We are making progress!

We let one week go by after the meeting reported in the last post (March 24) to calm our spirits. The conflicts that arose over the legal form of SENSORICA (our enterprise) left a scar on all of us, which is felt even today.

When I considered that the time was right, I started to expand our organization by bringing in fresh blood from different open spaces. My intention was to show my two remaining partners the value of being open. Our Mosquito sensor prototype, which represents a value in it self, promising revenues down the road, our promise to fairly compensate contributions, and the empowerment that emanates from the open enterprise resonated immediately with a few talented and free minded individuals.

I made my first call within an Open Manufacturing space. Lee, a computer engineering graduate student from Texas answered almost immediately. He brought in a new dimension to SENSORICA, 3D printing for fast prototyping and as part of our manufacturing strategy. Everyone realized that the costs of our products could be reduced dramatically by allowing the customer to produce some parts locally, from our digital blueprints, giving us a better chance to compete with the big manufacturing players within the emerging markets. We also realized the possibility to involve members of the Open Manufacturing community in the design process.

I also caught the attention of Daniel, my brother, which was not as easy as you might think, for product design and 3D modeling. Daniel and I are pretty well aligned on the open philosophy, which will be helpful in the long run.

Dominic, a very experienced guy from Chicago, a product designer and a connector, with experience in medical devices also contacted me shortly after. He repeatedly expressed his appreciation for our open model and he stressed the relevance of open initiatives within the actual economical context, considering the high unemployment rates.

Recently I met Alex, a very articulate guy from L.A. developing a network for design, prototyping and manufacturing of open source scientific instruments.

Bayle from San Diego and his PieTrust group, developing a platform for reputation, contribution management, evaluation and value exchange, which I consider an essential service service for the open enterprise, is also gravitating around SENSORICA.  

Last Friday we had another general meeting with the new members which went very well. In my view, this meeting was the most productive one we ever had, showing one important advantage of being open, the ability to rapidly assemble a team of experts and to leap frog towards success, with no expenses, only based on a promise of future compensations and on a guarantee of equal rights within the enterprise.