[P2P-F] The "maker" movement

[Michel Bauwens]

thanks jaap, could you send in your triarchy piece for publication on our
blog?

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 10:53 AM, Jaap Vantill <vantill at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ik vermoed dat dit uit de Economist is.
>
> *Onderwerp:* *The "maker" movement*
>
>  More than just digital quilting**** Technology and society: The “maker”
> movement could change how science is taught and boost innovation. It may
> even herald a new industrial revolution****
>
> Dec 3rd 2011 | from the print edition ****
>
> THE scene in the park surrounding New York’s Hall of Science, on a sunny
> weekend in mid-September, resembles a futuristic craft fair. Booths
> displaying handmade clothes sit next to a pavilion full of electronics and
> another populated by toy robots. In one corner visitors can learn how to
> pick locks, in another how to use a soldering iron. All this and much more
> was on offer at an event called Maker Faire, which attracted more than
> 35,000 visitors. This show and an even bigger one in Silicon Valley, held
> every May, are the most visible manifestations of what has come to be
> called the “maker” movement. It started on America’s West Coast but is
> spreading around the globe: a Maker Faire was held in Cairo in October.***
> *
>
> The maker movement is both a response to and an outgrowth of digital
> culture, made possible by the convergence of several trends. New tools and
> electronic components let people integrate the physical and digital worlds
> simply and cheaply. Online services and design software make it easy to
> develop and share digital blueprints. And many people who spend all day
> manipulating bits on computer screens are rediscovering the pleasure of
> making physical objects and interacting with other enthusiasts in person,
> rather than online. Currently the preserve of hobbyists, the maker
> movement’s impact may be felt much farther afield.****
>
> Start with hardware. The heart of New York’s Maker Faire was a pavilion
> labelled with an obscure Italian name: “Arduino” (meaning “strong friend”).
> Inside, visitors were greeted by a dozen stands displaying
> credit-card-sized circuit boards. These are Arduino micro-controllers,
> simple computers that make it easy to build all kinds of strange things:
> plants that send Twitter messages when they need watering, a harp made of
> lasers, an etch-a-sketch clock, a microphone that serves as a breathalyser,
> or a vest that displays your speed when riding a bike.****
>
> Such projects are taking off because Arduino is affordable (basic boards
> cost $20), can easily be extended using add-ons called “shields” to add new
> functions and has a simple programming system that almost anyone can use.
> “Not knowing what you are doing is an advantage,” says Massimo Banzi, an
> Italian engineer and designer who started the Arduino project a decade ago
> to enable students to build all kinds of contraptions. Arduino has since
> become popular—selling around 200,000 units in 2011—because Mr Banzi made
> the board’s design “open source” (which means that anyone can download its
> blueprints and build their own versions), and because he has spent much
> time and effort getting engineers all over the world involved with the
> project.****
>
> This openness has prompted a sizeable ecosystem of add-ons. They include a
> touch-screen, an illuminated display and support for Wi-Fi networking.
> Other firms have built specialised variants of Arduino. SparkFun, for
> instance, has developed Lilypad, a flexible micro-controller that can be
> sewn into clothing (think blinking T-shirts), along with many other add-ons.
> ****
>
> Applying the open-source approach to hardware has also driven the
> development of the maker movement’s other favourite piece of kit, which
> could be found everywhere at the Maker Faire in New York: 3D printers.
> These machines are another way to connect the digital and the physical
> realms: they take a digital model of an object and print it out by building
> it up, one layer at a time, using plastic extruded from a nozzle. The
> technique is not new, but in recent years 3D printers have become cheap
> enough for consumers. MakerBot Industries, a start-up based in New York,
> now sells its machines for $1,300. The output quality is rapidly improving
> thanks to regular upgrades, many of them suggested by users.****
>
> None of this action in hardware would have happened without a second set
> of powerful drivers: software, standards and online communities. Arduino,
> for instance, relies on open-source programs that turn simple code into a
> form that can be understood by the board’s brain. Similarly, MakerBot’s 3D
> printers depend on a standard way to describe physical objects, called STL,
> and affordable software to design them. Some basic modelling programs, such
> as Google SketchUp and Blender, can be downloaded free.****
>
> [image:
> http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20111203_TQP005_0.jpg]
> ****
>
> As for online communities, Arduino has an active forum on its website,
> while MakerBot runs a website called Thingiverse, which lets people share
> 3D designs. YouTube and other video-sharing sites offer how-to clips for
> almost everything. On Instructables, users post and discuss recipes to make
> and do all kinds of things. And then there is Etsy, an online marketplace
> for handmade goods, from hand-knitted scarves to 3D-printed jewellery.****
>
> The ease with which designs for physical things can be shared digitally
> goes a long way towards explaining why the maker movement has already
> developed a strong culture—its third driver. “If you are not sharing your
> designs, you are doing it wrong,” says Bre Pettis, the chief executive of
> MakerBot. Physical space and tools are being shared, too, in the form of
> common workshops. Some 400 such “hacker spaces” already operate worldwide,
> according to Hackerspaces.org. Many are organised like artists’
> collectives. At Noisebridge, a hacker space in San Francisco, even
> non-members can come and tinker—as long as they comply with the group’s
> main rule: to be “excellent” to each other. “The internet is no substitute
> for a real community,” says Mitch Altman, a co-founder of Noisebridge.****
>
> This sort of thing makes the maker movement sound a lot like the digital
> equivalent of quilting bees. But it has already had a wider impact, mainly
> in schools in America. Many have discovered 3D printers and Arduino
> boards—and are using them to make their science and technology classes more
> hands-on again, and teach students to be producers as well as users of
> digital products.****
>
> All this will boost innovation, predicts Dale Dougherty, the founder of *
> Make* magazine, a central organ of the maker movement. Its tools and
> culture promote experimentation, collaboration and rapid improvement.
> Makers can play in niches that big firms ignore—though they are watching
> the maker movement and will borrow ideas from it, Mr Dougherty believes.
> The Maker Faire in New York was sponsored by technology companies including
> HP and Cognizant. Autodesk, which makes computer-aided design software,
> bought Instructables in August.****
>
> Firms may also copy some of the unusual business models that makers, often
> accidental entrepreneurs, have come up with. Arduino lets other firms copy
> its designs, for example, but charges them to use its logo. Quirky, an
> industrial design firm based in New York City, uses crowdsourcing to decide
> which products to make. MakieLab of London is developing a platform to
> allow toy shops or individuals to develop customised toys and have them
> printed. Venture capitalists are nosing around the field. In recent months
> Quirky raised $16m, MakerBot raised $10m and Shapeways, a firm that offers
> a 3D-printing service, received $5m.****
>
> The parallel with the hobbyist computer movement of the 1970s is striking.
> In both cases enthusiastic tinkerers, many on America’s West Coast, began
> playing with new technologies that had huge potential to disrupt business
> and society. Back then the machines manipulated bits; now the action is in
> atoms. This has prompted predictions of a new industrial revolution, in
> which more manufacturing is done by small firms or even by individuals.
> “The tools of factory production, from electronics assembly to 3D printing,
> are now available to individuals, in batches as small as a single unit,”
> writes Chris Anderson, the editor of *Wired *magazine.****
>
> It is easy to laugh at the idea that hobbyists with 3D printers will
> change the world. But the original industrial revolution grew out of
> piecework done at home, and look what became of the clunky computers of the
> 1970s. The maker movement is worth watching.****
>
> ** **
>
>


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