Three Friday links

1. Easily source distributable furniture
2. Open source camera
3. Printed circuit board computer aided fabrication technique already in many homes

All via Treehugger

We can always use another methodology...

Click for enlargement. via red.

This reminds me of my design process that I developed just over a year ago, during my final weeks of study:

The 5 Stages of Design:
1. Anxiety
2. Disillusionment
3. Terror
4. Hatred
5. Despair

Customer Made

A report on the customer-made phenomenon - that of opening your corporation's design process to users/customers, and 'co-creating', to use a buzz word. Not Open source per se, but a step towards collaborative, inclusivie design methodology, where the line between user and designer is non-existent.

"And from a business and innovation angle, we’d like to argue that the CUSTOMER-MADE trend, co-creating with your customers, is the most important one to watch. Not because everything has to or will be co-created in the future, but because tapping into the collective experiences, skills and ingenuity of hundreds of millions of consumers around the world is a complete departure from the inward looking, producer- versus-consumer innovation model so common to corporations around the world."

On first glance looks like a fascinating article that deserves to be read.

via Core77

OpenCDCover II

The first zero-waste design open source product is now online. Comments on the Instructable are already proving useful.

Open Source Personal Solar Vehicles

solarvehicles.org is the home of collaborative projects for building solar vehicles, but not racers. More for everyday use. If you live in a sunnier place than Glasgow perhaps.

"Practical Solar Vehicles. No pollution, no noise, no moving parts! This is a solution. This is an open-source project."

via Treehugger

Open Source Alternative Energy Engineering

"PESWiki is designed to be a work station for the world of inventors and investigators into the exciting field of alternative energy technologies that are clean, renewable, inexpensive, and practical. PESWiki focuses especially on non-conventional technologies that are not usually given air time, such as zero point energy, magnetic motors, cold fusion, gravity motors, solid state generators, and even anti-gravity, as that seems to be inextricably tied into tapping zero point energy.

The pages at PESWiki are editable by you, enabling you to participate in a collaborative effort to create the best repository of information available on these subjects on the Net, both in terms of clarity and relevance as well as depth and usefulness. The intent is not necessarily to house all the pertinent information here, as much as it is to create premier directories to such that already exist elsewhere."

Found this after following a treehugger link to the rather unbelievable Joe Cell...

Zero Footprints

Dangling String

Static: Tangible Energy Consumption

A project relevant to my current work.. a device to give visual feedback of power consumption in the home.

Beer Bottle Experiment

Beer Bottle Experiment
Originally uploaded by Spherical Roy.

Following the aftermath of a party last night: photostream on Flickr.

Google SketchUp

"Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships. And once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies."