FUTURE PROJECTS & Activities / Post-Main Event

Let’s discuss future events and projects of the OSCE e.V. here in order to maintain the post- event buzz.

So far we talked about
(by @sharmarval from Feb 29 BoSt call topic)

  • One-off event feel: how can we improve on the method we are using continuously?
  • Improving communications and documentation (easier access and clearer instructions)
  • Reflecting on the outcomes of the previous years
  • Review post-June event (Autumn 2016)
  • Pick-up conversation from Berlin meeting late 2015
  • Membership meeting: Eight-week online discussion prior to voting
  • Little but often activity (all agreed)

@BoST

Just drop your ideas here when you have them and let’s review them later together and with the community.

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Related earlier discussions

OSCE in 2025: what do we want to achieve? (October 2015)

OSCEdays Future - “Infrastructure Projects” (July 2015)

Overriding Objectives from OSCEdays READ ME 1 (June 2015)

Guidelines for future OSCEdays e.V. (October 2015)

Tie in with the next EMF Dif Festival in November - coordinate a smaller Oscedays related global workshop/ topic

This is what we discussed in the BoST call on March 28

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###collaborate with other events
@Gien brought up the Sustainable Manufacturing conference in October and that they also said if we have something they can do/share they would like to do it. @TechnicalNature told us, that EMF is also planning their next ThinkDIF and there is the possibility that we collaborate to get more practical stuff on the ground going on during the DIF. Together with what we discussed earlier with GreenFest it looks like we should really focus on to develop tools and methods to bring “OSCEdays action” to other events.

###communicate OS & CE
@Melanie_Tan shared some approaches they developed in Asia to teach Circular Economy where the concept is too new and to familiar at the same time. They do not tall about “Circular Economy” but about “repairing” “maintaining” “reuse” - practical things people can do and understand. And then they say - btw. this is CE. I think we can learn a lot from this and also the OSCEdays could tweak their communication a bit in that direction. | Anyway: An open project how to explain CE (together with OS!) in a simple way could be a very good and necessary project. There are also points speaking about this in our Future Wish List.

###support for funding
Creating more resources for local teams to get funding could be an important project. @Gien talked about http://openmoney.org/ - some kind of local alternative currency system local organizers could use. They will pilot it this year in the OSCEdays Cape Town event - maybe it is worth to include it into our work. We’ll see.

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And I want to add one more thing that was not discussed in the call.

###A search engine for REALLY Open Source CE stuff
I was thinking about what would be something really good. CE is often discussed in “Meta-Terms”. Sometimes with examples. But the examples are almost never Open Source - so I can not really learn from them, copy, adapt etc. It is often just marketing speech. If we had a list of really open stuff and would maintain it - a really good resource. This could be something interesting.

The events would be for to work with the things on the list or add to it.

We should be (anyway) really strict with the Open Source part! So many people don’t get or care for that part and weaken it right now. We have to stop this as soon as possible. When we are right then Open Source will allow us to the develop the new decentralized collaboration systems that will make a CE really possible. So we should not allow this part to be weakened. We have to communicate very strong about this. Generally I am ok with having a smaller community but getting the core right. Otherwise what is the sense of it?

But we have to come up with simpler ways for people to follow that path also. This is something to focus on. Before the whole culture develops in the wrong direction. … Somehow we have to figure this out, soon & elegantly.

Maybe a check list for a start: “When is my project really open source”.

  • have you a shared building plan/resources/documentation
  • under an open license
  • . . .

Well elaborated this is something we can throw at local projects and organizers.

Here, a list with ideas for future projects written down for an application.

Policy projects, real hardware solutions, tools for communication or educational resources are options.

It is about listening to the community.

Things I’d like to see is: a.) “How to Open Source for Circularity” – to explore with my network of friends and partners (Wevolver, Wikifab, Open!). b.) Create a list of open international standards to promote as common ground for open source circular products. c.) Continue to build the OSCE association to be truly governed by a global members base.

And here is another bit from my application

A selection of expected challenges:

(1) Money is a challenge. I am working on Open Source for Circular Economy for a long time now, and it has been practically infundable. Innovative things can be hard to fund. Now with OSCEdays I think we will manage to change this. But it will take us more time and resources to get there.

(2) Intercultural differences in global communication. The OSCEdays will be an organisation in service of a real global community, governed by a real global community. In the onboarding calls I meet people from across the globe – from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, America. Right now OSCEdays is structured in a very straight and completely open way. It was the only way to get that far with almost no resources. But cultures of collaboration are different across the globe. We will have to find something, that includes and suits different cultures.

(3) Open Source. “How to Open Source things” is the major challenge. And here is just one aspect: Open Source comes from the world of software. Software programmers are used to read and write. That is their job! But in many other areas writing is not a very well developed skill. So it is hard to get people to document. Documentation though is the key element to connect our community at the moment. We have several ideas how to overcome this (next to events and video meetings). We just need time to implement and test them.

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We definitely need a short Video introduction about how to use the forum. Too many people are scared away at first although it is so easy. A 3 min Screencast should do.