The OuiShare Awards focus this year on rewarding change-making initiatives, in line with the OuiShare Fest theme "Lost in Transition". As there is an ongoing online vote, we would like to introduce you our 14 nominees and specifically ask them "What is the Change?" they bring through their initiatives. Read their answers and vote for your favorite projects until May 21st!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/EBfXU-s7ir4
Get to know OSlantis!
Nominated in the Collaborative Finance category, OSlantis is a crowd-challenging platform to solve the communities most pressing problems in Open Source. Jaime Arredondo, Co-Founder and Associate of OSlantis answered our questions:
1. What got you started with your initiative?
"OSlantis started from a conversation I had with a friend on conspiracies like Planned Obsolescence, and why the industries are not creating better alternatives because it's not profitable enough. This is when I remembered the story of Challenge Prizes. Napoleon launched a Prize to find a solution to preserve the food for his troops during his military campaigns. Napoleon found a solution, and it derived in what would become the canned foods industry. Inspired by that story, I thought, well, I am not Napoleon, and I have no money. But Challenge Prizes are a powerful tool that could only be used by governments and corporations. What if enough people believe that an alternative to the status quo is necessary, why not fund a Challenge Prize with the community through Crowdfunding to create one? So I connected both ideas together to launch Open Source Challenge Prizes. We can find a solution to a broad problem, reward the creators, and share the solution in Open Source for the benefit of everyone."
2. What Change does your initiative bring?
"At OSlantis, we want to introduce a new option for communities to go ahead and launch new challenges to accelerate positive and transparent change. The sum of lots of small contributions can attract people to solve meaningful problems. All of this without needing the permission or the enormous funds of governments and corporations. Open Source Challenge Prizes can accelerate the development of initiatives that people believe in, like the circular economy. We can create alternatives to planned obsolescence, develop circular materials, modular designs, and even find new ways to accelerate reforestation. Building communities around these problems and creating solutions in Open Source is essential to speed up a bottom-up diffusion of the innovations. Any community can organize itself to ask for the change they believe in, to create abundance, sustainability, and transparency."
Would like to support OSlantis?
And join us at the OuiShare Fest 2015 for the pitchs session!