Empowering the hacker in us: a comparison of fab lab andhackerspace ecosystems

Cameron GuthrieToulouse Business School

LAEMOS, Cuba 2014

“We all are makers: as cooks preparing food for our families, as gardeners, as knitters. Although this view may not be part of mainstream thought, there once was a time when most Americans commonly thought of themselves as tinkerers. Tinkering used to be a basic skill, and you could get a little bit more out of life than the average person if you had good tinkering skills—if you could fix your own car, for example, or improve your home or make your own clothes. I think we lost some of that over the decades, but I also think it is coming back, for a lot of reasons. While people today may not treasure this ability out of the same sense of necessity as they once did, they are finding their lives enriched by creating something new and learning new skills”

Dale Dougherty, The maker movement, 2012

We all have a little hacker in us

Hacker

MakerTinkerer

Self-sufficiency, DIY movement, pleasure of making

Poltical or social message, transform function, artistic expression,

Repare and maintain, functionally improve

Enabling spaces• Makerspaces, hackerspaces, hack labs, fab labs and techshops are their enabling spaces.

What am I ?

Two very different similar spaces

Fab Labs• Founded by the Center for Bits and Atoms, 2003

• A local lab that enables “invention by providing access to tools for digital fabrication”

• Must respect the Fab Lab charter

Hackerspaces• German Chaos Computer Club 30 years ago

• “Community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects”

• No guidelines but a “hacker ethic”

10 years of growth• There are 260 fab labs and over 1000 hackerspaces, hack labs and makerspaces

Democratizing production

• Spaces that mutualise the means of production – machines, materials and knowledge

• Spaces that encourage “cultures of participation” in which “all people are provided with the means to participate actively in personally meaningful problems” (Fischer, 2013).

A potential for social creativity

“ People shouldn’t need a 4 year engineering degree in order to become an inventor.  We’re going to make it accessible for anyone to learn how create devices for themselves and reach local markets who need them through short term module classes on technical skills ”

ARO Fab Lab Kenya - solar cooker prototype

From ignorance to social creativity

• “A potter must know clays and glazes and the various processes by which to prepare, form and fire them. A clothing designer must know fabrics and fasteners, sizing, cutting and sewing [...] Mastery of materials and processes - obtained through direct experience - is fundamental to making things in any domain” Gross and Do (2009)

• “ Bringing different points of view together and trying to create a shared understanding among all stakeholders can lead to new insights, new ideas, and new artifacts” (Fischer, 2001)

Research question• How does a fab lab and a hackerspace create the conditions for individual creation and social creativity in the same urban area ?

Method• Case study approach• Data was collected through interviews, observation and documentary analysis

• Bloom and Dees (2008) ecosytem approach was used to compare the two cases

Ecosystem approach• To create long lasting change, social entrepreneurs must “understand and often alter the social system that creates and sustains the problems in the first place”

• Two paths to systemic change– change the environmental conditions that shape the behavior of players in the ecosystem

– introduce new practices, organizational structures and business models to establish new behaviors in the ecosystem

Bloom, Paul N, & Dees, Gregory. (2008). “ Cultivate your ecosystem ” Stanford social innovation review, 6(1), 47-53.

One fab lab and one hackerspace in one city

But where is Toulouse ?

A

B

CD

Hackerspace

Fab lab

The Fab Lab• Founded in 2009• 750m2 inner city location

• Two laser cutters, 4 personal 3D printers and one digital milling machine

• Organizes an annual national fab lab conference

FabLab« A place for

multidisciplinary creation, the sharing

and diffusion of knowledge. Access to scientific culture for

everyone »

Competition• Other associations (for resources)

• Rapid prototypers and 3D print shops (for B2B clients)

Beneficiaires and customers

• Members• Science for youth

program• Start-ups and

incubators• Students and schools• Laboratoires/

universitaires• Designers,

architects, and companies

Bystanders• Professionals, companies and universities : « Should we start our own? »

• Rapid prototypers and 3D printer shops

Opponents and trouble makers

Sceptical technicians in local

adminsitrations

Resource providersFinancial• Membership dues• Paid machine time• French government

Material and technological• Municipality

Human• Members’ knowledge• FabLab manager

Networking• FabLab network• Science for youth program

• Municipality

Technological• Open source movement ImpactPopularize access to digital manufacturing technologies and knowledge.

Environmental conditionsPolitics and administrative structures : French Department for Industrial Renewal, FrenchTech policiesEconomics and markets : FabLab movement, access to digital manufacturing technologiesGeography and infrastructure : Local high-tech industry and research laboratoriesCulture and social fabric : Large university and student population, industrial activities

Complementary organizations and

allies• Local industrial

clusters and professional associations

• 3D printer manufacturer

• Municipality• Incubators, schools

The fab lab’s theory of change

• “It’s very hard to fight against something, but for an individual to undertake an action at his or her level is already a start. We need to give the people the possibility to act locally” [co-founder fab lab]

• “We can change mentalities. You have to be in the ecosystem, multiply your contacts, show that you too can contribute to innovation. The fab lab can help make a prototype, you know! And you also have to remain loyal to your values” [co-founder fab lab]

Fab lab´s obstacles to change

• “We’ve got lots of people that come and look for some skills but we rarely have someone that comes in with a project that everyone can work on. It’s mainly point-to-point where people come for some specific help” [co-founder fab lab]

• Need to become self-financing within two years

The hackerspace• Founded in 2009 by a core group of ten enthusiasts

• Occupies a set-out freight container amongst a larger collective of artists.

• 30 fee paying members• Organizes an annual free hardware conference

“I prefer the word vision. With a spirit of collaborating and sharing, transform objects from the main function. Create new technological objects, more or less useful but that give us a super buzz. Find complex solutions to non-existent problems. Make porn, because WE MAKE PORN.” [member 1]

A hackerspace, a climate for curiosity

• “In a lot of hackerspaces that I know, they are mixed spaces [...] The uses that are made of objects, the things that are done to them, the animations may all be artistic in some way. When you go to a festival at a hackerspace, they are places where you feel good. Its ‘trans genre’. There is more than technology. A hackerspace is really about curiosity. And if it emerges it’s because these different people meet up” [cofounder hackerspace].

• Liquid democracy

TetalabA hackerspace the respects the ideals of the hacker

movement.

Competition• « The word competition is not really part of our language »

• « If someone does the same thing, they will be encouraged to do it with us »

Complementary organizations and allies• Local artists

collective• Local not for profit

ISP• Local free software

user group• Not for profit youth

science and technology association

Beneficiaires and customers

• Members• Allies• Innovation arms of manufacturing companies

Bystanders• R&D departments of manufacturing companies

• Wary manufacturers

Opponents and trouble makers

Manufacturers that don’t want their products hacked

Resource providersFinancial• Membership dues• Open days• Occassional paid services

Material and human• Members’ knowledge• Like minded associations

• Salvaged equipment

Networking• Hackerspace network

• Like minded associations

Technological• Members• Open source movement Impact« This is not the sort of vision we have. We are a space for exchange and

collaboration »« I reach my objective when I get sick of a project and move onto something

else »

Environmental conditionsPolitics and administrative structures : Invasive government actions and lawsEconomics and markets : Consumerist society, big data collectionCulture and social fabric : Local like-minded associations

Case comparisonFab Lab• Increase access to digital manufacturing technologies and knowledge

• Financial dependence

• Multiple users with diverse needs and expectations

• Needs to change practices within its ecosystem

Hackerspace• No intended impact• Financial independence

• Hacker culture bonds members together

• Must resist tendency to become mainstream

• Already central to its ecosystem

Discussion• Different spaces offer different “climates” (Ashforth, 1985) that both favor “play” (Bergen, 2009)

• The challenge is to bring together communities of practice in a community of interest

• Fab Lab needs to move beyond “early adopters”

• The importance of “keystone species” in their ecosystems (Iansiti and Levien, 2004)

What’s next ?• Work with the Fab Lab on new collaborative practices to help it become a real space for social creativity and change