Fablab Project Documentation

Open Knowledge Festival 19.9.2012

Anu Määttä / @narnua@AaltoFablab

http://tiny.cc/okconpaper

Why?

● Experts of Open Knowledge gathered ● Recap Fablab documentation issues so far ● Invitation for discussion (and hacking?)

OUTLINE

● FABLAB NETWORK● NOW● PROBLEMS● SOLUTIONS?● GOAL● DISCUSSION● INVITATION

What is a Fablab?

● Started by MIT Center for Bits and Atoms

● Book: Fab – the coming revolution on your desktop by Neil Gerschenfeld

● Open access workspace

● Standard inventory of digital manufacturing machines

● Principle: make here → make anywhere

● Free (as in beer ;) to use – at least part of the time, for everyone

● Fab charter: as long as you share (what was made and knowledge on

working with the machines)

Helsingin Sanomat 18.9.2012: http://tiny.cc/hesari

Network of labs

http://wiki.fablab.is/wiki/Portal:Labs

NOW

Example: Check-in, check-out (ProtoSpace Fablab Utrecht)

● “automatic documentation”

● Part of lab visit workflow

● Check in, check out:

http://fablab.nl/articles/2011/04/12/

Example: FabPublications(Fablab Amersfoort)

● Drupal 7-based template for facilitating documentation

● “Document or pay”

Example: Hosted sites(Fablab Amsterdam, Waag society)

● Hosted instances of Fablab Amsterdam website● Small payment● Not offered

as open source

Examples: MIT

● Version control: Mercurial● FabAcademy 2012 commits visualized

http://vimeo.com/47110711 (@openp2pdesign)

● Instructables

Examples: Other Maker Communities

● Thingiverse● Instructables● GitHub

● imaterialize, Ponoko, Tinkercad, ...

PROBLEMS

Practical solutions for Fablabs

● Version control systems are too heavy (for workaday lab users)

● ...and not necessarily the easiest way to digest “making of” information

● Lab staff generally too busy to assist with documentation

● Diverse culture● Adverse to centralization

Why Not Instructables?

● Thriving community of makers but... ● Fablab machines are being opened up,

documentation closed down● Outside, also commercial interests● Not open, hackable, available to install on your

own web server● Localization (Finnish? Dutch? Swahili?) ● Windows vs. Linux, Facebook vs. Diaspora

SOLUTIONS?

Centralize?

● One size fits all● Let me do that for you != DIY

Distribute?

● What we are doing (and being) anyway● Managing diversity● = Open Knowledge

GOAL

● Project sharing between Fablabs!● Collaborative development (of physical objects,

à la open source software) ● I want to find what you made, and share with

you what I made ● “Glue” to put all the pieces together ● “Easy as Apple,

Open as Linux, Widespread as Windows”

(my) Visions

Open hardware + open software =>

● Machines that Document

● Machines are smart, people are lazy

● Relaying the making-of contextual information to assist with documentation

– Eye-Fi-camera, timestamps, files used, machine settings...

● Open Source Objects

● Retrievable “source code” of physical objectsprotospace.nl/fabmoment/open-source-objects

● Made near you

● Layar.com/protospacegallery

● Also: “What our lasercutter made today”

● FabML

● Simple XML definition to describe projects

● To enable sharing between platforms

DISCUSSION

INVITATION

● When: Friday September 21st, 16.00-18.30● Where: Aalto Media Factory room 1

● Planned: winter/spring hackathon