http://cesarharada.com/2008/open-sailing-platform/
A premature presentation at Future Karaoke (http://cesarharada.com/2008/futurekaraoke/).
INTRODUCTION
Immense progress have been made in collaborative software engineering, data aggregation and knowledge construction in recent years. People don't need to be in the same space, nor share same timetable, social level to accept working together toward the same interest. Paradoxically, the virtual hyper-connectivity too often replaced the physical proximity and its secular productivity and emotional welfare.
We need a physical space to host this new collaborative process, to take the best of both secular architecture and new social collaborative distributed structures. The opposition of hardware and software needs to be resolved in a more organic and intuitive fashion. The acceptance of the release of eternal-beta products, the mass-customization mentality allows us to have a more informal organization, with distributed responsibility and drives, more on voluntary and meritocratic basis. The economy of money is slowly overtaken by the economy of information and trust, in real-time fed content management systems.
The physical architecture 2.0 that I want to work on is re-configurable, plug-in and widgets ready, upgradable, scalable, eternal-beta, commentable, with distributed responsibilities and privileges... In many ways this architecture will not be identified as architecture but rather as network engineering, boat construction, biotechnology, aquaculture...
In computing the evolution of software has always been evolving faster than the evolution of hardware which always sounded like a solid rigid base. The opposition of the form and function must be resolved in the interaction: usage by non-specialists has always been more creative and experimental.
In the making of this global revolution a new mentality, culture is emerging, an ad hoc identity of the new renaissance man: curious, open, nomadic, not privately own, non national, less specialized because multi-skilled. This man needs a space to live, collaborate and travel. I want to build this mobile existence.
I am following a rather strict methodology : 1. Observation several tendencies : APIs, open-source work scheme, aggregation (data, artificial island), ecology (global warming, energy, health and security), demography, business opportunities, open entrepreneurship, politics >> 2. Observation of a lack and subsequent problems : facebook replaces friendship, outsourcing work replaces proximity productivity, the university paradigm, bipolar compatible economies (free and proprietary) >> 3. Proposed hypothesis : the Open Sailing Platform >> 4. Prototyping and tests. >> 5. Observations >> 6. Conclusions >> 7. Further experiments to come.
METHODOLOGY
STUDY
I will first study approaching projects : existing floating structures (boats, artificial islands etc ...) and hand pick relevant company profiles : Microsoft > Google > Wikipedia > Instructables : From total ownership and monopoly (Microsoft), to intelligent and progressive mixed proprietary and open resources APIs (Google), to totally open-source encyclopedical global project (Wikipedia), to a genius combination of innovation engineering business and inventors forum (Instructables). Studying company histories, infrastructures, philosophies.
INSPIRATION
Some physical inhabited spaces such as floating islands already suits calm water and floating purposes, but not oceanic navigation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_island, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uros). These natural formations have a simile-biological behavior to asexual reproduction like most living organism on earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual_reproduction).
I am very interested in distributed computing: the Argo project is a global array of 3,000 free-drifting profiling floats that measures the temperature and salinity of the upper 2000 m of the ocean (http://www-argo.ucsd.edu).
I will very soon start my own experiments in distributed computing, with an extensive interest in flexible hardware with biotechnological experiments (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_computing).
TECHNICAL
I am not completely new to the subject and I built 2 experimental tiny boats : a £10 raft of recycled materials (http://cesarharada.com/2003/rado/RADO1.HTM) and a wide-adjustable trimaran (the shape of the boat is adaptable to the conditions) for filming (http://cesarharada.com/2005/diplome/A-BATEAU/-bateau.html).
I am also very attentive to the development of similar projects : http://www.ecoboot.nl/ecoboot_new/?page_id=2
Solar transatlantic boat: http://www.transatlantic21.org
N55 modular boat: http://www.n55.dk/MANUALS/BOAT/BOAT.html
Skysails, German kite traction system: http://www.skysails.info
Anne Quemere and her kite boat: http://www.anne-quemere.com/
The ambitious Peggy Bouchet and her futuristic balloon-boat: http://www.seasailsurf.com/seasailsurf/actu/spip.php?article4312
But not only on paper, I want to I want to build the platform, test it in different weather conditions, live on it, travel with it...
This new architecture should have the following characteristics: distributive architecture, "nervous system" (life cable: http://cesarharada.com/2008/lifecable.org/), capability of "reproduction", mobility, internal real-time economies (http://liquideconomy.org).
I believe the safety of the structure is inherent to its flexibility (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflatable_boat).
Similarly flexible computing is developing rapidly (http://www.paramountzone.com/flex.htm, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060718180143.htm).
Survival technics are very inspiring too to invent a new life on the ocean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Bombard, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article546968.ece, http://www.caske2000.org/survival/survivesea.htm).
CONTEXT, SOCIAL
I think it is not necessary to develop these urges any longer: global warming and raise of sea level; scarcity of energy ressources; demographic growth and need for access to information and adapted education; political and economical alternative.
I very much believe this project has negligible interest if I am the only one involved. By it's nature this project is social, so in the process I will try to involve people in the making by documenting and enabling comments, organizing workshop, exhibition, find funds for the project, testing it with people. This project is viable only if each participant particular interest is rewarded, therefore a combination of profitable proprietary economy and volunteer based open-source organization is to be set up: I am simultaneously starting a company and a charity in the fashion of instructables + squid labs or "Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity". My ambition is not to start thinking of a massive floating structure, but rather to start with a very small unit and try to expand it, host my activities, maybe share this space with an associate in an agency type scheme, have "interns", expand the business and the platform while maybe migrating, distribute privileges and enable autonomous development of sub-units, perhaps split, expand again... One of the hardest challenge is going to manage the usage of access privileges of this architecture, becoming a type of political structure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege_%28computing%29). Many groups of people and websites had this "natural" growth strategy: http://www.schoolofeverything.com/, http://www.tinkeringschool.com/blog/, http://fab.cba.mit.edu, http://www.worldchanging.com, http://www.appropedia.org, http://designbreak.org.
The next link is a very interesting resource for engineering the space, but the OSP should never become a massive garbage-based floating leasure center, or an isolated crusoe dreamland in respect of their project: http://www.spiralislanders.com/
The diaspora phenomenon, crisis of identity associated with no fixed sense of place in a 'transient space', or psychological aspect related to the inhabitation of the Open Sailing Platform will be carefully examined in balance with the spirit of entrepreneurship and adventure.
RESSOURCES
This is clearly not an idealistic or utopian project: after thinking of the hands-on building of the structure, the ressources or business perspectives are major motivating factors (for self-funding, external-funding). Having an open collaborative business can be durable and profitable. Some archetypal ways of resource funding while doing open-business:
-providing a free tool to products that are for sell, therefore you become an intermediate (or simply carrier) and can take a % or a subscription fee... [example Pay pal describes it fee as "small": up to 3.5%, or http://www.google.com/products].
-because by releasing a product or a service you naturally acquire a status of specialist: you are the person industries will pay for customised portal to their products; in this advantageous position you can still protect your intellectual property.
-providing a pay hotline type service.
-being a learning center, hosting public events.
-receiving state, charities, NGO subventions and prizes because of a project of common interest or with revolutionary humanitarian perspective.
-parallel profit with advertising or sponsored content or mean [banners, adwords].
-off-shore hosting, [same as internet connection parsing satellites]: new spaces to conquer for ideas and business (in international waters):
http://www.katzglobal.com/hosting/offshore-hosting.html
http://www.havenco.com/
http://www.sealandnews.com/the-royal-family/
-receiving donations from users (not tax, volunteer contribution).
-estate agent, selling the land: http://www.acresales.com/listing213.htm
-aqua culture, fishing, barter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaculture
-Liquid Economy (trade) http://liquideconomy.org/
-Particpating the Open Economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_economy) with the possibility to release tax free products with very small original investment if labeled "beta" with distributed responsibilities.
-Energy production (inspired from researches on decentralized energy production): http://tinyurl.com/5sdub9
Many open-entrepreneur projects are listed here: http://www.openeur.com
Open entrepreneurship brings massively wealth of other natures than money like knowledge and experience, as the value has moved from the value of the object to the know-how; the psychological benefit of being active in the process, creative, satisfaction and honor of opening the path; owning an unquantifiable part of a collective intellectual property; business contacts, friendship and trust from pairs and users. It is difficult, but possible to quantify such wealth with alternatives units to GDP (Gross domestic product) by using HDI (Human Development Index) or even GNH (Gross National Happiness).
OVERVIEW
The whole idea is quite radical, but the challenges we are facing are even more radical. The project before being theoretical is experimental and pragmatic. The project is definitely not communist nor ultra-liberal or anarcho-capitalist but rather faces contemporary challenges not with a compact ideology but with creativity, common sense and arrays of reachable short term objectives. I believe this project will also find a good support in the department with approaching projects such as "Extreme Green Guerilla" by Michiko Nitta (http://www.myportfolio.me.uk/EGGs.htm) and the advices of Natalie Jeremijenko our visiting tutor (http://itp.nyu.edu/~rcc273/blog/?p=97). The Open Sailing platform is as much an architectural project, as much a social sciences and system engineering project. In that sense, it is an ambitious Design Interactions project.
Development and data aggregation
The official page of the dissertation, where I will publish once finished:
http://cesarharada.com/2008/open-sailing-platform/
The page to share my research with my peers (access restricted to RCA students):
http://wikki.rca.ac.uk/index.php?title=Cesar_Harada_dissertation
the blog where I add my notes:
http://www.cesarharada.com/pearls/
the social bookmarking utility to exchange with my peers:
http://del.icio.us/cesarminoruharada
contact@cesarharada.com
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