find all information here:

http://www.emergentberlinfest.de/index.php/oscedays-berlin-2019/?lang=en

# 2 FFFS Solution 1: Open Funding Applications Online!

In our project “Fixing Funding For Sustainability” (FFFS) we find places where funding of sustainability is broken and suggest repair measures. The solution idea of the first episode can be roughly summarized as “Open Funding Applications”. And we have decided to simply start with it and to publish our ideas in open funding applications and use these posts to communicate with potential sponsors. The practice is published together with an open funding form and we invite everyone us this practice alongside us! Let’s make more out of the little money that is currently available for sustainability with *Open Funding Applications!*

More information here: http://mifactori.de/offene-foerderantraege/

# 3 Rectangalize It \☐/ !

We visited Stykka in Copenhagen. Stykka offers customised office environments produced from sheet material with intelligent automated processes. A lot of waste is created as a side effect – waste of the kind you can find in Fablabs too for example. This posting is about finding ideas on how to avoid this waste and how to handle it intelligently in an automated way: Rectangalize it \☐/!

The posting is the prelude and contribution of a new Mifactori program in which we openly search for modular solutions with basic forms. In the posting you’ll also see pictures of the first prototypes of the next Open Design Hypercircularity Lamps by Mifactori and even vector files to download for own experiments in the lasercutter.

Click here to get to the post: http://mifactori.de/rectangalize-it/

That’s it for today. The next newsletter will be about exhibitions by Mifactori and the results of the students from our guest professorship studio project at the HBKsaar “Openness Make The World Go Round”.

Stay tuned and sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t already.

NEWSLETTER SIGN UP: http://eepurl.com/gfjH91


. .^. .
°(◠‿◕)°

m(n) i f a c t o r i @opencircularity

July 25 2019

Open Circularity Newsletter SignUp: http://eepurl.com/gfjH91

txt-version download

Newsletter 01-06

Newsletters  01-06

Sign Up here

Fabricademy

Hello

 

Intro: This Talk

ANASTASIA PISTOFIDOU: Hello Lars! How are you? […] I’d like to transmit to my fabricademy students the value of open source and the fact that it is the only way if we want to change the world.  […] The course is distributed and open source, you can find all of our classes and lectures here: https://class.textile-academy.org/ […]

LARS: Sure. Let’s do it!

 

Form

This website is my presentation. I’ll scroll through it and click on links. The page is public on the web so you can click it too after or during the talk. The url is: opencircularity.info/fabricademy

For this video-streamed talk it might actually be easier if you scroll through the topic yourself … So I can disable the screen-sharing mode and you’ll have a richer experience: Slides + Face.

 

Let’s go!

 

Value Of Open Source

I think Anastasia watched with you this short 10 minute video of me explaining why Open Source is potentially the key to make a sustainable economy in a free world happen.

It’s a good introduction.

But I’d like to expand this a bit. I was thinking about how to answer Anastasias request and then I remembered that in 2014 I published a series of blogposts on Open Source Hardware & Freedom. I will go with you through these texts today.

And in the end I will talk about how to design products to work for business as open source.

But let’s start with the question: What is Open Source?

 

I. What is Open Source?

Definition of Open Source Hardware

How does this look? Some Images? 

Web Image Search for: Open Source Hardware

Web Image Search for: Open Source Furniture

Web Image Search for: Open Source Robotic

Web Image Search for: Open Source Cars

… There is almost no area where no one tries to go the Open Source road.

 

2. Open Source Hardware & Freedom

Ok. Let’s go through the 6 blogposts on Open Source Hardware & Freedom. Sometimes I will highlight ideas specifically mentioned in the post sometimes I will just talk about related ones.

 

Post 1: To Control Your Technology

Original Post

  • „Open source hardware gives people the freedom to control their technology…“ (OSHW-Definition)
  • If something is closed you can’t be sure that it is not working against you behind your back (surveillance – what is FB doing with your data? Who is Alexa talking to? What is the “smart” city really doing? …, planned obsolescence)
  • “Security through obscurity” is a problematic concept

→ If things are open is is (easier) possible to make sure they work like you want them too!

CORY DOCTOROW QUOTES:

“How do you make DRM work? Effectively to make DRM work you have to have an anti-feature in your device. Your beautiful device with the glowing apple on the front of it has to watch what you do and wait for you to do something that you are not supposed to, like install software that didn’t come from the apple store. And than some process that has been lurking in the device unbeknownst to you has to float up to the surface and say instead of “Yes Master” it has do say “I can’t let you do that Dave”.

“There is no way to fight oppression without free devices and free networks.” Cory Doctorow (Author)

Images at the end of my post:

WEAR YOUR FREEDOM 1, by Lars Zimmermann, CC-BY-4:0

WEAR YOUR FREEDOM 2, by Lars Zimmermann, CC-BY-4:0

 

Post 2: Problems With “Non-Commercial” & “Not-For-Profit”

Original Post

  • Open Source allows commercial use! For anyone.
FROM THE OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE DEFINITION

“7. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

8. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the work (including manufactured hardware) in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it must not restrict the hardware from being used in a business, or from being used in nuclear research.”

  • No discrimination of anyone! Not even weapon manufacturers. Is this really good? 
  • Well … Michel Bauwens has an idea how to do good in the world. He calls it “Commons Based Reciprocity License”. Two quotes from that text:
MICHEL BAUWENS

„Unlike for-profits, the new cooperatives must work for the common good, a requirement that must be included in their own statutes and governance documents.“

“The key rules of such licenses are: 1) the commons are open to non-commercial usage 2) the commons are open to common good institutions 3) the commons are open to for-profit enterprises who contribute to the commons. The exception introduced here is that for-profit companies that do not contribute to the commons have to pay for the use of the license.”

 

What is the problem?

  1. There is this idea that “for-profit” is the opposite of “common good”. Who decides what is “for profit”? Who decides what is the “common good?” This is super hard to define. Imagine someone saying: “Bubble gum is something that is not really needed, that creates problematic waste and is not good for the commons – it is not good! It is a useless capitalistic luxury! It should be forbidden.” True! Right? Well … maybe there is someone with a strange mandible disease who really needs bubble gum to stay healthy … “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (George Orwell, Animal Farm)
  • The last quote: “for-profit companies that do not contribute to the commons have to pay for the use of the license.”  A poor fisherman can use an open machine but he is probably to busy to produce new ideas for the commons … he has to pay! A large corporation can easily invest a couple of hundred EUR to create and share an invention. And can use all the other building plans for free after that!

→ If you introduce a binary differentiation (for profit/not for profit | common good / ‘common bad’) it will always lead to discrimination! 

→ OSHW does not decide what is good or bad in use cases or users. It creates (and distributes) opportunity. For (potentially) everyone. 

→ Therefore you might think, it is a great tool for democracy/within democracies?

 

Post 6: Ideology Of Liberalism

Original Post 

We jump here to Post No 6 which says that I learned something from Michel Bauwens: Open Source Hardware is not “ideology free” but follows the ideology of liberalism!

WIKIPEDIA ON LIBERALISM

“Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty and equality. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support civil rights, democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and free markets.” (CC-BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia)

QUOTE FROM THE ARTICLE

“According to Wikipedia Liberalism is one of the three big political ideologies, conservatism & socialism are the two others. And this means that it has an idea of freedom that is not the only one and therefore not necessarily the right or a neutral one.”

That’s what you should be aware. If you like OSHW – you are part of a certain ideology.

 

Post 3: Sustainability & Global Equality

Original Post

We have covered this to some extend already in the video above on Open Source Circular Economy. But for me this is the most interesting part so I repeat it by quoting the article on the sustainability part:

QUOTE FROM THE ARTICLE

“With public building plans things can become more long-lasting because it is easier to repair them or reuse/repurpose (hack) them or to add new features to them. Open objects tend to educate people and allow them to build deeper connections to their environment – to engage responsibly, caring and creative with the things and structures around them. If it is transparent how something was made, it becomes easier to recycle it. This means open source can provide us with the possibilities to develop step by step a zero waste economy with closed material cycles. We can design and organize our products and production processes regenerative and become more resilient.”

What says to post about global equality? Two things:

  1. If the technology is open it could help developing countries to make faster progress with catching up.
  2. And it talks about resource wars: Open Source could help to save our resources (by putting them into cycles). Therefor there would be enough for everyone and no one would have to invade other countries (by gunfire or capital) to get the resources there.
QUOTE

“Circular Economy is an economy where we don’t have to invade other countries and shoot little children to get our hands on resources. Because we use our resources in a way that there is enough for all …”

Freedoms! The post lists a lot of freedoms in the end. I just quote them here:

“Here are some freedoms that pop up in this scenario. They effect each other, yes:

* The freedom not have to buy new stuff all the time.

* The freedom that comes with living in an healthy environment.

* The freedom to be surrounded by objects that openly invite you to redesign them and that assist you with this by being an accessible regenerative resource base to solve your current needs.

* The freedom for some countries and communities to develop themselves better and faster and independently.

* The freedom not to have to live in an iron, highly-surveilled, paranoid fortress in fear of the revenge or penury of those you suppress or shot at for their resources.

* The freedom and possibility to collaborate globally in and for a sustainable economy.”

 

Post 4: Gender Balance

Original Post

The post expresses that theoretically Open Source Hardware would enable woman and other underprivileged groups to get their hands on technology because the hurdles to the knowledge and tools are lower.

Although the numbers in the Open Source Hardware Association community survey from 2012 show something different. 

But maybe this is just a matter of time? What do you think?

 

Post 5: My Space To Think & Play

Original Post

The last post explains why Open Source Hardware is for me as an artist and economist and designer a very interesting field! It brings together so many interesting questions and opportunities and is a field that isn’t really explored … There is a lot of work to do and a lot of things to discover! Many unkown things!

And it gives you the freedom to believe in and work for a better tomorrow.

I like that.

Reprise

A couple of weeks I found this. Richard Stallman is the inventor of the free software movement (which later gave birth to the open source movement). He talks a lot about freedom. And there is even a song. The free software song. Let’s hear it:

Free Software Song Lyrics:

Join us now and share the software;
You’ll be free, hackers, you’ll be free.
Join us now and share the software;
You’ll be free, hackers, you’ll be free.

Hoarders can get piles of money,
That is true, hackers, that is true.
But they cannot help their neighbors;
That’s not good, hackers, that’s not good.

When we have enough free software
At our call, hackers, at our call,
We’ll kick out those dirty licenses
Ever more, hackers, ever more.

Join us now and share the software;
You’ll be free, hackers, you’ll be free.
Join us now and share the software;
You’ll be free, hackers, you’ll be free.

 

3 Business Models (= Product Design)

(If there is still time) 

How to make business with Open Source (Hardware)?

This is very often (at least in Hardware) a question of the design of the object. You need to design something to work as an open source product business-wise. And this means you have to design it for an open ecosystem or in other words as an open platform! 

What this means is explained here in this MOOC on Business Models for Open Source (Circular) Hardware. Please watch the videos there or read the script.

But if we have time I go with you through the core of the MOOC. A tool that helps you to raise the right questions and gain the right perspectives on your product or idea. Let’s go through this slideshow explaining you the tool with the famous open source hardware project Arduino

Starts at slide 68 | Slideshow link 

Another (simpler) example

 

4. 3 → 2 → 3

Ok. And now with that (Nr 3 “Business”) in mind let’s go back to Nr 2 – The Freedom Posts. What do they say – what do they inspire to put into this canvas tool? What roles and actions and ecosystems?

  • Gender Equality
  • Control Your Technology
  • Enable Poor Countries
  • Sustainability (Circularity)

 

5. Thanks

& pls follow me for hands on, campaign and theory-stuff