Millares is a town of 800 houses but apparently only 300 of them are used. In it’s hay-day Millares was a self sustained community growing food in the local hills, getting its water from the local fresh water springs and its income form the fabrics it produces and rabbit farms in the area. It has actually been protected against a nuclear power station being built there because there is such an abundance of fresh water springs that if kept radiation/pollution free could supply the whole of Valencia with water in the event of a crisis.
The idea is to talk to the local authorities to attain land by inspiring them with what we intend to do and then also inform and include the local people of Millares in the open source hardware projects as much as possible.
Last weekend many people involved in OSE Europe travelled from around Europe over to Millares near Valencia in Spain. Some people staying for a couple of days, other for more. But the main events and group explorations took place over the weekend of the 10th and 11th of December, and as you would expect from Spain, accompanied by some lovely sunny weather of about 15 to 20 degrees C.
There where many reasons for the trip, some being; meeting the people we have been collaborating with on the internet for the last few months, seeing Millares and the land and facilities it has to offer for open source hardware projects and helping us to get a better understanding of what and how we need to plan things to make a successful open source community.
In conclusion steps are under way to attain some land and organise a way for people that want to go to work in open source hardware in Millares can do so. This means Taking all the necessary legal steps and creating a plan that will make the project financially viable; creating and selling open source hardware kits, harvesting local bio-mass for fuel etc.
There is also a need to define a core team that will start things off in Millares and make it possible for a dynamic collaboration situation to be set-up. If you would like to be part of the core team please say so in the comments below and lets start the conversation. A dynamic situation means there will be the option for people with the skill and knowledge to go to Millares, develop and pass knowledge on about a certain technology and then be free to return home or to move on as they please. Of course also allowing people to stay in Millares too if they wish to continue collaborating with the project there but not putting them in a situation where they are required to stay to keep the project alive is the idea. People required to stay to keep the project alive would be the Core Team, plus locals if they get inspired and get involved.
For more information in what is happening please join us in conversation in the OSE Europe google group, and or the OSE Europe Forum
Will Cleaver
Do you plan to include in this project something like Wwoofing or HelpX for sharing and spreading your knowledge?
Absolutely. The more people that can get involved the better.
Good to see this online
Good to see this happen. I was not able to follow things in the last few months, but am happy that finally things are rolling. I hope there is good connectivity to enable real time collaboration!