Christian Voigt

An Empirically Informed Taxonomy for the Maker Movement

The Maker Movement emerged from a renewed interest in the physical side of innovation following the dot-com bubble and the rise of the participatory Web 2.0 and the decreasing costs of many digital fabrication technologies. Classifying concepts, i.e. building taxonomies, is a fundamental practice when developing a topic of interest into a research field. Taking advantage of the growth of the Social Web and participation platforms, this paper suggests a multidisciplinary analysis of communications and online behaviors related to the Maker community in order to develop a taxonomy informed by current practices and ongoing discussions. We analyze a number of sources such as Twitter, Wikipedia and Google Trends, applying co-word analysis, trend visualizations and emotional analysis. Whereas co-words and trends extract structural characteristics of the movement, emotional analysis is non-topical, extracting emotional interpretations.

Diversity in FabLabs: Culture, Role Models and the Gendering of Making

Diversity and inclusion in the technology sector is increasingly debated, specially in the context of equal opportunities for all and a shortage of experts in many tech related industries. The need to be more inclusive can refer to different age groups, people with diverse culturally and linguistically backgrounds or gender. All in all, ethnic, gender and socio-economic diversity is not yet at the forefront of fabrication laboratories (FabLabs) agendas for change. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion of diversity and inclusion by primarily elaborating gender relations in FabLabs and, to a lesser extent, discussing age and socio-economic conditions of makers. Our analysis is based on 39 interviews and the analysis of 55,450 data points extracted from the log files of 3d-printers, CNC milling machines, laser cutters and cutting plotters. This combination of qualitative and quantitative data reveals that, indeed, some machines are used more frequently by men or women. However, the main difference is in absolute numbers, i.e. women are not joining FabLabs for a variety of reasons ranging from uninviting cultures to the lack of role models in technology driven areas in general.

Makers’ ambitions to do socially valuable things

Abstract: Neil Gershenfeld called the Maker movement the next digital revolution as it placed the means of fabrication on peoples desks. This paper looks at makers ambition to do socially valuable things and critically reflects on their potential impact, whether makers’ societal impact can be recognised on micro- , meso- or macro-level. Paraphrasing Schumpeter, who explained innovation as a ‘new combination of production factors’, social innovation can be defined as a new combination of social practices. To add an empirical dimension, via qualitative research we have explored the expectations and values of makers. We chose to proceed from the concrete to the abstract by approaching 30 Makers with very specific issues they knew from their day-to-day work and asked them regarding their social ambitions in terms of inclusion, education and environmentalism. Eventually these questions led then to insights on the threads we outlined above.

Not Every Remix is an Innovation: A Network Perspective on the 3D-Printing Community

A better understanding of how information in networks is reused or mixed, has the potential to significantly contribute to the way value is exchanged under a market- or commons-based paradigm. Data as collaborative commons, distributed under creative commons licenses, can generate novel business models and significantly spur the continuing development of the knowledge society. However, looking at data reuse in a large 3d-printing community, we show that the remixing of existing 3d models is substantially influenced by bots, customizers and self-referential designs. Linking these phenomena to a more fine-grained understanding of the process and product dimensions of innovations, we conclude that remixing patterns cannot be taken as direct indicators of innovative behavior on sharing platforms. A further exploration of remixing networks in terms of their topological characteristics is suggested as a way forward. For the empirical underpinning of our arguments, we analyzed 893,383 three-dimensional designs shared by 193,254 members.

Towards a Model of Early Entrepreneurial Education: Appreciation, Facilitation and Evaluation

This paper introduces the Maker movement as a bottom-up movement, placing digital fabrication technologies on people’s desks to produce “almost anything”. It explores further the pedagogical value of making in education in general and in early entrepreneurial education in particular. Making as a pedagogical approach is analysed referencing established pedagogical concepts as well as a qualitative study including makers and managers of maker spaces. Although maker education has so far only rarely been introduced in formal education, there are many initiatives that bring making and formal education together. According to maker experts, formal education would benefit from making because it is well suited to develop practical skills such as prototyping, supporting creativity and promoting critical reflection. In conclusion we describe a model of introducing making in early entrepreneurial education and conclude with a proposed assessment framework for measuring its impact, which will be tested in an on-going project funded by the European Commission.

The Maker Movement and the Disruption of the Producer-Consumer Relation

The Maker movement represents a return of interest to the physical side of digital innovation. To explore expectations and values within the Maker movement, we applied qualitative research method, interviewing 10 managers of maker initiative as well as 39 makers from eight different countries. The paper analyses how the Maker movement is contributing to a change in production, logistics and supply chains and how it changes the relationship between producer and consumer. Based on the interview data and supported by literature, the study indicates that the Maker movement has the potential to impact producer-consumer relationships in many ways. Making, on a bigger scale would mean producing locally, de-centralised and on-demand. This would have an impact on the logistics and the supply chain. Long transportation routes would be avoided and shorter supply chains would make some of the-in-between vendors obsolete. Makers as prosumers, who produce for themselves, are introducing two growing phenomena: a more personalised relationship between maker and object and personalised products as a form of self-expression.

Hacking the Knowledge of Maker Communities in Support of 21st Century Education

The paper addresses the need to rethink education to be effective in a changing environment. More concretely we look at the intersection of craft-based learning, digital fabrication technologies and schools’ capacities to absorb educational innovations. Although making and hacking are known activities within constructionist learning settings, they are not yet widespread at a school level. An explorative study of maker education across European countries has shown that a major impediment to innovations, such as digital fabrication in schools, were the perceived complexity of the process, the technical skills required and the lack of easily accessible resources for getting started or being able to troubleshoot if needed. The aim of this paper is to test the possibilities of referencing existing knowledge embedded in platforms such as instructables.com. Using the available API, we created a network graph of 225,681 instructables authored by 74,824 authors. The potential of that knowledge base is analysed in two steps: first, we describe the available content on the platform in terms of topics, structure and licenses and second, we explore the value of topic networks, as one specific possibility to make platform knowledge more accessible to educators and learners themselves. A first prototype has been implemented and evaluated, showing the importance of discussing the value and limitations of resources external to educational systems, learning by doing, accountability and the right to tinker in technology-embedded teaching.

ICT-enabled Social Innovations in Social Services: Mapping the Evidence

Welfare systems are continuously under pressure to find innovative responses to demographic change, a global economy, increasing levels of migration and emerging technologies, to mention a few of the multiple challenges that confront social policy. Recent efforts to address these challenges at a European level include the Social Investment Package, which emphasizes the importance of social innovation and technologies for improving the efficiency of social policies and their effectiveness in meeting societal needs. By analysing well-documented ICT-enabled social innovation initiatives, this article contributes to capturing the state of technological and social innovations for social services in a more systematic way. Quality, quantity, and sustainability of social services are the starting point of our analysis, which points us to investigate further the role of partnerships and the role of the civil sector as a leading force for driving innovative social service delivery.