Let’s hack local workshops to put them on the map of local “makers’ servers”.
From co-founding a makerspace in Paris, I see how the power of such places is less correlated to the machines and other embeded technologies, but more related to the people and skills connectedness.
From January 2014, I co-founded with 6 other people in Paris a place named WoMa. Nothing related to MoMa, don’t worry. WoMa stands for Working+Making. I can remember pretty well that day of March 2014, when the CNC milling machine, the laser cutting machine or the 3D printers arrived inside the space. We all were thrilled! Finally, it’s real! We are now equipped and ready to rock on.
But after 2 years of operation, it didn’t go the way we expected — even if it turned out to be going pretty well actually. One of the things we’ve learned is that the power of such makerspaces and other fablabs isn’t that much related to the high tech of these machines. Because there are not that much high tech in the end ; craftsmen and other local factories often have more powerful tools and incredible know-how.
The power of these open manufacturing places lays in their ‘openness’. To make my point, here is a short flashback.
Back in the 80’s, it was the dawn of the PC era. Putting a microprocessor and digital tools in the hands of every single person was meant to expand everyone’s calculation processing power. So it did. And we now have those computer capacities miniaturized in our pockets or on our wrists.
If those computers did end up empowering us, they also did restrained us to perform what was available on these closed platforms. But then, when personal computers started to be linked through internets, they first have become ‘servers’ as much as ‘clients’, thus enabling each one of us to host and display information, tools, softwares, music or games to start with. Quite some computing power unlocked. But moreover, tons of idle knowledge and information free to share — legally or not.
The current evolution toward a post-PC era, with smartphones, tablets and other connected devices, may they be attached to your wrist, standing in your living room or allowing you to move around the city, tends to put an emphasis on the ‘client’ capacities of these connected micro-computers, while limiting their ‘server’ capacities. Not really surprising.
From an individual’s perspective, we may witness a similar development path, from powerful creative abilities being taught and spread to each one of us, while in the end, our consumer’s status is the only major action expected from us. Take the 60’s boom for home appliances and cooking machines, empowering people — mostly women — to cook and create better, while today already-made-meals and larger fridges are what we are left with.
With the rise of the collaborative economy, our ability to become ‘connectors’ highlights our power to connect and foster empowerment of communities. A ‘connector’ is a person bridging the gap between a need and a capacity — and not letting this gap being fulfilled only by the laws of market — by enabling isolated individuals to gather as community and find solutions among each other.
If I keep on going, I may illustrate this posture with yet an other sector, the one i started my story with : what makes a fablab or a makerspace — a ‘neighborhood factory’ like WoMa — such an inspiring place lays in its ‘server’ capacities.
Some may argue that, after decades spent dissociating the workshops (many of them in South East Asia now) from the shops (still where wealth is), the concept of a makerspace may boil down to ‘set-up a workshop in a store’ or ‘a store in a workshop’. Or even state that it used to be like this in the good ol’ times ; back then, the knowledge to craft or repair remained in the back office, close-by to the space to sell and distribute.
But I’m not so sure of that. Because in the end, a makerspace or a fablab is something a bit different from a traditional workshop, it goes beyond its ability to make or repair locally. What a fablab or a makerspace brings to the citizens is the ability to perform as a ‘server’ interface, not only in-between customers and makers, but among makers, developers, citizens, institutions, and ideas, materials, solutions, knowledge, know-how, global, local, … Enable connections to happen.
The architect Vincent Beaubois once explained, “the attitude of designer does not come down to only shape a thing, that is the attitude of craftsmen. Designers aim at setting up a material and social process, among which shaping a thing will be made possible, by enticing non-design people and skills, such as engineering, marketing, economics, etc”. Similarly, a makerspace set up as a ‘server’ rather than a ‘technical workshop’ allows people with various skills to jump in the design process.
In connecting makers’ projects, tips and ideas, from around the world to local needs and communities, makerspaces act as platforms — among others — hosting and giving access to open source maker’s knowledge and solutions. That observation has led me to write, what makes a good Fablab doesn’t lay in the CNC machines, but in its ‘interface’ abilities : interface between regular people and experts, between local needs and existing solutions, between an idea and the real object.
As a conclusion, back to the ‘hacking local workshops’ idea. From what we observe in makerspaces and fablabs, I believe that by ‘connecting a workshop’ to ‘the net of makers’, workshops’ owners may tremendously increase the use value of their workshop, by becoming such a server interface providing solutions to local needs and certified and accessible know-hows.
As Michel Bauwens once wrote about the web of monasteries, or as Barcelona aims at with the web of fablabs, ‘connected cities’ need more of those ‘servers’, to foster the global web of makers and power local creative solutions. As XXIst century citizen, we need more of those servers on our urban maps ; let’s connect existing workshops and local factories!
From what I’ve learn so far, I believe there is a step beyond workshop portals such as 3D Hubs, FabHub.io or 100k garages. I would love to help local factory owners to open their doors to host makers’ gathering and contribute to makers’ knowledge. I would love to help local factory owners to embed the world wide web of makers right into their local factories. Anyone of you want to try out ? Let me know.
