FabLab.nl

As part of a guest lecture on supporting knowledge work in complex environments and creating circumstances for community building, I worked with a group of students ‘concept and product design’ in the last month. We used FabLab as a case. I asked the students to come up with both on- and off-line elements to help strengthen the global network of FabLab, and stimulate community forming.

Dutch FabLabs as Accelerator
The Netherlands has a large density of FabLab initiatives (3 operational labs, about 5 in various stages of development, all within 2.5 hrs driving distance). This gives us unique opportunities. Globally the FabLab network is highly fragmented. As FabLabs are started, especially if its a completely local initiative, they are focussed on bootstrapping themselves into existence, not on connecting to the outside world. The high density of labs in the Netherlands allows us however to connect people and FabLabs much more easily. First having a number of FabLabs within close vicinity allows experiments in community building basically ‘locally’, without the need to do everything at a global scale immediately. Second the high density creates an ‘acceleration room’, it is the ‘city’ in the FabLab landscape, allowing quick iterations of those different experiments in community building. Successful community building efforts can then be offered to other FabLabs worldwide, or attract attention by themselves from the wider FabLab network.

Existing Building Blocks
Of course there are already all kinds of things going on. To name a few:
The Dutch FabLabs are building a sharing platform, allowing different FabLabs to interact and share both content and user accounts easily;
FabLab Academy is being set-up, which is a collective educational programme coordinated by MIT;
There is a (almost) yearly FabLab conference, the next one coming August in Pune, India;
A number of FabLabs use a collective video-conferencing system.

Challenges
There are also challenges that will play a role when scaling up efforts to the global FabLab network:
Because FabLabs work locally, they are all firmly rooted in their own context, character and language. While this is a rich source of diversity, making global sharing of knowledge and designs more valuable, it also means there is little in terms of shared language, shared branding and iconography;
Access to enough bandwith or even internet itself is not guaranteed for each FabLab. This may imply having local copies of e.g. information, with periodical synchronization, or at the least more asynchronous communication;
FabLab challenges conventional notions of production. It brings industrial machinery in the hands of individuals. The ‘otherness’ of the concept is a source of attraction but may mean it’s actually harder to explain to others, before you have ‘proof’ of what it can mean.

Students trying out FabLab

Suggested Ideas
Most of the students handled the assignment well. What turned out to be very important is that a group of them visited the FabLab in Utrecht, Protospace, to experience first hand what a FabLab is, as well as see the machines and video conferencing equipment working. Those that visited Protospace did a whole lot better than those that didn’t. Some of the ideas that were generated:

- Global single sign-on for FabLab users;
- FabTube, video tutorials;
- FabCases, instructables;
- A credit system (valid in every FabLab, you get credit for sharing things e.g.);
- Cases, workshops etc. with local companies;
- FabTalks, TED-like talks streamed on video;
- Fab Awards, yearly awards for great FabLab projects;
- Consistent use of recognizable visual elements throughout;
- Text only version of information, or stand-alone wiki’s on a stick;
- FabLab staff presented in person on websites;
- Connecting FabLab staff worldwide on shared expertise;
- Have a person in each FabLab focussing on/stimulating sharing with the FabLab network;
- Connecting those sharing-focussed people;
- Build contacts with local companies, higher-ed institutions, schools for workshop etc;
- Fab Elections: people nominate projects. Yearly award session in different FabLab each time;
- FabBook, a yearbook with sections by each FabLab. Some page maybe a design e.g. Book can be on reading tables, and on USB-sticks;

Students generating ideas

It’s a nice mix of both on- and offline elements. For the most part they can be implemented among the Dutch FabLabs first, without making later wider roll-out difficult. Especially the book and the credit system are interesting, but when put together in the mix of other things suggested. We’ll definitely start working on these ideas after the summer.

Tot as dinsdagavond 3 december kan er op marktplaats geboden worden op de laatste CHOCOPI, bedacht en gemaakt door Hans Wisbrun in het FabLab in Amsterdam. De choco-PI op marktplaats is de allereerste die – nog in de het begin van het project – professioneel gemaakt werd, door Confiserie Manfred Spaargaren. Opbrengsten gaan naar het WereldWiskundeFonds van de Nederlandse Vereniging van Wiskundeleraren. Dat fonds ondersteunt het wiskundeonderwijs in de Derde wereld. Van de inmiddels 32 gerealiseerde FabLab’s in de wereld staan de meeste in de 3e wereld…

The first Dutch project made in a Dutch FabLab was an Arabic chocolate letter made by Bernardo in the FabLab of the El Hema exhibition in december 2007. Now, december 2008; untill the 3rd of december 23:59 YOU can bid on marktplaats for the last CHOCOPI prototyped by Hans Wisbrun in the FabLab in Amsterdam. The money will go to WWF (Wereld Wiskunde Fonds). The fund supports math education in 3rd world countries. The proces of making a chocolate letter in the form of PI has been invented and described by Hans Wisbrun on the amsterdam.fablab.nl site. Also an article was published in the Dutch magazine for math teachers called Euclides. The Dutch article speaks about the potential of FabLab’s at school. In the Netherlands in Amsterdam the NOVA College High School is prototyping a FabLab as we speak. Also a Belgian version of the article is to be published soon.


The PI-project is (almost) finished. The MIT863 2008 class came this week out with molding and casting. I like this one the best: Pott’s cutlery on the modela. Last years MIT’s class on How to make (almost) anything came out with a 3D PASTA printer? Food and Fab is a great combination if you ask me.

Op dinsdag 11 november aanstaande vormen de IJ-oevers in Amsterdam het epicentrum van bètatechniek. De Science & Technology Summit staat in het teken van jong talent, vernieuwing, ‘cutting-edge’ technologie, vooruitstrevend onderwijs, innovatief ondernemen en baanbrekende wetenschap. Aanwezig zijn toonaangevende nationale en internationale gasten uit de politiek, het bedrijfsleven, de wetenschap en het onderwijs.

Het Platform Bèta Techniek wil tijdens de Science & Technology Summit laten zien wat er de afgelopen jaren bereikt is in het onderwijs én op de arbeidsmarkt. Vele duizenden scholen (van primair en voortgezet onderwijs tot vmbo, mbo en het hoger onderwijs), kennisinstellingen en bedrijven doen mee met de programma’s van het Platform om te zorgen voor meer en kwalitatief goed opgeleide bèta’s en technici. De Summit laat zien hoe en waarom deze organisaties zo succesvol zijn en hoe ze de ingeslagen weg kunnen voortzetten om uiteindelijk in 2010 de doelstellingen van het Platform te halen: 15% meer uitstroom uit het bèta-technisch onderwijs (ten opzichte van 2000) en een betere benutting van bestaand talent in bedrijven en onderzoeksinstellingen. De laatste Summit vond plaats in 2006; zie hier voor een verslag.

De 6 (in verschillende mate) gerealiseerde FabLabs in Nederland zijn ook aanwezig. We staan op het promenade dek van de Passengers Terminal Amsterdam onder de vlag van de technocentra ons ding te doen. Met de recente publicatie van het FabLab in Euclides en de vele workshops voor docenten en leerlingen georganiseerd in het Lab in Amsterdam hosted by Waag Society, zijn we m.i. redelijk op weg naar voren.

Maar waar is ‘naar voren’? “Naar voren is naar overal”; aldus Jacques tegen zijn Meester in het boek van Samuel Beckett.

Op dat punt zijn we inmiddels aangekomen.

Dus Minister Plasterk, wat zou u willen maken met het fablab? Een creative research PPI project over de relatie tussen peer-to-peer education, p2p networks en protein protein interaction? en zullen we gewoon beginnen met uw naam op een appel?

U kunt zich hier opgeven voor een bezoek aan de Summit 2008. U vindt het FabLab in terminal 1 van de PTA op het promenadedek.

After the workshop last week Friday on experimenting with Lego Mindstorms and Arduino open source hardware, I returned to the ProtoSpace FabLab in Utrecht today. This time around it was all about learning to work with the machines the FabLab is equipped with: a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter, a milling machine and a full colour 3D printer. 

The impressive bit of FabLab is not the fact that the type of machines it offers exist. The impressive part is that you can get these machines to do your bidding by feeding it things as simple as PDF files. You create your model or drawing and then basically hit the print button, select ‘laser cutter’ instead of your regular ink jet printer, and watch the machine get to work.

We played with the 3D full colour printer, which is very impressive.
In the 5 minute video below I documented the whole process. From the example object, to making 7 smaller copies of it. 3D printing is time consuming, but you can do amazing things with it.

Siert and I created a card board casing for Arduino boards to prevent it from short-circuiting because of the surface it is lying on. For the first version I simply drew a first sketch in Neooffice (the Mac version of Open Office), in a text document. I then imported that text document as PDF into Corel Draw on one of the PCs in the FabLab and hit the print button. The lasercutter cut a piece of card board according to my sketch, which assembled resulted in the first version of our Arduino holder.


Version 1.0 of Arduino board holder

Then Sierts education as an engineer kicked in and he adapted the design into version 2.0. Again hitting Print resulted in a handful of pieces of cardboard coming out of the lasercutter that fitted snugly together. Who would have guessed I could be so pleased with a few bits of card board?


Version 2.0 of the Arduino holder

The video below shows another run with the laser cutter for a different item (part of a 3D game board)



Last week as well as today I made a point of showing the other participants how easy it is to share pictures and video of what you are doing while you are doing it. To help lower the threshold for them to start sharing their FabLab work as well.

(crossposted from my blog at Interdependent Thoughts)

FabLab Amsterdam zoekt een trainee:

From november 1, 2008, we are looking for a trainee for the fablab in Amsterdam for a period of 3 months. Are you a creative mind studying in the design field and always wanted to know more about digital fabrication? At Waag Societys Fablab, you can get your hands on and learn how to make (almost) anything with our digital production machines. As an example, have a look at our fab moments all done in our lab, using a laser cutter, a cnc milling machine or a vinyl cutter. If you are interested, send a mail with your motivation and CV to Alex Schaub the labmanager – alex (at) waag.org- or call us monday – thursday in the lab 020 7884419

We have 2 Dutch participants joining the How to make (almost) Anything! course at MIT’s FabLab with Neil Gershenfield. Follow Alex Schaub’s results here. And follow Nadya Peek’s results here. Alex is labmanager at FabLab Amsterdam; he’s following the course remotely via videoconferencing, a pilotrun of the FabAcademy. Nadya Peek is a former Mediamatic employee and was involved in the first Dutch pilot of FabLab Amsterdam at the El Hema Design Expo.

It is fantastic, in my opinion what they are making! Check it out (by clicking on the pictures) and keep checking it out; class ends 15th of December 2008. The 2nd semester MIT’s FabLab will teach the course “How to make machines that make (almost) anything”. We’ll keep you posted on that. For information on all FabLab activities worldwide email us at informatie (at) fablab.nl or call +31 6 22540390.

Yesterday I joined the Green City Lab at Picnic08 in Amsterdam; a workshop organized by FabLab Utrecht and FabLab Amsterdam on personal fabrication. In the morning we improved the Shakelight by adding some more Lorentz to it. In the afternoon we visualized a fantastic concept called monergy, a monument for energy which started for me in Darjeeling, India.

Recently I joined an expert discussion on FabLab’s in The Netherlands organized by the Eindhoven initiative. One question was if any innovations already took place in the FabLab’s sofar. And to be honest, I could not come up with any, at least not the ones here in Holland. In India, yes; look here. At the same time, what is innovation? For me the whole innovative thing of FabLab is it’s enabling capacity to have people start sharing their personal fabrication narratives on a worldwide basis by uncovering the wealth of creativity within them. I remember attending the Greencity Lab and constantly confronting myself with the question “Am I going to find somebody to do the soldering for me or am I going to do it myself?” So very me… on my way to empowerment.

Following people’s struggles, reinventing themselves over and over on their paths towards success, is for me so very fascinating that really I can’t care less about FabLab’s themselves producing innovative products at this moment in time or not. After all, isn’t it all about the person realizing an imagined product idea? For instance Alex turning a garlic into a building after struggling for hours figuring out how rhino works.

Op maandagmiddag 14 juli vindt er wederom een workshop plaats in het FabLab Den Haag. De workshop heeft als thema: kennismaken met het FabLab. Zoals de naam al doet vermoeden wordt er uitleg gegeven over het fenomeen FabLab, de mogelijkheden en onmogelijkheden en uiteraard gaan we gewoon lekker met elkaar aan de slag in een informele sfeer. De workshop start om 13.00 uur en eindigt om 17.00 uur. De mogelijkheid bestaat om voor aanvang te lunchen in de Caballerofabriek; voor 3.00 Euro staat er een buffetje voor je klaar. De prijs voor deze middag bedraagt 50.00 Euro inclusief BTW, koffie of thee en dient vooruit betaald te worden. Meld je op tijd aan bij gertjan@fablab.nl!

FabLab Den Haag bevindt zich in het DEB Design Centrum van de Caballero Fabriek op de Saturnusstraat 60, unit 54 in Den Haag. Voor meer informatie zie FabLab Den Haag.

Interview with Smari, initiator of Fablab Iceland.

De schepping, de creatie en het Fablab. Tijdens het Genesis 2.0 evenement op 24 mei 2008 kon kennisgemaakt worden met Waag Society’s FabLab. In het FabLab mag je zelf dingen fabriceren met moderne computergestuurde productiemachines. Geef geboorte aan je eigen mini robot en leer hem op zijn eigen benen te staan, of ervaar de schepping met de cocktails van NixMixMee met je eigen gefabriceerde prikker. Het kan en mag allemaal in Waag Society’s FabLab. In het FabLab staan experts voor je klaar die je van alles kunnen vertellen over de aanwezige machines.