Open Source home appliances!
If you can only fund one project this year, please put this in your short list:
design and development of open source home appliances!
The first one should be a microwave oven but “most probably the next one will be a washing machine, or maybe a fridge. The point is to extend the portfolio of open source appliances.”
The goals include:
- facilitate recycling and maintenance of products, because the knowledge of how it works and how it breaks is available for everyone (Which also helps to create employment opportunities)
- create resilience and less dependence on fossil fuel value chains, by reducing the shipping of components to what is only necessary. For instance, instead of shipping a whole container of cars, parts can be shipped so that local manufacturers assemble the product.
These are the same reasons why, during the DiDIY Project, I wrote about a modular washing machine, designed to last FIFTY YEARS:
In general, recycling, repairability and resilience are among the main advantages of Digital DIY explained in the DiDIY Manual.
Who writes this, why, and how to help
I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
I do it because YOUR civil rights and the quality of YOUR life depend every year more on how software is used AROUND you.
To this end, I have already shared more than a million words on this blog, without any paywall or user tracking, and am sharing the next million through a newsletter, also without any paywall.
The more direct support I get, the more I can continue to inform for free parents, teachers, decision makers, and everybody else who should know more stuff like this. You can support me with paid subscriptions to my newsletter, donations via PayPal (mfioretti@nexaima.net) or LiberaPay, or in any of the other ways listed here.THANKS for your support!