* Localize production.   
* Virtualize everything else.

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.

However, this section also includes developments about 'production' and 'making' in general, including topics like the DIY revolution, the digitalization of crafts, and agricultural production.

The P2P Foundation supports the aims of the Open Source Hardware and Design Alliance [1] , an initiative to foster sustainable sharing of open hardware and design.

For a directory of Open Hardware projects, see our page: Product Hacking

Visualization

Reto Stauss: The Open Manufacturing Value Stream‎

Contacts

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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	Sam Rose	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	samue.rose AT gmail DOT com	chriswaterguy AT appropedia.org

---

Citations

See also our Citations on Open and Shared Design and Open and Distributed Manufacturing

So, what can we do to prevent instability? The solution isn't to formulate vague contingency plans or return to passive optimism. Obviously, that won't work. No, the solution is to improve our resilience to these systemic shocks through a social and economic transition that follows this simple formula:

   * Localize production.   
   * Virtualize everything else.

- John Robb [2]

"The emergence of commons-based techniques — particularly, of an open innovation platform that can incorporate farmers and local agronomists from around the world into the development and feedback process through networked collaboration platforms—promises the most likely avenue to achieve research oriented toward increased food security in the developing world. It promises a mechanism of development that will not increase the relative weight and control of a small number of commercial firms that specialize in agricultural production. It will instead release the products of innovation into a self-binding commons—one that is institutionally designed to defend itself against appropriation. It promises an iterative collaboration platform that would be able to collect environmental and local feedback in the way that a free software development project collects bug reports—through a continuous process of networked conversation among the user-innovators themselves."

- Yochai Benkler ([3], p. 22)

"The guaranteed income will, in fact, lead to the revival of "private enterprise." Once the guaranteed income is available, we can anticipate the organization of what I have called "consentives": productive groups formed by individuals who will come together on a voluntary basis simply because they wish to do so. The goods produced by these consentives will not compete with mass-produced goods available from cybernated firms. The consentive will normally produce the "custom-designed" goods that have been vanishing within the present economy. The consentive would sell in competition with firms paying wages, but its prices would normally be lower because it would need to cover only the cost of materials and other required supplies. Wages and salaries would not need to be met out of income, as the consentive members would be receiving a guaranteed income. The consentive would be market-oriented but not market-supported."

- Robert Theobald, The Guaranteed Income, 1966

Karim Lakhani on Communities driving Manufacturers out of the design phase

"for any given company - there are more people outside the company that have smarts about a particular technology or a particular use situation then all the R&D engineers combined. So a community around a product category may have more smart people working on the product then the firm it self. So in the end manufacturers may end up doing what they are supposed to - manufacture - and the design activity might move to the edge and into the community." (http://www.futureofcommunities.com/2007/03/25/communities-driving-manufacturers-out-of-the-design-space/)

Kevin Kelly and Terry Hancock on nearly-free material production

"Material industries are finding that the costs of duplication near zero, so they too will behave like digital copies. Maps just crossed that threshold. Genetics is about to. Gadgets and small appliances (like cell phones) are sliding that way. Pharmaceuticals are already there, but they don't want anyone to know. It costs nothing to make a pill." (http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php)

Both the capital and marginal cost of making products has trended consistently and rapidly down as manufacturing tools become both cheaper and more versatile, so that the capital cost of an object is increasingly not in the capital equipment required to manufacture it, but in the effort required to design it.

- Terry Hancock [4]

Steve Bosserman outlines what is most appropriate for local distributed manufacturing

"strong candidates for a locally distributed manufacturing approach include ANYTHING that is agriculturally- based like food, feed, fiber, and biofuel production, much of housing and building construction including the manufacturing of inputs used in that industry, localized electric power generation using non-bio sources like wind, solar, and geothermal, and production / manufacturing of materials, components, and assemblies that use locally sourced raw materials and draw upon open-source, relatively easy to learn, appropriate technologies that can be applied in a wide range of situations-- not just a single product."

Eric von Hippel on Manufacturing around User Innovation Communities

"Threadless has tapped into a fundamental economic shift, a movement away from passive consumerism. One day in the not-too-distant future citizen inventors using computer design programs and three-dimensional printers will exchange physical prototypes in much the same way Nickell and cohorts played Photoshop tennis.

Eventually, Threadless-like communities could form around industries as diverse as semiconductors, auto parts, and toys. Threadless is one of the first firms to systematically mine a community for designs, but everything is moving in this direction.

He foresees research labs and product-design divisions at manufacturing companies being outstripped by an "innovation commons" made up of tinkerers, hackers, and other devout customers freely sharing their ideas. The companies that win will be the ones that listen." (quotes and paraphrased by Inc. [5])

Frank Piller on User Manufacturing

"User manufacturing is enabled by three main technologies: (1) Easy-to-operate design software that allows users to transfer their ideas into a design. (2) Design repositories where users upload, search, and share designs with other users. This allows a community of loosely connected users to develop a large range of applications. (3) Easy-to-access flexible manufacturing technology. New rapid manufacturing technologies ("fabbing") finally deliver the dream of translating any 3-D data files into physical products -- even in you living room. Combining this technology with recent web technologies can open a radical new way to provide custom products along the entire "long tail" of demand.

User manufacturing builds on the notion that users are not just able to configure a good within the given solution space (mass customization), but also to develop such a solution space by their own and utilize it by producing custom products. As a result, customers are becoming not only co-designers, but also manufacturers, using an infrastructure provided by some specialized companies." (http://mass-customization.blogs.com/mass_customization_open_i/2007/11/webinar-the-nex.html)

Jeff Bezos on User-Manufacturing Everything

"Before long, “user-generated content” won’t refer only to media, but to just about anything: user-generated jeans, user-generated sports cars, user-generated breakfast meals. This is because setting up a company that designs, makes and globally sells physical products could become almost as easy as starting a blog - and the repercussions would be earthshaking. " (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kevinmaney/2006-11-21-amazon-user-generated-products_x.htm)

Flexible Manufacturing and the Maker Movement

"Two future forces, one mostly social, one mostly technological, are intersecting to transform how goods, services, and experiences— the “stuff” of our world—will be designed, manufactured, and distributed over the next decade. An emerging do-it-yourself culture of “makers” is boldly voiding warranties to tweak, hack, and customize the products they buy. And what they can’t purchase, they build from scratch. Meanwhile, flexible manufacturing technologies on the horizon will change fabrication from massive and centralized to lightweight and ad hoc. These trends sit atop a platform of grassroots economics—new market structures developing online that embody a shift from stores and sales to communities and connections." (http://iftf.org/node/1766)

Introductory Resources

Mappings and Typologies

1. The business cycle for the material economy [6]:

1. Incubation: Where do the basic "raw materials" come from?
2. Production: How are goods and services produced?
3. Exchange: How do goods and services move from production to use?
4. Distribution: How is the consumption and use of goods and services organized?
5. Allocation: How is surplus generated in the economic cycle used? How does surplus re-enter and reinvigorate the cycle?

2. Dam Mellis offers a typology of three Open Source Hardware Distribution Models

'3. Sam Rose and Paul Hartzog offer a typology of different Infrastructure Commons:

1. Energy Commons
2. Food Commons
3. Thing Commons
4. Cultural Commons
5. Access Commons

4. 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 [7]

Introductory Articles

Introductory series by Tom Powell:

• Part 1: Figuring out crowdsourcing: What does it mean? What’s working? What isn’t?
• Part 2: Crowdfunding, Investing and Donation 2.0
• Part 3: Digital Suggestion Box: how big corporations are asking for help
• Part 4: The Competition Model
• Part 5: The evolution of mass customization and personal manufacturing
• Part 6: Expert sourcing for problem solving and innovation
• Part 7: Many hands make light work: The atomization of work
• Part 8: Collaborative Content Creation; or, Crowdsourcing your way to creativity

Key Resources

1. Twitter feeds on mass customization and personal fabrication
2. An DIY Bio FAQ
3. 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 [8]

Articles

• Essay: The Homebrew Industrial Revolution. Kevin Carson. C4SS, 2009 [9]: overview of contemporary trends in distributed manufacturing

1. Kevin Carson: Expanding Peer Production to the Physical World
2. The economics of open hardware (Liquid Antipasto blog)
3. On the Open Design of Tangible Goods. By Christina Raasch, Cornelius Herstatt and Kerstin Balka. R&D Management. Volume 39 Issue 4, Pages 382 - 393 Preprint version: detailed comparative case studies of 6 projects.
4. Dominic Muren: The Three Preconditions for Free Digital Manufacturing
5. Magius: Difference Between Shared Code for Immaterial Production and Shared Design for Material Production More on Shared Design

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. Kevin Carson: Emilia-Romagna as an example of sustainable manufacturing
4. Neil Gershenfeld on the need for a new digital maker literacy
5. Paul Fernhout: The Differences between Open Agriculture and Open Manufacturing
6. David A. Mellis: How Open Source Hardware differs from Open Source Software?
7. Horizontal Innovation Networks By and For Users. Eric von Hippel. Industrial and Corporate Change 2007 [10]: "In this article, we discuss three conditions under which user innovation networks can function entirely independently of manufacturers. We then explore related empirical evidence, and conclude that conditions favorable to horizontal user innovation networks are often present in the economy."
8. Volume 21 of Make Magazine is dedicated to Desktop Manufacturing: Features how-to articles that give individuals and small groups the know-how to make three-dimensional parts using inexpensive computer-controlled manufacturing equipment. Both additive (RepRap, CandyFab) and subtractive (Lumenlab Micro CNC) systems are covered.
9. Chris Anderson: In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits: reportage of the emerging field
10. Toward Open Source Hardware. John R. Ackermann. UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON LAW REVIEW VOLUME 34 WINTER 2009 NUMBER 2, pp. 183+ [11]: this paper on hardware licensing is too date the definitive analysis.
11. S Bradshaw, A Bowyer and P Haufe, "The Intellectual Property Implications of Low-Cost 3D Printing", (2010) 7:1 SCRIPTed 5 [12]
12. Kevin Carson: Criminalizing the Informal Economy through Cost Plus Regulations

Also:

1. Many articles on Open Hardware here at http://opencollector.org/Whyfree/

Blogs

A comprehensive list of Fabrication Media is kept by the Fab Wiki [13]

A selection:

1. openMaterials
2. 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.
3. Replicator: "This blog is about the companies and products that combine the connectivity of the internet with the physicality of products."
4. Ponoko: blog from 3D printing company
5. Thingiverse

See also:

1. Robotics Blog
2. Mass customization blog

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. [14]
• Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material Techniques: "If i had to recommend you one book about the use of digital tools in architecture, it would be this one." - Regine Debatty [15]

Technical

• Better be Running. Ronald Hollis: "the most complete intro to additive fabrication" [16]

Community and Discussion Sources

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

See also:

• Fab Wiki [17] is dedicated to maintaining informtion on Digital Fabrication
• 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."

and:

• Our Design Network

Companies

Selection from the List of Open Hardware Organizations from GOSH 2009

• Open Pattern - Embedded Systems Engineering (OSH) - Paris, France
• Make Magazine - promotes DIY and OSH culture
• Adafruit (OSH electronics) - New York USA
• Oomlout (OSH electronics) - Vancouver BC
• Liquidware (OSH electronics) - USA
• Modern Device Company (OSH electronics)- Rhode Island, USA
• Evil Mad Scientist (OSH electronics)- USA
• Traversal Technologies - U.K.
• SparkFun Electronics - Colorado USA (e.g. Lilypad, Arduino pro and PCB design libraries)
• NORTD (OSH + OSS multitouch) - New York USA and Austria EU

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.

Examples

See Product Hacking for our comprehensive open hardware and manufacturing directory

• Top 5 Consumer Open Source Hardware Projects, i.e. 'ready to use':

1. Chumby: "The internet-alarm clock-information-station does more than just run Linux. With a 3.5” touchscreen, an ARM9, integrated Wi-Fi, and an accelerometer, all wrapped up in a rotund, friendly enclosure, there’s no question that it’s a bona fide consumer gadget."
2. Bug Labs’ BUG
3. The VIA OpenBook was a concept for an open source hardware netbook released in 2008. Unfortunately, while VIA has long since launched other netbooks, it seems like this was more a marketing attempt than a full-fledged project.
4. Qi Hardware NanoNote: an open source hardware handheld mobile PC
5. OpenMoko’s Neo FreeRunner: open source smartphone

Organizations

Open Hardware Organizations:

• Open Hardware Initiative: Lobbying Open Source Hardware
• Open Hardware Foundation

Podcasts

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

Tools

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 [18]
3. Product Hacking: directory of Open Source Hardware projects
4. 3D Filter: 3D Model Search Engine: trawl sites such as Cadyou, Google 3D warehouse, The 3D Studio and seven others for 3D models in a variety of formats as well as textures

Shared Design Shops

1. n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com: an open source web site under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license: in which generative design methods are used to create new forms of products with the use of rapid prototyping methods. It allows members to login, download, upload and create designs.
2. open furniture: OF is an open source platform that exhanges and sells designs. The concept of this effort is to create a company that can be profitable while, at the same time, can keep its interest in the idea of sharing and exchanging. The platform is open to anyone interested in design and it functions based on a point system that facilitates users to download and fabricate products.
3. SourceShop - an Open Source Platform: SourceShop is a shop of digitally fabricated designer products that can be purchased by anybody. This exchange intends to go beyond its commercial aspect by expanding knowledge towards the world of digital fabrication. The main goal of SourceShop is to share knowledge between students, participants and all interested people of digital fabrication.

Webcasts

• Neil Gershenfeld on Personal Fabrication: MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld talks about his Fab Lab -- a low-cost lab that lets people build things they need using digital and analog tools. It's a simple idea with powerful results.[19]
• 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!!

Practical:

• Pettis. Hoeken. MakerBot.

Also:

(A to C only, ported from our Webcasts directory)

1. Arwen O'Reilly on the DIY Renaissance
2. Beth Kolko on the effect of Hackers and ProduSers on Creativity and Consumerism
3. Bre Pettis on Creating Hackerspaces ; Bre Pettis on Rapid Prototyping
4. Bruce Sterling on Industrial Products And Ubiquity ; Bruce Sterling on the Internet of Things and Spimes
5. CNC Embroidering ; CNC Milling Process Videos
6. Cameron Sinclair on Open Source Architecture
7. Chris Anderson on the New Manufacturing
8. Christine Peterson on Open Source Sensing
9. Citizen Engineer

Material on Specialized Industries

See the following tags:

1. Food and Water, requiring Agriculture
2. Fashion
3. Energy
4. Transportation

The special case of the fashion industry

1. Between the Seams, A Fertile Commons: An Overview of the Relationship Between Fashion and Intellectual Property. By Christine Cox and Jennifer Jenkins: explores the relationship between fashion and various U.S. intellectual property regimes, examining why fashion design generally is not protectable under copyright, design patent, trademark or trade dress.
2. Ready to Share: Creativity in Fashion and Digital Culture. By David Bollier and Laurie Racine: argues that the fashion business reveals a great deal about the “cultural hydraulics” of creativity and the novel ways in which intellectual property law can foster, and not restrict, creative freedom.

Open Manufacturing Encyclopedia