Netherlands
Contact info: Klaas Hernamdt and Ton Zijlstra make up the FabLab Foundation BeNeLux. First point of contact is Ton, ton@fabfolk.com
The Netherlands has a high density of FabLabs.
The first FabLab in the Netherlands opened up in Amsterdam in 2007, and the network has been growing ever since.
The general website for the Dutch FabLabs is http://fablab.nl/ but each lab also has its own web presence.
The http://fabLab.nl website has English postings and provides a RSS feed separately for English language postings.
The FabLab Foundation BeNeLux owns the FabLab trademark for Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. All FabLabs are independent initiatives, and get a FabLab trademark license if they adhere to the FabLab concept / charter. The FabLab Foundation BeNeLux is the vehicle for network based and community focussed tasks.
The FabLab Foundation BeNeLux holds the following domain names (let us know if you have use for one of the unused ones in a FabLab context):
fabfoundation.nl fabfoundation.eu fabacademy.nl fabacademy.eu fabfund.nl fabfund.eu http://fab6.nl fab6.net fab6.org http://fablab.nl http://stichtingfablab.nl stichtingfablab.be stichtingfablab.lu fablab.lu http://fab-lab.net/
Current challenges
the BeNeLux FabLabs see a number of challenges they are facing, and where they welcome collaboration:
Better and stronger roots in the local community, creating a real local eco-system in a city, so that the potential group of people using the FabLab is much bigger;
Better and stronger, more meaningful connections within the BeNeLux network of FabLabs, so that the network can provide services and tasks no singular FabLab can, and a ‘BeNeLux community’ also of users, can emerge;
Better and stronger, more meaningful connections to the global network of FabLabs, so that the vision of sharing designs globally and building them locally, leading to local resilience drawing on global knowledge can become reality more;
More revenue sources, so that BeNeLux FabLabs can go without public funding and can sustain themselves;
Better ways of documenting what projects take place in a FabLab, so that sharing designs and experiences really becomes possible;
Maintaining value for the community, while FabLab equipment will become available to more individual people.
