White House Honors Crowdfunding Champs

Yesterday, June 4, 2013 – in Washington, DC, the White House honored twelve Crowdfunding “Champions of Change.” We are excited to share with you that one of those recognized was Open Source Ecology’s founder, Marcin Jakubowski. See a video of the event here.

White House Champions of Change Program

The Champions of Change event focuses “on entrepreneurs who exemplify the promise of crowdfunding to fuel the growth of startups, small businesses, and innovative projects across the Nation,” according to the announcement released by the White House. The goal is recognize those “who are doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities.”
In Marcin’s words:

It is a great honor to be recognized for the work of Open Source Ecology – and I am glad to accept this honor on behalf of all those who contributed to this effort. Thanks to all of you who are giving your talents to a cause that will help millions of people in our community – the world.

“The Champions of Change that the White House is honoring today are using crowdfunding to create jobs for our Nation’s veterans, accelerate the deployment of solar energy, revitalize our cities, and expand the frontiers of citizen science,” said Thomas Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Crowdfunding is the 21st century equivalent of barn-raising. We can use it to help our neighbors and fellow citizens start a business, enrich our culture, and apply grassroots creativity and imagination to challenges big and small.”

Here is a press release from the White House that you can share.

Of course, here at Open Source Ecology, it’s not just funding that is crowdsourced – thanks to the participation of many supporters and dedicated True Fans. Crowd funding is what gave birth to the project after the Founder went broke trying to maintain design-for-obsolescence equipment – as described in his TED Talk. True to the crowd-supported core of the project – vision for the Global Village Construction Set is founded on the belief that people everywhere can contribute solutions to pressing challenges – by tapping the power of open source, accelerated innovation. Marcin’s specific vision for the end of this year is to demonstrate that one of the machines of the Global Village Construction Set can be designed in a single day with 250 contributors in a Design Sprint.

Video link to a YouTube of the live event, and link to Marcin’s blog post at the White House Blog – is here.