Haven't seen too much coverage of the recent launch of Architecture for Humanity's new Open Architecture Network (besides the $250,000 competition they are dangling for people to sign up).
I checked out the site and was very disappointed by the end result of the "open source architecture community." The site is essentially broken down into three sections: Projects, Resources, and People. But very little of the project acts in an open manner at all.
Open Source is the free sharing of information. Therefore it would seem that open architecture would be about the sharing of arcitectural information, perhaps in the form of shared drawing files or even model files. Furthermore, an open project is about the evolution of a single, or perhaps a select few, project by multi-user contribution. Insetad, this new site offers people the opportunity to upload seemingly irrelevant projects that do not foster a dialgoue and which are only downloadable in static format (JPG, GIF, PNG, etc)
If an open source architecture project is going to happen, it cannot simply be a glorified picture album where people can rate each other's attempts at architecture. The community needs to gather around a central issue and collaborate using the power of the technology we already have access to, by sharing the information of architecture. The frustrating part about the Open Architecture Network, is they already have a common theme holding their community together. They just need to think more radically about how to collaborate on architecture.
Well, I agree, to a certain extent. You have to imagine that there are going to be limitations as to what and how much information you can share, given that there are going to be people's licenses involved.
I haven't looked at the site yet but I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am thinking that a better way of approaching the problems that this endeavor seeks to solve might be to have free-flowing information network, but not to focus on the physical manifestations of that information as much. But who knows. I imagine that this is all very new and I'm sure it will evolve to suit the needs of the community in the long term. Otherwise, it will just fade away. This is, after all, Web 2.0, and you need to change to survive.....
Yes, the problem is that we are too focused on the end product. Is it buildable? Who is responsible for it working? Who will get credit for the work done?
If the we work toward an information network, then the sharing is not about the end products, but the knowledge base that creates end products. The community would be able to develop an evolving information base that an expert user would then be able to utilize to create a built artifact.
This is all very new, and very exciting, and I don't think we should undermine the positive direction of a project like the Open Architecture Network. Especially now that it exists we have a reference point on which to improve.
Exactly. I think that it's easier to improve upon something that has already been launched than it is to make it perfect from the start. So the ideas and features of this community should evolve as the expectations of it evolve.
I'm honored to be your first post on archinect. As the logo reads, the OAN is in beta. In the coming weeks and months we will roll out a number of features including 'adapt a project' based off of the Creative Commons licensing system already in the network. There is a whole system to develop a genealogy of design ideas in the works. but it has never been done before so it is taking some hard efforts.
Actually all files are downloadable including CAD, 3D and anything related to project management. Within the project space there is timeline system that will eventually allow you to produce gant charts and timelines for team members.
Additionally we will include the ability to host and run open design competitions as well as bottom up feedback loops from offline systems. The most exciting element we are looking into is the ability to push elements of the project overview into third party sites (such as archinect or other orgs.)
Finally this is not a project of Architecture for Humanity, it was borne out of my TED Prize and some support from a number of companies.
We are 4 days old and there is alot more to come. If you are not satisfied then don't sign up and when you feel it is up to your standards then come on board. What have you got to lose, it's free.
We definitely want criticism so if you have any email me, I'm fairly easy to get ahold of.
Cheers
Cameron
NB: Flickr only had 200 members in its first week and alot of the functionality did not exist.
I joined immediately, and while I haven't spent a lot of time exploring it yet, I am very excited about the OAN and enormously optimistic about its mission.
Plus, it's one of those things (like so many in this world) that are only as successful as its users make it - so thefourth if you think it can be better, start being proactive in making it so (which is essentially what you posted in your last sentence above).
I would like to see the projects that are up much larger...as it is they are too small to discern the information on the boards. Maybe if they were double or 3 times the size and in pdf form it would be better than the small jpegs.
I joined and am looking forward to the growth of the site.
liberty bell, I hear you and I agree. These projects are only as good as the users who contribute. And I do feel I have a role in helping OAN, or other such projects, to develop into something useful and meaningful.
My biggest criticism of the project comes from the fact that OAN actually had a huge opportunity to do something radical for the open source architectural movement (if we can claim this truly exists). They have incredible people working on the project, they have incredible support from two major tech companies (Sun Microsystems and AMD) and they have a blank slate to be as creative and transformative as they want.
But the beta launch of OAN is underwhelming in functionality and may make it more difficult to achieve a truly collaborative architectural practice because it's built upon a infrastructure that does not foster collaboration, at least not in the open source sense.
Client,
"they're only making themselves obsolete" - by the fact that you did not getting a password??? Perhaps you should look for the password in your delete box, perhaps your office in Stanford, CT has a spam filter. a couple of folks have had this problem
If that does not work you can request a new password here:
If you still can't get on try using the contact button on the OAN or emailing me directly with your username.
Then again based on your comments it sounds like you are not interested in being involved in developing appropriate or innovative solutions to communities in need so therefore this might not be the site for you.
the fourth,
we already took this offline. A lot of functionality that was built out has not been turned on as we only have 4 people in the office and are also running AFH (12 projects currently under construction) As jump said, give us a couple of months then have a go. As you did your thesis on 'open source architecture' and the whole system is built on an open source platform you should volunteer to improve and develop the back end.
Jasoncross,
Check out the workspace area, you can see full size images. the site was built to be viewed my 98% of the people online and was beta tested in rural villages in Southern Africa, India and Afghanistan. the Photo size was dictated by the ability to read it within these environments.
---
There is a lot more to come and as has been said before this is early days. This was really built on a shoestring compared to most sites of this nature and will only grow with the users evolvement. More than 50% of the projects are from outside the AFH network so I'm pretty excited to see new and innovative projects that will raise the bar of building in this field.
Client,
"they're only making themselves obsolete" - by the fact that you did not getting a password??? Perhaps you should look for the password in your delete box, perhaps your office in Stanford, CT has a spam filter. a couple of folks have had this problem
If that does not work you can request a new password here:
If you still can't get on try using the contact button on the OAN or emailing me directly with your username.
Then again based on your comments it sounds like you are not interested in being involved in developing appropriate or innovative solutions to communities in need so therefore this might not be the site for you.
the fourth,
we already took this offline. A lot of functionality that was built out has not been turned on as we only have 4 people in the office and are also running AFH (12 projects currently under construction) As jump said, give us a couple of months then have a go. As you did your thesis on 'open source architecture' and the whole system is built on an open source platform you should volunteer to improve and develop the back end.
Jasoncross,
Check out the workspace area, you can see full size images. the site was built to be viewed my 98% of the people online and was beta tested in rural villages in Southern Africa, India and Afghanistan. the Photo size was dictated by the ability to read it within these environments.
---
There is a lot more to come and as has been said before this is early days. This was really built on a shoestring compared to most sites of this nature and will only grow with the users evolvement. More than 50% of the projects are from outside the AFH network so I'm pretty excited to see new and innovative projects that will raise the bar of building in this field.
hey Cameron, i am on board, and look forward to the potential of the endeavor. i get the sense that people think just because the world was created in 7 days, they think it should take less time to develop OAN. good luck and keep going.
There always has to be some random naysayer pissing in the cornflakes, doesn't there!
This is really exciting to me, not only for the actual functionality/content itself, but the people who are behind it on the development end. This sort of thing doesn't just appear on the planet working perfectly with every iota of functionality that could possibly be wanted in place and working... seems like a good start to me, and will only get better and better.
OK, so our email server has been down for two + days (thank you, Incompetence) and I've had some time to look at this more closely.
Can we talk about the Creative Commons license? I'm reading it and I'm not 100% clear on it. Also, I think this is a great effort, and the interface is quite easy to use, so well done there, but I am also curious as to what kind of audience you are most hoping to serve. Are we thinking that this will become most useful for communities trying to build in developing countries? Or this more directed towards the design community at large, in order to educate us on methods being used in these developing communities? Or both, maybe?
Just trying to get a healthy discussion going on this.....
"Then again based on your comments it sounds like you are not interested in being involved in developing appropriate or innovative solutions to communities in need so therefore this might not be the site for you. "
I've got 2 brothers who are employed by the Peace Corp and the UN who work developing solutions to communities in need
You might want to push the use of vector work for those on thinner internet connections...as vector data can easily be scaled and it usually has a smaller file size than raster graphics.
I would love to see other groups such as Simone Swans Adobe Alliance to become active in this project. Ill pass the site on to her organization.
Client,
then tell them to upload some of the ideas, solutions and failures that they've come across..
JasonCross,
Yah I am also trying to get her on board (I'm also working on Pliny Fisk @ Sergio Palleroni). There are a bunch of groups who will be uploading over the next month.
Open Architecture Network...Glorified Flickr?
Haven't seen too much coverage of the recent launch of Architecture for Humanity's new Open Architecture Network (besides the $250,000 competition they are dangling for people to sign up).
I checked out the site and was very disappointed by the end result of the "open source architecture community." The site is essentially broken down into three sections: Projects, Resources, and People. But very little of the project acts in an open manner at all.
Open Source is the free sharing of information. Therefore it would seem that open architecture would be about the sharing of arcitectural information, perhaps in the form of shared drawing files or even model files. Furthermore, an open project is about the evolution of a single, or perhaps a select few, project by multi-user contribution. Insetad, this new site offers people the opportunity to upload seemingly irrelevant projects that do not foster a dialgoue and which are only downloadable in static format (JPG, GIF, PNG, etc)
If an open source architecture project is going to happen, it cannot simply be a glorified picture album where people can rate each other's attempts at architecture. The community needs to gather around a central issue and collaborate using the power of the technology we already have access to, by sharing the information of architecture. The frustrating part about the Open Architecture Network, is they already have a common theme holding their community together. They just need to think more radically about how to collaborate on architecture.
Well, I agree, to a certain extent. You have to imagine that there are going to be limitations as to what and how much information you can share, given that there are going to be people's licenses involved.
I haven't looked at the site yet but I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am thinking that a better way of approaching the problems that this endeavor seeks to solve might be to have free-flowing information network, but not to focus on the physical manifestations of that information as much. But who knows. I imagine that this is all very new and I'm sure it will evolve to suit the needs of the community in the long term. Otherwise, it will just fade away. This is, after all, Web 2.0, and you need to change to survive.....
Yes, the problem is that we are too focused on the end product. Is it buildable? Who is responsible for it working? Who will get credit for the work done?
If the we work toward an information network, then the sharing is not about the end products, but the knowledge base that creates end products. The community would be able to develop an evolving information base that an expert user would then be able to utilize to create a built artifact.
This is all very new, and very exciting, and I don't think we should undermine the positive direction of a project like the Open Architecture Network. Especially now that it exists we have a reference point on which to improve.
Exactly. I think that it's easier to improve upon something that has already been launched than it is to make it perfect from the start. So the ideas and features of this community should evolve as the expectations of it evolve.
Hey thefourth,
I'm honored to be your first post on archinect. As the logo reads, the OAN is in beta. In the coming weeks and months we will roll out a number of features including 'adapt a project' based off of the Creative Commons licensing system already in the network. There is a whole system to develop a genealogy of design ideas in the works. but it has never been done before so it is taking some hard efforts.
Actually all files are downloadable including CAD, 3D and anything related to project management. Within the project space there is timeline system that will eventually allow you to produce gant charts and timelines for team members.
Additionally we will include the ability to host and run open design competitions as well as bottom up feedback loops from offline systems. The most exciting element we are looking into is the ability to push elements of the project overview into third party sites (such as archinect or other orgs.)
Finally this is not a project of Architecture for Humanity, it was borne out of my TED Prize and some support from a number of companies.
We are 4 days old and there is alot more to come. If you are not satisfied then don't sign up and when you feel it is up to your standards then come on board. What have you got to lose, it's free.
We definitely want criticism so if you have any email me, I'm fairly easy to get ahold of.
Cheers
Cameron
NB: Flickr only had 200 members in its first week and alot of the functionality did not exist.
Woah...you got Dean Ornish, Cameron? Score!
(I heard him speak at a wellness conference a few years ago.)
DCA, he's my landlord.
I joined immediately, and while I haven't spent a lot of time exploring it yet, I am very excited about the OAN and enormously optimistic about its mission.
Plus, it's one of those things (like so many in this world) that are only as successful as its users make it - so thefourth if you think it can be better, start being proactive in making it so (which is essentially what you posted in your last sentence above).
I think it's a great idea.
or maybe it's bullshit
I tried to register and never got a password email
-they're only making themselves obsolete
maybe it is just back-scratching
it's sad to exploit the problems of this world
so you can play "designer"
phew...links weren't working last time I checked. Turns out it was my connection.
I would like to see the projects that are up much larger...as it is they are too small to discern the information on the boards. Maybe if they were double or 3 times the size and in pdf form it would be better than the small jpegs.
I joined and am looking forward to the growth of the site.
liberty bell, I hear you and I agree. These projects are only as good as the users who contribute. And I do feel I have a role in helping OAN, or other such projects, to develop into something useful and meaningful.
My biggest criticism of the project comes from the fact that OAN actually had a huge opportunity to do something radical for the open source architectural movement (if we can claim this truly exists). They have incredible people working on the project, they have incredible support from two major tech companies (Sun Microsystems and AMD) and they have a blank slate to be as creative and transformative as they want.
But the beta launch of OAN is underwhelming in functionality and may make it more difficult to achieve a truly collaborative architectural practice because it's built upon a infrastructure that does not foster collaboration, at least not in the open source sense.
how so? what is impeding collaboration or transformation/improvement, in the open-source sense?
looks good to me as beta, and with improvements above sounds like will be a remarkable resource, not just as picture book but as organisation tool.
lets wait a year (or two) and see how it goes before deciding it is fundamentally flawed.
I think The Fourth's criticism is unwarranted. It is early days, and functionality will come with content. Commendations to Cameron and his team.
Client,
"they're only making themselves obsolete" - by the fact that you did not getting a password??? Perhaps you should look for the password in your delete box, perhaps your office in Stanford, CT has a spam filter. a couple of folks have had this problem
If that does not work you can request a new password here:
http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/user/password
If you still can't get on try using the contact button on the OAN or emailing me directly with your username.
Then again based on your comments it sounds like you are not interested in being involved in developing appropriate or innovative solutions to communities in need so therefore this might not be the site for you.
the fourth,
we already took this offline. A lot of functionality that was built out has not been turned on as we only have 4 people in the office and are also running AFH (12 projects currently under construction) As jump said, give us a couple of months then have a go. As you did your thesis on 'open source architecture' and the whole system is built on an open source platform you should volunteer to improve and develop the back end.
Jasoncross,
Check out the workspace area, you can see full size images. the site was built to be viewed my 98% of the people online and was beta tested in rural villages in Southern Africa, India and Afghanistan. the Photo size was dictated by the ability to read it within these environments.
---
There is a lot more to come and as has been said before this is early days. This was really built on a shoestring compared to most sites of this nature and will only grow with the users evolvement. More than 50% of the projects are from outside the AFH network so I'm pretty excited to see new and innovative projects that will raise the bar of building in this field.
Client,
"they're only making themselves obsolete" - by the fact that you did not getting a password??? Perhaps you should look for the password in your delete box, perhaps your office in Stanford, CT has a spam filter. a couple of folks have had this problem
If that does not work you can request a new password here:
http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/user/password
If you still can't get on try using the contact button on the OAN or emailing me directly with your username.
Then again based on your comments it sounds like you are not interested in being involved in developing appropriate or innovative solutions to communities in need so therefore this might not be the site for you.
the fourth,
we already took this offline. A lot of functionality that was built out has not been turned on as we only have 4 people in the office and are also running AFH (12 projects currently under construction) As jump said, give us a couple of months then have a go. As you did your thesis on 'open source architecture' and the whole system is built on an open source platform you should volunteer to improve and develop the back end.
Jasoncross,
Check out the workspace area, you can see full size images. the site was built to be viewed my 98% of the people online and was beta tested in rural villages in Southern Africa, India and Afghanistan. the Photo size was dictated by the ability to read it within these environments.
---
There is a lot more to come and as has been said before this is early days. This was really built on a shoestring compared to most sites of this nature and will only grow with the users evolvement. More than 50% of the projects are from outside the AFH network so I'm pretty excited to see new and innovative projects that will raise the bar of building in this field.
hey Cameron, i am on board, and look forward to the potential of the endeavor. i get the sense that people think just because the world was created in 7 days, they think it should take less time to develop OAN. good luck and keep going.
There always has to be some random naysayer pissing in the cornflakes, doesn't there!
This is really exciting to me, not only for the actual functionality/content itself, but the people who are behind it on the development end. This sort of thing doesn't just appear on the planet working perfectly with every iota of functionality that could possibly be wanted in place and working... seems like a good start to me, and will only get better and better.
OK, so our email server has been down for two + days (thank you, Incompetence) and I've had some time to look at this more closely.
Can we talk about the Creative Commons license? I'm reading it and I'm not 100% clear on it. Also, I think this is a great effort, and the interface is quite easy to use, so well done there, but I am also curious as to what kind of audience you are most hoping to serve. Are we thinking that this will become most useful for communities trying to build in developing countries? Or this more directed towards the design community at large, in order to educate us on methods being used in these developing communities? Or both, maybe?
Just trying to get a healthy discussion going on this.....
"Then again based on your comments it sounds like you are not interested in being involved in developing appropriate or innovative solutions to communities in need so therefore this might not be the site for you. "
I've got 2 brothers who are employed by the Peace Corp and the UN who work developing solutions to communities in need
like them I love
the world
just not always it's wider web
cheers
--way off on the location:)
Ok, thanks for the input - much better.
You might want to push the use of vector work for those on thinner internet connections...as vector data can easily be scaled and it usually has a smaller file size than raster graphics.
I would love to see other groups such as Simone Swans Adobe Alliance to become active in this project. Ill pass the site on to her organization.
-jason
Client,
then tell them to upload some of the ideas, solutions and failures that they've come across..
JasonCross,
Yah I am also trying to get her on board (I'm also working on Pliny Fisk @ Sergio Palleroni). There are a bunch of groups who will be uploading over the next month.
WonderK,
I'm running into a meeting but in the mean time check out http://creativecommons.org/education/architecture . Perhaps this is a 'nect feature as it is a broad topic to cover.
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