A five-week Innovation Camp focusing on open source hardware and sustainability will take place in August at Millemont Castle, just ahead of this year’s UN climate summit in Paris. Proof-of-Concept 21 organizers are looking for makers to apply to participate in the camp. They want to identify 12 of the best open source solutions to supply basic human needs of energy, housing, food, mobility, and communications.
The camp will bring together 100+ makers, designers, engineers, and scientists who will join forces in an old French castle near Paris. Using a structured innovation process over 5 weeks, the camp promises to “deliver the proof of concept that an open, collaborative, and sustainable society can be built bottom-up by regular people.”
Benjamin Tincq, one of the organizers, explained to me that POC21 wants to help improve existing projects so that they can be made accessible for many more people. “Our process will focus on product design and development,” he said. They are intentionally starting with existing projects, rather than starting from scratch at the camp. Tincq said that one outcome of the camp is creating something “like an IKEA catalog,” which he described as a “catalog of sustainability projects that anyone can do, by either buying a project kit or consulting the plans to build it themselves.”
The Call for Projects application is open through April 24, 2015.
What we are looking for:
- Open Source (Hardware) Products: We are looking in priority for open source physical products in the fields of energy, housing, food, mobility, communications, and circular economy. So either you already open sourced your hardware (and software) project or you are willing to experiment doing so during our innovation camp.
- Prototypes Over Ideas: We are NOT looking for early stage concepts, ideas, or drafts, but projects that have developed a functional prototype or beyond (unless, in very specific cases, we estimate they bring tremendous added value to the process).
- Availability For 5 Weeks: It is essential for the creative process we designed, to have stable project teams over the course of the five weeks. Therefore we ask you to stay with us for the full duration of five weeks. If for some reason this is not possible for you, please make sure to mention it to us, and we will look out for a solution.
- English As Main Language: English will be our main language during the event and every participant must be able to speak it fluently.
Here is a slideshow providing additional background on the event.
Make: is a media sponsor of POC21.
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