Funding an open-source hardware project

Description

Economic models.

Activity M3 held online on November 17 2021, 10:45 to 12:15.

With the contribution of Christophe Parot from Join Seeds.

Video

To be released.

Notes

Welcome round

• Christophe is contributing to a collabathon and working on Seeds
• Felix doctor in Switzerland with a project in Africa
• Richard in the UK involved in open-source medtechs
• Fatah coordinator at the ICRC
• Subhi CEO of an organisation in India, tuberculosis platforms with software and hardware, including facial recognition software and hardware
• Lukas develops an open-source MRI
• Shantanu, researcher in Sweden and in an NGO on young people's health, particularly on nutrition.
• Vanessa, AQH project in Kosovo to support paramedical centres
• Brice is a doctor from Cameroon, in the public health programme in Geneva.
• Emmanuel, is leading a project on air pollution in Geneva.
• Contribute to this document on www.openvillage.ch/cooperation

Finding funds

• Emmanuel - funds can be found on the material project, but also on education, awareness of open material projects and their importance.
• Subhi - two approaches than open hardware: promoting a device that may not yet be fully functional, or a health project where one component is hardware, which may be at the prototype stage and can evolve with the project funding obtained -
• Richard - are there any conditions, e.g. on the property?
• Subhi - it depends on EU donors, USAid, etc. We do not usually work with private funders who require exclusivity of intellectual property - www.zmqdev.org
• Lukas - working within a governmental institution, which also has private financial partners - there is also a challenge in finding funds for the reproduction of existing material, where for example a new context can be proposed - once the prototype is more advanced funding is easier to obtain.
• Fabio - first funds obtained from internal university funds for community development, student projects - then research funds dedicated to participatory research, or on specific themes such as membership / adherence and health promotion.
• Clement - human energy is the most important resource and there is a real need for funds to ensure the sustainability of projects beyond voluntary contributions.
• Richard - the start can be voluntary but the costs associated with a larger production of prototypes or products
• Clement - also need to have a production pipeline, a link to a manufacturing place
• Richard - defining a specific market rather than a general product which is more difficult to position - there are a number of companies that support open hardware very well, not especially in the medical field, that distribute hardware at reasonable prices e.g. https://www.seeedstudio.com , adafruit, sparkfarm
• Emmanuel - having received various funds from Geneva to develop citizen projects, and to develop collaborations with partner companies interested in using the technology, we make two variants of our fine dust collector, one for the community: the person orders the components and assembles them by himself, kidspace - or a more expensive produced and assembled version.
• Christophe - after 40 years of looking for funding, I am working on two new projects - Acorns a Basic Income to enable everyone to do what they like - the second Joinseeds a block chain economic model with 21block  producers, which requires 14,000 times less energy  resources than Ethereum - 2x a month, the SEEDS citizens are voting  to define which organisations can receive virtual currency from the community - there is a 100-page constitution which defines the rules of the community, a shorter 10-page document, and another on the economic model - we are organised by bio-regions, with a very active community on Discord, with a decentralised approach -
• Clément - How?
• You have to download the app, create an individual account and an  account for your organization, once you have that you can present your project on the Seed forum, and the citizens have two weeks to vote on the proposal, and if the proposal passes, you receive the funds. The fund is limited to 1.5 mio per organisation.

• Lukas - Worldwide ?
• Yes, it's international.
• Richard - Are there any guidelines on what is funded?
• On the app, it is possible to see the 40 passed projects, mainly for green organisations - cleanplanet has received 500,000 seeds for people who collect waste in nature, documenting this with video - another project on reforestation, with Forest without borders, if you invest 25 $ in reforestation, you will receive 2000 Seeds.
• This allows a better understanding of the challenges of crypto-currencies.
• Richard - is there an expectation that members reinvest in the community?

• Yes for example I give 4000 Seeds to the participant organizations of the Collabathon on the fight against climate change - when you ask for funding, there is 5% of the project to be paid in $ to ensure the coherence of the projects involved.
• Fabio - and Acorn?
• On the same blockchain as Seeds, the site www.acorns.fun  presents how to manage a cryptocurrency, then it's a matter of sharing 1 Acorn to another member, in order to receive 1 Acorn for each day of use, which makes it possible to obtain services and offer them to other members of the community - as for Bitcoin when  1 pizza was worth 20000 BC (in 2010 ) up to a value of 1 Bitcoin = 15000 € today because of its Mafia use - there are 7 billions Acorns available, and the model will evolve over time, it is alsoa way  to experiment with these new technologies.
• Fabio - we worked on this a few years ago, so that people who contribute to the project, by developing a game, or even sharing their data while playing, receive virtual credits. This allows for symbolic recognition, traceability, and possibly a redistribution of future funds to the various contributors.
• Clement - this creates a currency for individual contributions - for Aura, it is difficult to promise contributors to give them a patch for free, and we have been thinking about a meaningful way of recognising or rewarding contributions.
• Richard - kickstarter is an example of giving material for higher levels of contributions, which can be difficult given that it requires a focus on a finished product, and requires significant resources for the campaign, in addition to the possible expectation of contributors to have certified material - managing the application for funds is time consuming compared to developing the project itself.
• Clément - I agree, it requires a lot of investment for returns that often remain negative - we are preparing a socio-financing campaign, and one recommendation we have had is not to launch the campaign before having secured at least half of the funding from partners - this is very stressful and is not viable, we would not do it every year because it is not a healthy or comfortable way to operate - which is common to many open-source projects.
• Emmanuel - we started with a small funding or we proposed an experience sharing such as coming to the fablab, his name engraved on the material, etc - the aim was to increase our visibility - the funding was based on a doubling of the amount raised by one of the partners - the socio-financing platforms often ask for 10%, we asked for 5000 Fr and received the same amount from the industrial service of Geneva, SIG e-Plateform, a local platform open to citizens - it has however required quite a lot of effort - WeMakeIt offers a package but can give a false impression of success - my advice is to start small and go organic - we have learned that many institutions, governments, associations have 20,000 envelopes that allow them to support projects directly or not that can achieve their goals - once this is done, it is easier to reach similar organisations and at higher levels - in the form of drops
• Clement - we used HelloAsso, which does not ask for a percentage but invites donors to also make a donation to the association.
• Richard - it's important to have a presentation ready, and to be prepared to ask everyone and often to fund these open material projects - some organisations also have to spend their funds up to a certain date, with specific cycles