As a professor in “Revolution in the Manufacturing Industry”, Peter examines the impact of new, direct digital manufacturing technologies and methods ( such as Fab Labs and 3D printing) for design and manufacturing.

2. Maker Movement
Peter Troxler
@trox
petertroxler.org

3. About me
Research Professor on the Revolution in Manufacturing at Rotterdam
University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands.
Impact of readily available direct digital manufacturing technologies
and the design and manufacturing practice of “fabbers” and “makers”
Emergence of networked co-operation paradigms and business models
governed by open source principles.
educational principles that are aligned to these developments
third spaces and new manufacturing initiatives in urban environments
How the relationships between people and tools, people and capital,
and people and authorities need to be remodeled for the development
novel socio-technical configurations.

5. Key findings in my work
• Making started some 15 years ago (5 years before the term)
– Fab Lab, Center for Bits and Atoms, 2001
• Maker Movement starts around 2005/2006
– Rep Rap
– Maker Faire, Make Magazine
– Fab Lab Network grows beyond a few planned sites
• Don’t forget—there was a world before 2001 and people
have been making / boutique manufacturing
• Making marks the advent of digital technology and direct
digital manufacturing at desktop level (this is essentially the
promise of Fab; not of the Maker movement / TechShop)

6. 4 aspects of Making
1. Hedonistic pass-time—”maker”
2. Innovation in technology education (STEM)
3. Romantic notion of the reconciliation of liberal arts and
science and engineering
4. Revolution in manufacturing—small-size, networked,
distributed, lateral and open source governance
NB. the recent RSA study combines 3 and 4 into one which I think is not correct.

7. Citizen Manufacturing
Fab Lab (Neil Gershenfeld, MIT,
2001)
Center for Bits and Atoms
"How to make (almost) anything"
CNC milling
Laser cutting
3D printing
Microcontroller programming
Electronics
Photo © 2012 Manon Mostert – van der Sar, with permission

8. Maker Movement
Makerspaces
MAKE magazine
MAKER faire
MAKER shed
http://makermedia.com (ex O'Reilly)
Techshop Inc.
Bay Area
The Maker Movement Manifesto:
Rules for Innovation in the new World of
Crafters, Hackers and Tinkerers
Duplo Brick to Brio Track adapter by Zydac

9. Create more
Consume less

10. © 2012, Abhijit Baduri, cc-by-sa-nc, http://www.flickr.com/photos/53272102@N06/7518449070/

11. Revolution
• New industries:
boutique manufacturing
– clients as ambassadors, product developers, usability experts,
marketeers and business developers.
– paths to reusing, repurposing or recycling products
– stories that connect business & products & clients
– prototyping of business models
• Existing industry (incumbents):
“innovation”
– internal innovation garages
– “open innovation” (Chesbrough)—large-scale operations to
harvest ideas/innovation publicly for cheap

12. Makers are starting to
reimagine the systems
that surround the world
around them.
Jason Tester

13. Open Manufacturing
What does Open mean in the term “open manufacturing”?
What does Manufacturing mean in the term “open manufacturing”?
Manufacturing vs. Making—beyond producing for a market of one,
beyond technology as personal expression:
adding economic, ecologic and social value by producing artifacts.
Open—“x-washing” (“open” innovation) vs. what has been closed
about manufacturing?
but: “freedom of the press belongs to the one who owns one”
access vs. contribution

14. Failures & Challenges
• Male dominance
• Nice-to-have
• Idiosyncratic projects
• Privilege (rich, well-educated)
• Tech-naïve
• Corporate-friendly
• Neo-liberal
• Randian hero (objectivism)
• Technocratic
• Social relevance
• Sustainable (ecology)—circular
• Eschew stardom
• Inclusive
• Ethics of technology
• Critical of economic power
• Critical of political power
• Non-elitist
• Socio-technical

15. Democracy and
citizenship
have to be made.
Saskia Sassen