2016 OSCEdays Event Website is in development

Update Dec 27: the new design is now also on the main page


Hi everyone,

i made progress with the new website. I am done with the basic design and structure. Please have a look at it. What do you think?

Before you look: For now it is just the design. Don’t click any links. I am going to re-write the participation guide, a page about sponsorship and also a bit about the organization soon. For now it is just to decide, if this design is in general ok. So I can transfer it to the real webpage and do all the time consuming work with the details there.

Ok. here is the LINK: http://timssandbox.owiowi.net/

###Questions:

  • Do you think, we need a peoples section as we had last year. I think not, but i am not sure. When you found the webpage for the first time, did it matter, that there were faces?
  • …?

###General Info

  • I used the wordpress theme “Make”. I really like this wordpress theme and this is not the first time I use it. We used it for example also for our Open-Source-Christmas-Calendar

ping @Silvia @Jaime @cameralibre @unteem @Gien @sharmarval @TechnicalNature

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Looks good on initial scan.
Only one thing I noticed. The grey background at the very top is not very good contrast with the white lettering.

Good hint @Gien . I changed it and did some more improvements. Design wise i think it is good now: http://timssandbox.owiowi.net/

Hi all,

The design looks good, I vote for it. On your question about the people section, I would say yes, it would be good to have it, pictures and all.

Thank you, Lars, for getting it done.

Hey Guys,

Lars, the site is looking pretty good. Like the new layout.

Would suggest though that we add an email opt-in so people can leave their emails to be updated on the events evolution.

Another small tweak would be to change the color of Mission Statement (This white doesn’t contrast enough with the block of text above).

We can probably do better to simplify the text. Don’t have anything more constructive to say at the moment, but will think about it and make a proposition to simplify it.

Hopefully we can have something that conveys the message and that is freaking memorable :slight_smile:

Few notes mentioned - Section with links to the Topics/ Channels on the forum to give more of an idea of content

We should also get feedback from some people not so involved/ fresh eyes - understanding of what it is and offers

A section on network/ supporter organisation logos

FYI:

http://timjackson.org.uk/rsa-maker-summit/

UK RSA Maker Summit:

Tim Jackson joining panel discussion on “Forging an economy fit for the future“, 2 December 2015, London
A session looking at how a burgeoning maker community might help to make the transition towards a different kind of economy where individuals are more creative, our economy more prosperous and our environment more sustainable. The session is chaired by Tony Greenham; panelists also include Kate Raworth and Vinay Gupta.

This is really coincidental to what OSCE Days is about. What do you think of reaching out to RSA? Tom, our SRG member in UK has met with RSA previously. We can contact them again for OSCE Days. In fact, I think we should have our marketing brochures ready and reach out to Tim Jackson to see if he can keynote for us. I will totally understand OSCE Days! This is also in good alignment with our idea of creating a global ecoshop for maker spaces and open collectives around the planet to gain traction, mutualize our designs in a SYSTEMATIC WAY and raise funds for people in the collective so that we can begin to spread this model to many communities. In particular, I would like to spread a working model to the marginalized communities of South Africa and Africa.
I think we need a section on the website focuses on circular design education. We have a lot of makers who know Open Source but are clueless about Circular design. It’s a lot more complex for a designer to all of a sudden consider how to design circularly. We should actually make a few videos to promote some fundamental ideas:

  1. Need to educate designers on circular design methodology

  2. Draw the link between relevance of Open Source to a Circular Economy via Industrial Symbiosis example

Watching this RSA video was very insightful and I highly recommend it to everyone here!

I think this would be a great idea:

Could we:

  1. build a global ecosystem of open source circular maker spaces
  2. build a CIRCULAR crowdsourcing website for these open source maker spaces?

A lot of people on Indiegogo and Kickstarter are making junk that is not circular at all but are purely for making money yet gets lots of funding. OSCE Days can help co-create a global Open Source design ecosystem, backed by its own crowdsourcing mechanism.

SESSION 1

They comment that software is easy to upgrade but hardware isn’t. This is where a system wide circular recycling, remanufacturing supply chain would be able to handle all the products at EOL. This means taking a modular approach that all the products can follow, if possible.

Another comment: When the 3D printers, etc become more and more powerful, IP issues will emerge. If we have OS, then we don’t have to worry about this! They are talking about capitalist model but OS model is completely different.

SESSION 2: PANEL with Tim Jackson, Kate Raworth and Vinya Gupta,

Noteworthy were:

50:00 - Kate Raworth talks about developing biomimicry-based 3D printer

1:02 - Tim Jackson talks about something I thought about this morning - as soon as you go to investors for funding, you are entrapped by the system and you become part of the problem, the inequality-creating system. The investors will force you to be part of the 1% in order to succeed. They know how to game the system to become part of the 1% and for you to succeed, you need to reinforce the 1%.

1:06 - Vinay Gupta - compensation - Humans have always tried to turn knowledge into property. Model 2 - protecting against predatory capitalism Model 3 - restructure capital - DAO - Decentralized Autonomous Organization - Crowdsource funding for these structures

1:11 - Kate Raworth - When we come to work in a company that is focused on maximizing profit, it asks us to bring a little bit of yourself to work. That’s not who we are. We gift and share all the time.

1:16 - Kate Raworth - a basic income for all creators.A great idea that we have also thought about.

1:17 - Vinya Gupta - Basic income is not the solution, it distribute money but it doesn’t distribute power. We have to retell the story of work as a small activity for the privileged elite that grew out of colonialism. Are we going to fix the inequalities in the manufacturing system or will we say where all the raw materials come from is not our concern? Good points about circularity and the ethical issues bound to them.

1:24 - Kate Raworth - Govt could make all patents open source! This is in agreement with the concept of OS University.

1:25 - Tim Jackson - How do you get it to work? The film witness with Kelly McGillis and Harrison Ford. In this film, there’s a scene where Harrison Ford has escaped to an Amish community with Kelly McGillis as a witness in hiding. In this film there is a 15 minute scene about how the community builds a barn. It shows how any community can come together to build something big. These resources always exist but are a challenge to access.

@Gien interesting stuff, but I think it should go to the “News & Just Interesting Things” category in the magazine.

Hi all,

I did work with the webpage. It is not finished but public. There is still a lot of work to add but like this it can be public already.

I am going to Austria, hiking for some days, no time to do much more in the coming days.

But you can post ideas and feedbacks already here.

Happy Days to all of you,

Lars

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Hey @Lars2i,

I have taken a look at our current copy to improve it. Made an audit of other website with similar missions as ours (POC21, Ellen Macarthur, Circle-economy, Open Source Ecology…) and have tried to distill their essence to make ours much clearer and compelling.

So I have revised the headline and overall copy of our site to make it more desirable, succint and memorable :slight_smile:

You can find it here.

Let me know if you have some feedbacks or think it could still be improved.

If you and the others find it makes sense, you can adapt the website when you have some time.

@cameralibre, @unteem, @TechnicalNature, @sharmarval, @Silvia, @Gien, @djcoco

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this is great Jaime! I have a couple of small changes that I would suggest (eg ‘the new normal’ was very much part of POC21’s communication, so I would rather not use it) but overall I like it. I’ll have some time today to go into more detail.

Hey Sam,

Really glad you like it :smile:
Will think of another spin for “the new normal”.

If you have other suggestions, I’ll take a peak at it and see how we can improve it further.

Hey Jaime,
super cool work! Jeai.
Let have Sam a look at it and then implement it. :checkered_flag:

Ha, nice - just spotted some of our sponsors and partners you put in there. What would we say if Trump came knocking… ;)?

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Was wondering if someone would notice :slight_smile:

If it was Trump we would only agree if he gave us all his money and decide what to do with it in a participatory budgeting way… : P

Even if we do not have yet a code of conduct, I will refrain from making it explicit where I would tell Trump to put his money, but you can imagine…

We have a list of targeted sponsors, which we believe share our principles, this is one way to keep unwanted sponsors away. If we get an unsolicited offer for sponsorship that we do not like, we’ll just not answer or decline. In fact, we do have to be careful where the money is coming from.

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Hi,

there is another question/option for the design.

Sam suggested a shadowed structure on the edges. I was not sure about it at first, added it but when I was working with it a while I got tired of it very quickly even started to dislike it and I am convinced the clean version is much better. But what do you think:

NEW VERSION

You can see how it feels on a webpage by visiting the Sandbox.

OLD AND CLEAN VERSION

###arguments
I don’t like about the shadow thing that it triggers (in me) a paperwork/DIY/church window association. Like the OSCEdays are a happy little DIY sunday afternoon group. But that is not that important.

More importantly: It will produce permanent inconsistency in the design! Because when we have shadows here… wouldn’t we need it everywhere? On all the edges on the webpage too? In all illustrations made with the grid - the hurdle for remixing gets higher and the risk that there will be ugly outcomes. And even in the forum? Go to the page at OSCEdays.org and then click on the forum. There is consistency with the feel of colors and shapes. Everything is blank and calm. It is a consistent “CI”, safe and guiding. That will become a bit blurrier.

The Clean Designs modularity is more abstract. It allows a lot more possiblities to think about it and play with it. More “metaphysics”. While the Shadowed Version always comes with “paperwork” or “flat pieces”.

And Michi says: It is pointing to much to the modularity. Overemphasizing it. Didactical.

Sorry to make my case so strong here :rage:. if the majority likes the shadow-version I will of course live with it. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Just saying.

Look at the new thing several times before you make up your mind

Hi, I got some feedback from someone about the webpage. Sharing it here:

“Looking quickly at the main site and the Berlin site, it was difficult for
me to tell how I could attend or participate in any events, especially not
having a project myself. Also, I was wondering if you have any panels to
help people explore topics together or talks for people to share knowledge.
I know “doing” is incredibly important, too”

OK, so it’s not clear that everybody needs to join the forum, first. We can change the first paragraph under Join Us, for example:

OSCEdays is an open and distributed platform event exploring globally connected the Open Source Circular Economy. We invite you to connect and join us, organize a local event: Add your city.

Not an organizer? Add yourself to our network, engage with us in the Forum.

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