Beta Website & Survey

Click HERE to go to the new beta version website!


Please take our SURVEY once you've checked out our website and/or our exhibit at IPRO day.

OSC Workshop

On Friday, February 22nd, OSC team members put on a workshop to connect with students at Perspectives Charter Schools and teach them about IPRO.

One of our good friends and past team members, Mikie Smit (Founder of WorldServe) came along with us.  He had a great time interacting with the 12th graders.  Here are some of his thoughts:

"Last Friday, I attended the Open Source Construction guest lecture series at Perspectives Charter Schools.  Not only did I get to attend, but I also had the opportunity to teach a small group about OSC.  Basically, I facilitated while the students worked on solving real world problems. Besides being a lot of fun working with the high schoolers, it was awesome to watch them connect with a world bigger than themselves.  We wanted to show them that they can make a difference, and that their ideas could impact people in need." 

Here are some photos from the workshop as well:

Brainstorming with OSC team member, Dave.

Reviewing information on EWB Australia.

Presenting their work.

- Gwen

Aaaand We're Back!

After taking a break between semesters we are now back in action! We have a fresh team who is excited to continue the momentum we began last fall as Open Source Construction. We also have an exciting opportunity for you to be involved at the end of this post! 

We had an extremely successful fall term from the conception of the vision of Open Source Construction to following through to the end of the semester. At the end of the semester we participated in IPRO Day, put on by IIT, and had the opportunity to present what we're doing to hundreds of individuals, leaders and world changers. We received some valuable feedback and are beginning to use that information to make improvements this semester. 

This semester's team has been actively working on several projects so far, including: developing a fully accessible website to share information to the world, working on creating a business plan for OSC to become a self sustaining organization, and continuing to gather, research, and develop ideas that can be shared to help those around the world.   

We are focusing on providing a few of our partners, RISE International and WorldServe, with solutions for their building projects. RISE International builds schools in Angola and has just finished their 147th school, providing the opportunity of learning to over 90,000 kids! WorldServe has recently worked primarily in Mexico border towns building homes for those in need. They have built 6 projects in the past 4 years since they've began.

How can we lower their construction costs so they are able to make a greater impact with the same amount of money? Are there ways that they can utilize an alternative construction technique to improve their buildings with lower costs? These are the questions we hope to answer over the course of the next few months.   

However, we know that we don't have all the answers. So we are reaching out to you to help us! You have witnessed problems. You have witnessed solutions. You bring something valuable to the table. We will be putting on several Workshops aimed at brainstorming and developing solutions for these organizations. Stay tuned as we will be sharing more details soon! 

     -Ryan Sutton | OSC Team Leader

IPRO Day Presentation

During the IPRO Day presentation we did something a little different. We started with a brief intro of what our project is about and showed our video (which will be posted later). We split in to three teams which included team members and judges. Each team had a different task. Here is a summary of the documentation and open sourcing team witnessed:

" wood and windows. how to improve. use as a regular window with light, ventilation and security. costs. looking at various solutions. Guest Judge Larry is holding a drill, looking at a pile of construction materials. Group 2 is trying to understand the problem and how to bring the materials together in a way that makes sense. creating a construction plan/instruction. testing out instruction for "fit" and do-ability. The room is alive with activity as the two teams are working independently towards their own goals. Technically, there are three groups - with us blogging about the processes taking place before our eyes. One the one side of the room, we have a team that's putting together a list of challenges and fleshing out requirements for a solution for a problem that's halfway around the globe On the other side, we have a team of people that are working towards visualizing a set of instructions that can be consumed by anybody in any area regardless of what languages they speak (or even if they can read or write). A lot of interest is brewing with a group of incoming guests as they are looking around and trying to figure out what's going on. I'm intrigued by the level of cooperation and collaboration that's developed in the last 20 minutes."

Content team trying to communicate instructions on how to build a double roof.

Constructing the double roof.

Blog team is sharing what they observed to everyone.

Brainstorming solutions for a contact in Kenya.

Concluding with questions and feedback

Contribute to Open Source Construction!

Please fill out our feedback form! Click the link

 https://docs.google.com/a/hawk.iit.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dEN5M3hiMnhhWTV3aGtqVEtEbTItVVE6MQ

Index

The Index of Materials and Tools is a list of the elements that go into a building project. The building instructions of OSC projects will include items from this list, represented in the Universal Graphics Format.


The Universal Graphics Format used by OSC is a simple, easy to understand set of images that let a reader know what materials and tools are being used in a project.




Start here to learn the symbols then tackle the methods!

Soda Can Shingles

By cutting open aluminum soda-cans, you can utilize the flat metal to replace more expensive metal roofing.