free as in freedom products and communities: open digital diy manufacturing across people and...

Free as in Freedomproducts & communities:

Open Digital DIY manufacturing across countries and cultures

Swatantra 2017December 21st, 2017Marco Fioretti - FKI

CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti

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Swatantra 2017Dicember 2017, Trivandrum

What is the

● Founded in NL in 2007

● Local permanent teams in Spain, Italy, NL● International network of contacts

● Key values and goals:

● Knowledge and Technology for a Free Knowledge Society● Freedom and sustainability through collaboration and

empowerment

● Main projects and FKI founding principles: http://freeknowledge.eu

???


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A quick look at the worldSocial struggles

● Extreme poverty

● Job uncertainty (automation)

● Increasing Inequality and precariousness

● Mass migrations

Environmental disasters● Climate changes

● Ocean Acidification

● Loss of biodiversity


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● race to the bottom that nobody wins for long

● everybody is burned by the next one who is just a bit cheaper

● wherever they are, every time faster than the previous one

Current mainstream models have big limits..

Screenshot sources:

http://techcrunch.com/2016/12/09/africas-tech-hubs/

www.forbes.com/sites/pascalemmanuelgobry/2014/08/25/china-understands-what-the-west-doesnt-africa-is-our-next-superpower/#2557b5e41330

http://theweek.com/articles/547623/why-africa-next-china


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April 24th, 2013,Rana Plaza, Bangladesh

“deadliest garment-factory accident in history”

Death toll: 1324

… huge ecological and human costs

Up to 95 per cent of all plastic debris found in the sea is carried by 8 rivers in Asia and 2 in Africa rivers

Source: Banega Swachh India


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even in the so called “First” world!!!


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● [In UK] “High street brands expect turnarounds [so quick]... that factories in Turkey and India simply can’t meet. [This has lead to...] quasi-Victorian labour exploitation”

● “technology is not being used to replace workers altogether, but to make them increasingly resemble robots”

..with still little-known consequences

Sources/comments:

http://stop.zona-m.net/2017/10/robots-displacing-humans...-or-humans-becoming-robots/www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/17/worry-less-about-robots-more-about-sweatshops


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● Most of the proposals and solutions carrying those labels are

– Proprietary... but that may be the last of their problems!

– Top-down (imposed by corporations or central governments)

– Monolithic, one size-fits-all products

– With one common business model:

● sell or lease as much “iron” as possible● do it from scratch again, every 5/10 years● don’t worry, wealth will “trickle down”!

● Sometimes such solutions may be the best ones…

● but they cannot be the only ones!

Smart Cities? Internet of Things?


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Role and Opportunities of Asia● "Many large Asian cities are becoming intolerable places to live...”

● “As Asia seeks to embrace modernity... it risks losing its own culture”

● “When it comes to the future of the planet, decisions in Beijing, New Delhi, Jakarta and Lagos will be more important than those taken in Washington or Brussels”

● “[Developing nations] need to go much further in developing new economic models if the world’s resources are to be sustained [and] “stop being subservient to western ideas about progress”

● “It will require human cooperation way beyond the scale being envisioned here to solve [all this]”

Quotes from “The west can’t fix the climate crisis. Asia will have to do it” by Chandran Nair, December 2017


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What FKI has learned...

DiDIY (www.didiy.eu) - EU H2020 research on nature and LONG TERM impacts of Digital DIY ( ethical, social, environmental, educational, economical)

Comunificadora - Startup Support Programme exploring the viability of a commons-based collaborative economy

● …. and wants to share, and further co-develop…

● by means of (among other projects):

http://www.didiy.eu/


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What is DiDIY (Digital DIY)?

● DIY (community) enabled digital manufacturing

● much more than 3D printing, or “makers”

● like software, DiDIY is not limitable

● TECHNOLOGY: Digital DIY is born from, and enabled by,software and software-controllable machines of ALL kinds

● PEOPLE: but DiDIY is first and foremost a human and sociocultural phenomenon, which should be managed and regulated as such

● The “Y” in DIY can (should?) even be a whole community

● The real impact (and value) of DiDIY is when it is put to service of basic needs of little but whole communities, often on “analog” materials (food, water, wood, textiles, earth...)


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Cons of DiDIY● DiDIY to make “First world” gadgets =

more toxic waste around

● Security and safety issues:– NOT where politicians and media expect them, e.g. firearms...

– As much as in everyday products, (car brakes, child toys, medical devices...)

● Disruption of ethical and legal norms and systems

● Job losses (MAYBE):Westerners (re)making their stuff themselves =LESS people elsewhere able to make a living

● Much higher pressure on: “intellectual property”, product liability, consumer rights, personal responsibility...

I blink when you’ve got GMAIL!!!


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Did anybody say “First World Gadgets”?


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DiDIY risks: confirmation by Ashvin (thx!)


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Pros of DiDIY

● Individual: more creativity, freedom

● Social: same quality of life, at (potentially much) smaller human, social, environmental costs

● DIY = YOU/Your COMMUNITY choose what to use, build, modify– Easier to respect human rights, local cultures, ecosystems..

– LESS products,repairable by DESIGN and traveling MUCH less from producer to user

– More than creating problems, it helps to solve pre-existing ones


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Q: A 3d printer in every home?

● A: No, thanks, it would be ridiculous

● If it were used often enough to be cost-effective

– It woul be a huge waste of materials, energy, space...

● In all other cases (99.99%?) actual utilization would be next to nothing


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Try to imagine, instead...

● Then repeat the imagination excercise for any other appliance. Or clothes. Or furniture. Or...

● A washer machine that is:

● Orderable to a fablab

● Assemblable at home

● Designed to be 100% repairable and last 50 YEARS

● Controlled by 100% user-upgradable Free Software


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Try to imagine… Village level assembly lines

● Q: What do you get when you put together a cool 3D printers or similar DiDIY machine with an uncool conveyor belt?

● A: Something that:

● is cheap enough that most communities may own one

● may work 24/7, if needed

● But does not need to, in order to be profitable!

● can produce endless sequences of... unique objects: the ones that its owners actually need


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Try to compare

Star Wars...


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DIY digitally farming drones, greenhouses, micro-watering

systems, pest mapping... that are Community- designed, owned and

managed!

To today’s reality:

the part of Star Wars that matters...

is now a concrete possibility for

villagers worldwide


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Next level: La Comunificadora

http://freeknowledge.eu/projects#comunificadora

● Support and incubation program for…

● organisations and B2B services based on Commons, Sharing, DiDIY, and alternative business sustainability models...

CC BY-SAWouter Tebbens

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Example: analysis of GoodEnoughCNC

CC BY-SAWouter Tebbens

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Case: GoodEnoughCNC

software: GPLv3design: CERN OHLdocumentation: CC BY-SA 4.0data: CC0

physical products: intrafirm, p2pservice: intra-firmcollaborative plataforms: GithubFabrikor: custom manufacturing service

Tallers

kits, prod. final

yes

IRNAS foundation

DIY+commercial


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Take-home message● DiDIY / Distributed manufacturing directly serving local needs can

give both to individuals, and whole communities worldwide

many more ways to be more creative, pollute less and increase their economic self-sufficiency

● But ONLY IF it is:

– “Free as in Freedom”: open hardware, software, standards... for maximum reuse and respect for diversity and real needs

– Really feasible to practise and drive(!) (also) at community level


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● On-demand/distributed digital manufacturing cannot compete with mass production

● But only if the goal and model remains consumerism, that is

production of the same volumes of goods, designed in the same way

● Consequence: innovation and pressures must be in product design, business sustainability models and in socioeconomical structures

● that is in laws, regulations and practices that explicitly allow, if not reward them, instead of stopping at GDP growth

Take-home message (2)


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Take-home message (3)● FACT #1: DiDIY is based on cheap, already existing

digital technology– Very little technical innovation is needed get good things done.

Future is just not evenly distributed

– most components and technical knowledge, can and very often should be the same everywhere

● FACT #2: DiDIY is above all a socio-cultural phenomenon– cultural/social/governance structures and priorities, cannot be the

same everywhere

● Worldwide, we all have to share (1), while learning from each other how to implement (2)


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What is needed: mutual understanding and cooperation...

● Reach one, global critical mass on what should be the same everywhere (e.g open standards/ hardware..)

In order to

● Western-style DiDIY can and really must learn from other cultures

● Others cultures can and should learn from

Western-style excesses, or unintended

consequences of “running first”

● Working together, minimize the effort neeed locally, to build social/legal structures that are the best ones for each culture


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● Equal access to DiDIY and basic knowledge (see next slide)

● (public) Support to businesses and organisations that:– Create and manage (digital or physical) Commons, providing:

● Right to Repair / Design for sustainability/ insurance coverage for DiDIY-based products/services

● B2B services and markets for local collaboration…● Integrated with worldwide mutual assistance and sharing of designs, etc.

● In order to achieve:– Critical mass for long-term impact and sustainability

– Transparency to contrast corruption and waste

– Products and services that survive beyond their original creators

What is needed: social infrastructures


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Examples (mostly from Comunificadora):● Digital Commons (maps, designs, documentation...)

● Open Data, licenses, hardware, software

● Distributed Digital DIY Manufacturing

● Alternative business sustainability models

● CBPP: Commons-based Peer Production

● OSCE: Open Source Circular Economy

● Local, Digital Alternative Currencies

Foto by Joi Ito, CC BY

What is needed: shared knowledge of commons tools and concepts

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:YochaiBenklerJI6.jpg


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● NGOS must know that this world exists!

● In order to prepare pupils and empower citizens...

● Teachers and Civil Servants need to know

– What to avoid

– What to (re)use

– How to adapt it to actual local needs

● Propose and support community level actions!

● Fight the TINA mentality (There Is No Alternative)

What is needed: education of civil servants, teachers and… most NGOS!


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Thanks and… What Next? Please...

● Read (and comment!) the DiDIY Manual www.didiy.eu/public/didiy-manual.pdf

● Read and sign the DiDIY Manifesto www.didiy.eu/didiy-manifesto

● Check out the FKI Principles and Projects at http://freeknowledge.eu

● FKI: freeknowledge.eu, @fkinstitute

● Marco Fioretti: [email protected] @mfioretti_en

and let’s work together!

free as in freedom products and communities: open digital diy manufacturing across people and...

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