Introduction

This new section is dedicated to Open Manufacturing developments, making it easier to identify interests in creating physical objects. This is a smaller subset of our much broader section on Open and Shared Design Communities.

Contacts

Bryan Bishop	Kirsty Boyle	Charles Collis	Nathan Cravens	Paul Fernhout	Vinay Gupta
kanzure AT gmail DOT com	kirsty AT openmaterials DOT org	charles dot collis at gmail dot com	knuggy AT gmail DOT com	pdfernhout AT kurtz-fernhout DOT com	hexayurt AT gmail DOT com
Eric Hunting	Marcin Jakubowski	Smári McCarthy	Massimo Menichinelli	Catarina Mota	Chris Watkins
erichunting AT gmail DOT com	joseph dot dolittle at gmail dot com	spm2 AT hi DOT is	info AT openp2pdesign DOT org	catarina AT openmaterials DOT org	chriswaterguy AT appropedia.org

Introductory Resources

Discussion

1. Open Manufacturing: Linking Bits to Atoms for Community
2. Rapid Prototyping mailing list
3. Rapid Manufacturing Ning community: "Community for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies"
4. Global Swadeshi

Overview

Advanced Civilisation is a site founded by Charles Collis to introduce current and developing states of Open and Distributed Manufacturing. Note in particular the overview on turning virtual designs into physical objects at "Virtual designs into physical objects"

Tools of The Trade

1. A working directory of hardware tools are available here.
2. 100k Garages is a network of Digital Fabrication shops, where your design can be fabricated [1]
3. Product Hacking: directory of Open Source Hardware projects

Readings / Media

1. Kevin Carson: Expanding Peer Production to the Physical World
   1. The economics of open hardware (Liquid Antipasto blog)

Also:

1. Immerse yourself in a variety of informative texts here.
2. Personal Fabrication for Dummies: 10 different techniques explained and shown in video illustrations
3. Video: Eric von Hippel on User Centered Innovation: in fact, for a long time already, users (and user communities) have been responsible for most industrial innovations!!
4. Kevin Carson: Emilia-Romagna as an example of sustainable manufacturing
5. Neil Gershenfeld on the need for a new digital maker literacy
6. Paul Fernhout: The Differences between Open Agriculture and Open Manufacturing
7. David A. Mellis: How Open Source Hardware differs from Open Source Software?

An important note on terminology: leading experts such as Frank Piller and Terry Wohlers prefer to use 3D Printing for a general public, and Additive Fabrication in technical contexts, instead of Rapid Prototyping or Rapid Manufacturing [2]

Political Issues

1. Kevin Carson: Criminalizing the Informal Economy through Cost Plus Regulations

FAQ

An FAQ across a wide open manufacturing spectrum.

Additional Resources

1. Twitter feeds on mass customization and personal fabrication
2. Do check out the Open Materials group

Blogs

1. Fabbaloo: tracks developments in Fabbing, 3D Printing and Desktop Manufacturing. We believe in a future where everyone can easily make any 3D objects by using inexpensive desktop equipment, much like we use inkjet printers today for two-dimensional paper objects.
2. Ponoko: blog from 3D printing company

Books

General

• Fab. Neil Gershenfeld.
• Roadmap for Additive Fabrication.Identifying the Future of Freeform Processing: An impressive work weighing in at over 100 pages it covers the industry as it exists and identifies potential market and research opportunities for the next 5-10 years. [3]

Technical

• Better be Running. Ronald Hollis: "the most complete intro to additive fabrication" [4]

Conferences and Events

1. The Grounding Open Source Hardware (GOSH!) Summit at The Banff Centre serves to bring together the many and disparate makers, producers, theorizers, and promoters of physical objects that come to life under open and distributed models. This Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) summit will highlight and facilitate the emerging dialogue on both artist-driven and socially conscious open source hardware projects.

Podcasts

Adrian Bowyer on the RepRap Project; Andrew Bowyer on the RepRap Project and Self-replicating Machines ; Alex Lindsay on Digital Craftsmen for Development ; Anil Gupta on Appropriate Technology for Agroinnovations; Brenda Dayne on Knitting as an Open Craft ; Carl Etnier on Neighbor to Neighbor Skill Sharing ; David Lee and Valerie Wilson on the the Open Source Green Vehicle Project ; Elizabeth Henderson on Sharing the Harvest through Community-Supported Agriculture ; Janne Kyttanen on Rapid Manufacturing ; Johan Soderbergh on Ronja as Anonymous Communication through Free-Air-Optics ; Lonny Grafman and Curt Beckmann of Appropedia on Open Source Appropriate Technology ; Marcin Jakubowski on Open Farm Tech ; Marcin Jakubowski on Transition Towns and Open Source Villages ; Massimo Banzi on Arduino ; Patricia Allen and Ronald Wright on Permaculture as Sustainable Agriculture ; Phil Torrone and Limor Fried on the Maker Movement ; Sean Moss-Pultz on Open Moko ; Vinay Gupta and Andrew Lamb on the Appropedia Approach ; Vinay Gupta on Ending Poverty With Open Hardware

Community

• Hackerspaces "Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects."
• Factor E Farm "Open Source Ecology is a movement dedicated to the collaborative development of tools for replicable, open source, modern off-grid "resilient communities." By using permaculture and digital fabrication together to provide for basic needs and open source methodology to allow low cost replication of the entire operation, we hope to empower anyone who desires to move beyond the struggle for survival and "evolve to freedom."

Also See

Our Design Network