Can We Open-Source Hardware?

By NPR/TED Staff

Published May 16, 2012 at 8:54 PM EDT

"This is not about creating a set of toys, this is about real, life-sized equipment that a community could use to provide food, housing, energy, on the much more localized scale." — Marcin Jakubowski

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode, The Power Of Crowds.

About Marcin Jakubowski's TEDTalk

TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines that can be built cheaply from scratch. Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, Jakubowski's work enables anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. The effort is part of an overall project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village. Starting cost: $10,000. Call it a "civilization starter kit."

About Marcin Jakubowski

Marcin Jakubowski believes that the only way to achieve abundance for all is by opening the means of production. Through this, he says, "We can lead self-sustaining lives without sacrificing our standard of living."

Though he has a Ph.D. in fusion physics, Jakubowski chose a life as a farmer and social innovator. He is the founder of Open Source Ecology, which is creating the Global Village Construction Set. He's putting these ideas to the test at Factor e Farm in rural Missouri.