An overview of the Digital DIY phenomenon, the risks and opportunities it brings, and how, and why, the H2020 DiDIY project is studying it

1. Digital DIY
opportunities and challenges
for the european society
Paris Open Source Summit
16 November 2016
by Marco Fioretti

2. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Agenda
● Definition and examples of Digital DIY
● Goals of the DiDIY Project
● First DiDIY results, most relevant issues
● Towards the DiDIY guidelines: DiDIY models and
Policy Patterns
● Beyond DiDIY: (common?) future work

3. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Definition of DiDIY (Digital DIY)
● a social, NOT technical phenomenon, based on
– Much easier and cheaper production of all sorts of“products”, including “unique” ones
– accessible knowledge
● DiDIY empowers people to:
– do things that they could have never done otherwise, e.g "sculpting" without using
one’s hands
– build things together, through open online communities
● Its greatest «enemies» are NOT technical limits, as much as legal, social
and political barriers

4. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY examples
●Guns and other dangerous stuff? Of course, but also...

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Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY examples (2)
More customized, affordable services...

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Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY examples (3)
New ways to teach, learn and be creative

7. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY examples (4)
Customizable, modular appliances that last decades

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Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY examples (5)
Unique DIY furniture,
copies of designer pieces

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Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY examples (6)
Right to Repair (or buy), discontinued products
or their spare parts, at the COMMUNITY fablab!

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Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY examples (7)
Make rural activities more sustainable

11. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Summary: DiDIY...
● Makes «personal» manufacturing much easier and
cheaper
● Gives potentially to everybody the freedom to:
– Own (only) what they really need
– Create spare parts for what they already own
– Reduce pollution
– Share all these benefits with everybody else

12. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY is what
we saw in the
movies...
coming real

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Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
So, if...
● Freedom is good, and...
● Digital DIY gives more people more freedom...
● So Digital DIY is good, right?

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Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
WAIT!
● Freedom is good
● But people are dangerous
● What can/must happen when DiDIY becomes
commonplace, and goes outside the personal sphere?

15. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Goals of the DiDIY Project
● DiDIY can lead to deep changes in the roles and relations among individuals,
organizations, and society, with both opportunities and threats
● The H2020 DiDIY Project studies these scenarios, and all their
long term implications for European society
● The deliverables of the project, which will end in June 2017, will include
guidelines, for EU educators and policy makers, about how to deal with
DiDIY and maximize its positive impacts on society.

16. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
First DiDIY results, main issues
● Rigorous definition of the phenomenon:
– DiDIY Knowledge Framework
– DiDIY Vocabulary
● Overviews of legal/regulatory issues – reports on
– Consumer safety, consumer protection, product liability…
– Intellectual property, Right to Repair, “personal use” of digital designs…
– Creativity, education, organization and work
● June 2017: final guidelines for EU educators and policy makers,
about how to deal with DiDIY and maximize its positive impacts on society

17. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Towards the DiDIY guidelines:
integrative mathematical models
● extend and complement qualitative analyses and descriptions
● open and highly reusable
● Average wealth without (left) and with plan sharing (right).

18. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Towards the DiDIY guidelines:
DiDIY Policy Patterns
●http://didiy.referata.com:
A repository of “policy patterns”:
● short descriptions of a solution to a particular problem (along with other
helpful information)
● others can freely adopt and reusethe patterns to their own needs and
situation
● we invite everybody who is interested to add their own patterns, and refine
existing ones

19. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
● http://didiy.referata.com: repository of “policy patterns”:
● short descriptions of a solution to a particular problem (along with other
helpful information)
● others can freely adopt and reusethe patterns to their own needs and
situation
● we invite everybody who is interested to add their own patterns, and refine
existing ones
Example of DiDIY Policy Pattern

20. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Thanks and.. let’s work together!
● Questions?
● See you at www.didiy.eu to...
● Share relevant contacts and info
● Discuss how to work together to: promote,
reuse and further develop the findings of DiDIY...
also after the end of the project (June 2017)!
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant
agreement No 644344. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this website do not necessarily reflect the views of the EC.