"It is not only designers who are participating in open design: In principle, everyone can participate."-Caroline Hummels, Industrial Designer.
This quote greatly resonates with the core ethos of the Open Design and Open-Source movements. The Open Source philosophy operates on the concept of allowing software, hardware, and manufacturing techniques to be freely available and modifiable to a global community, hence allowing the promotion of education, development and innovation. Presented below are two case studies that exemplify the values within Caroline Hummels' quote.
MakerBot Industries
MakerBot Industries was an active proponent of Open Source enterprises, in particular addressing the area of additive manufacturing. 3D printing technologies were in development and in use since the 1980's within heavy industry and research, yet it was only at the turn of the 21st century that it began to garner mainstream attention. Makerbot Industries, which was fronted by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach Smith, began as a venture under the non-profit Open Source 3D printing research initiative known as the RepRap Research Foundation.
Their first product, the 'Cupcake CNC', was released in 2009. The source files and documentation were uploaded onto Thingiverse, a website dedicated to the sharing of user created digital design files. This allowed the public to freely participate in the manufacture of a product that subsequently expands the horizon of household manufacturing. The Open Source nature of the product naturally resulted in the troubleshooting and improvement of the design from the community, hence allowing upgrades with each production batch.
MakerBot Industries has since created a number of new products, including the Thing-O-Matic, the Replicator 1 and 2, the Digitizer 3D scanner, and many more. As a pioneering force, MakerBot has enabled the public to interact with previously unaccessible technology through the Open Source philosophy.
The term first appeared at the end of last century with the founding of the non-profit 'open design foundation'. Open design was design whose makers allowed its free distribution and documentation and permitted modifications and devrivations of it. More than a decade later open design is developing actively and constitutes an influential trend in the world of design.
- Open design now, Eds. Bas van abel, Lucas Evers, Roel Klaassen, Peter troxler. This is a good book to refference back to if want some extra information not covered in classes.
Fab Lab is the educational outreach component of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), an extension of its research into digital fabrication and computation. A Fab Lab is a technical prototyping platform for innovation and invention, providing stimulus for local entrepreneurship. A Fab Lab is also a platform for learning and innovation: a place to play, to create, to learn, to mentor, to invent. To be a Fab Lab means connecting to a global community of learners, educators, technologists, researchers, makers and innovators- -a knowledge sharing network that spans 30 countries and 24 time zones. Because all Fab Labs share common tools and processes, the program is building a global network, a distributed laboratory for research and invention.
Currently Fab Labs include a laser cutter that makes 2D and 3D structures, a sign cutter that plots in copper to make antennas and flex circuits, a high-resolution NC milling machine that makes circuit boards and precision parts, a large wood router for building furniture and housing, and a suite of electronic components and programming tools for low-cost, high-speed microcontrollers for on-site rapid circuit prototyping. Originally designed for communities as prototyping platforms for local entrepreneurship, Fab Labs are increasingly being adopted by schools as platforms for project-based education. Users learn by designing and creating objects of personal interest or import. Empowered by the experience of making something themselves, they both learn and mentor each other, gaining deep knowledge about the machines, the materials, the design process, and the engineering that goes into invention and innovation. In educational settings, rather than relying on a fixed curriculum, learning happens in an authentic, engaging, personal context, one in which students go through a cycle of imagination, design, prototyping, reflection, and iteration as they find solutions to challenges or bring their ideas to life.
