Revolutionizing the Future of Manufacturing using Open Source Design in the New Orleans 9th Ward

NEW ORLEANS - July 26, 2013 - PRLog -- Our School at Blair Grocery, Civic Center, and Second Line welcomes Marcin Jakubowski, TED Fellow and 2013 Rev Up Change Challenge winner, and the Open Source Ecology (OSE) Project to New Orleans as they continue their journey revolutionizing the world of activism, manufacturing, and impact. Marcin and OSE team are spending the weekend of July 27-28, 2013 in New Orleans meeting their next big milestone: 6-in-60 Design Sprint - constructing six machines in sixty days as the complete the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). GVCS is an open source, low-cost, high quality production platform built on the foundation of simple, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) fabrication, providing a core set of industrial machines required to create a self-sustained civilization with modern comforts. OSE is partnering with Our School at Blair Grocery as they construct the LifeTrac 5 tractor to be used at Blair Grocery’s gardens in the 9th ward of New Orleans. The mission of Our School at Blair Grocery is bringing urban farming education to they youth hurricane-wracked Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

Filmmaker Ian Midgley and Tom Girffing introduced Marcin Jakubowski and Nat Turner, Executive Director of Our School at Blair Grocery, while searching for two visionary projects providing impact solutions on the local and global level. Both projects are addressing critical society needs promoting a healthy, fair, open, and honest approach working within today’s commerce-first economy. The documentary The Spark covers the intersection of these two amazing projects capturing successes, failures, challenges, and opportunities of their inspiring trek.  

On Saturday, Second Line and Civic Center are hosting OSE and Our School at Blair Grocery students at the Civic Center studios in the Bywater. The teams will participate in collaborative work sessions working to improve designs of OSE machines.  Gerard Cox, founder of Second Line, works with Marcin Jakubowski through the TED Fellows program.

Later Saturday evening the teams move to Blair Grocery in the lower 9th ward where Marcin and team will speak about the OSE project and discuss how open source models are revolutionizing the future of manufacturing and production. The talk and discussions are open to the public and scheduled to begin at 5:30 pm at Blair Grocery. The design sessions will be held at Civic Center on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm. These sessions are open to the public but it is recommend media attend Saturday’s evening discussion to get comprehensive information on Our School at Blair Grocery, OSE, and open source development.  

Our School at Blair Grocery

1740 Benton St.

New Orleans, LA 70117

Civic Center

3067 N. Rampart St.

New Orleans, LA 70117

For more information with OSE and Our School at Blair Grocery please visit the following links:

opensourceecology.org/

opensourceecology.org/blog.php

thesparkfilm.com/

For more information contact

Gerard Cox

Principal, Second Line

gerard.cox@secondline.com

504-432-0993

Our School at Blair Grocery

Our School at Blair Grocery is a regional training center creating a resource-rich, safe space for youth empowerment and sustainable community development. Our School at Blair Grocery is creating a community of action where empowered youth engage in reflective practice with other actualizing effective, replicable, and scalable environmental justice based on local solutions to global challenges.

schoolatblairgrocery.blogspot.com/

Open Source Ecology

Open Source Ecology (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Crash_Course) is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been creating the Global Village Construction Set (http://opensourceecology.org/gvcs.php), an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS lowers the barriers to entry into farming (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Category:Food_and_Agriculture),building (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Category:Housing_and_construction), and manufacturing (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Category:Digital_Fabrication) and can be seen as (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Key_Features_of_the_GVCS) a life-size lego-like set of modular tools that can create entire economies (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Economic_Potential_of_Local_Building_Materials), whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, in urban redevelopment, or in the developing world.

opensourceecology.org/

Civic Center

Civic Center is a creative studio in New Orleans. Our work blends art, design, education, and writing. We believe that our public spaces should spark conversation, make the machinery of the city more accessible, and restore a sense of dignity to all. We've created print materials, digital media, and public installations for companies such as McKinsey & Company, Nokia, and Viacom, and we've worked with city governments, startups, and non-profit organizations to develop public engagement strategies that tell an organization's story.

www.civiccenter.cc

Second Line

Second Line is an impact investment venture fund and accelerator headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. Second Line invests in disruptive ideas addressing the world’s greatest economic, social, and environmental challenges. Second Line invests $100K-$1M in companies working in the areas of education, environment, energy, and social services. We accelerate market adoption applying human-centered practices to each of our ventures. We amplify return and impact applying best-in-class business practices focusing work and resources on strategy creating the most value. We support our entrepreneurs providing guidance from the world greatest thought-leaders, mentors, and coaches.

www.secondline.com