Knowledge in the hands of the people

Knowledge in the hands of the people In a meeting for the 30 years of Grupo Sofonías, a draft about the philosophy of the EcoSur Newtork was made, based in the principles of the open source code:
  • Knowledge must be available in a free manner
  • The tools to develop and apply that knowledge must be available in the local language
  • People must be able to modify and inprove that knowledge as they needed
  • Any modification or improvement to that knowledge must be returned to the community

As a result of this first draft, the EcoSur Network embraced at the begining of 2010 the license Creative Commons V.3: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

According to this license, the users of our website are free:

  • to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

  • Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  • Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
  • Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

For more information about this license, please check Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license is used by organizations like the Massachussets Institutes of Technology, MIT, the White House and the rock band Nine Inch Nails. Sponsored by the MIT, the project Science Commons seeks to help people and organizations to ease unnecesary legal and technical barriers to research and discovering.

The technologies that EcoSur Network has developed: MicroConcrete Roofing Tiles, Puzzolanic Cement, Dry Toilets, earth construction, disaster prevention... are available for all the society, all the documents about this technologies can be downloaded or requested free of charge.
No doubt, some "gadgets" are needed for this technologies to work: vibrating tables, moulds, ball mills... but the knowledge itself, the "how to", the "know-how", is available through assesments of the EcoSur Network experts.

The EcoSur Network, commited with the South-South interchange and with the knowledge sharing that this interchange produces, wants to return the knowledge to the society (through the CC license). With this precedings, The EcoSur Network makes available the technical sheet of the Dry Toilet (Otji Toilet)

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Consultants

Estuardo QuispilloEstuardo Quispillo
Constructions technician
Spanish
Expert in construction and operation of the Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln, VSBK (HVC, Horno Vertical Contínuo)
Installation, training and setup of workshops of MicroConcrete Roofing tiles

Videos

In 2005, SofoNic has started a dual education program for masons in Nicaragua, using its house-building programs as a base. Teaming up with the local technical school in Jinotepe they are graduating about ten masons every year since. Most f them have found jobs in construction or have started a business on their own. SofoNic has contracted several of them as master masons in the reconstruction programs in Haiti.