The FAB LAB Network: A Global Platform for Digital Invention, Education and Entrepreneurship
2014; The MIT Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1162/inov_a_00211
ISSN1558-2485
Autores Tópico(s)Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
ResumoCan small manufacturing labs, with the tools and computing power to make almost anything, infuse new ideas and possibilities into global solution networks and give a boost to local entrepreneurship and job creation?That's exactly what a network of "Fab Labs" is aspiring to do by providing access to powerful manufacturing tools-including laser cutters, milling machines, and 3-D printers-to an increasingly broad range of users at educational institutions and local community centers around the world.Incubated at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), the Fab Lab Network now consists of 270 independent manufacturing centers in 70 countries around the world. IDEA IN BRIEFFab Labs is a growing global network of over 200 small manufacturing workshops that are bringing together computing power and relatively simple tools to make nearly anything.Individual Fab Labs are open to a wider array of users than has traditionally been the case in industrial design or even DIY communities, allowing for a mix of entrepreneurial, research, and educational activities.By sharing a core set of capabilities, projects started in one Fab Lab can be continued and modified in others.Fab Labs can be used to give entrepreneurs a low-cost space for designing and building prototypes.They can be spaces where students engage in design and technology education.And they can be centers of community-driven innovation, where problems that governments and corporations have not addressed can be solved using local materials-and those solutions can later be shared with similar communities around the world.Although it is a technology-driven platform network (as defined by the Global Solution Networks Taxonomy), governance of Fab Labs is still extremely loose.
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