Do you know a person or organization that has mapped or wants to map manufacturing capabilities and could use some financial support to adapt or collect data? Following the use case application of the Open Know-Where standard in Round 1, we are now accepting nominations and applications for the next round of the Decentralized Manufacturing World Map Data Awards!
If you would like to submit an application or nominate someone else to apply, you can do so HERE.
In April 2021, the IOP Alliance launched the Open Know-Where (OKW) standard, a metadata standard for documenting and sharing information about the location of manufacturing facilities and capabilities globally. Round 1 of the OKW Data Awards provided the experience of applying the standard in community projects, bringing us closer to our goal of OKW as an initiative to help map manufacturing facilities and machinery for use in decentralized manufacturing.
Our objective for 2023 is to map at least 150,000 points of interest (i.e.: facilities and machinery), under the OKW initiative. This mapping, in addition to benefiting community makers in finding where to produce items, will enable us to develop a key part of the infrastructure for the distributed production of hardware: a global map of facilities, machines, and tools, based on shared open data and open APIs.
We know that there are already great datasets out there, in fact, many were used in the research leading up to the creation of the OKW standard. We also know that reworking data to align it to a standard is time-consuming. We are continuing our work with global community partners to continue populating a map, through the verification of manufacturing facilities, and investigation on how we can approach the verification of data points for machinery.
More About the Award and How to Apply
$6,000.00USD will be divided up into 3-6 one-shot financial awards ranging from $500-$2000. The award will fund time and operational costs to do one, or both, of the following:
By collecting more data to add to our growing project, we are seeking to answer questions such as:
While every mapping project and application is different, we are generally seeking the mapping of facilities by:
Facility Name and Location
GPS coordinates and post address, and contact information (email, website contact form, or phone number).
Machines available per Facility and their classification
We will provide a classification list of tags, for example: Machine; CNC; Router; Power tool; drill; Tool; Saw; etc.
List of Materials commonly used per Facility, including their specifications
Metadata for each record
The delivery format of the dataset must be CSV, SQLite, JSON, etc. The access of the database file must be continuous during the project; reports and milestones of the contents will be considered as proof of work. There is an Example SQL database on the application form.
Priority will be given to volunteer-based organizations such as: national maker networks and consortia, open science hardware groups, humanitarian agencies, and organizations located outside of the Global North. Collective teams bringing together multiple networks or organizations into a single project are also welcomed to apply.
How to Apply for the Award/Application Process
Diversity
Priority consideration will be given to projects that represent a diverse perspective and/or focus on underrepresented or marginalized groups, including but not limited to:
** Multiple applications from the same geographic location will be carefully considered to avoid overlap/oversaturation.
Organization, planning, and feasibility of project
Priority consideration will be given to applications that present a project that is well-organized and presents a manageable workload with clear output(s) included.
Clarity and alignment
Priority consideration will be given to applications that clearly outline a project that is in alignment with the Decentralized Manufacturing World Map goal(s):
Impact on Global Manufacturing Ecosystem
Applications with larger impact by potential higher number, or higher quality of data points, or focus on a traditionally underrepresented/mapped area will be given priority.
NOTE: All successful applicants/awardees will be expected to meet with the IoPA data awards support team at regular intervals over the course of the project, to be determined in agreement between awardee and the support team. This is to ensure that the necessary support is provided to project participants and that final project goals/outputs are attained in accordance with the proposed timeline.
If you have any questions about the Data Awards, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
