FAB6 community fabfoo

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Notes from the FAB6 community requirements fab foo session on 2010-08-18 in Amsterdam.

The idea behind this session was start the process of requirements elicitation for what the community tools might look like. The range of topics was pretty broad, dealing at a number of different levels of abstraction.

There will be additional pages on this wiki as we actually begin to analyze and structure these requirements. Please add comments here, but try not to drastically change the structure, as the idea behind this page is to transcribe what we discussed at the session, not necessarily to take it to the next step.

Abbreviations SIG - Special Interest Group

Audience

  • internal to lab
    • users
    • volunteers
    • staff, interns
    • local SIGs
    • external groups coming in to use the labs in an organized fashion (e.g., schools)
  • currently within fablab community
    • SIGs that cross fablabs (e.g., lab managers, electronics gurus)
    • lab managers
  • External to community
    • general public
    • funding/government agencies
    • press
    • allied organizations (makerspace, hackerspace)

Locality

  • local to lab
  • regional
  • global
  • virtual presence (e.g., polycom)
  • SIG

Type of communication

  • One-way, static
    • user profiles, user directories
    • wiki
    • syndication
      • curated (e.g., "fabdot")
      • non-curated streams
  • static with limited feedback
    • blogs with comments
    • fabmoments with comments
    • news
  • two-way interactive
    • 1 <-> 1
      • email
      • instant messaging
    • 1 -> N
      • IRC chat
      • mailing lists
    • N <-> N
      • forum discussions
      • video discussion
      • shared calendars
  • re-sharing
    • community sites (e.g., facebook)
    • shared bookmarks
    • distributed rating systems (e.g., digg)
    • microblogging (e.g., twitter)

Dimensions of communication

  • teacher to novice
  • peer to peer
  • async vs. sync

Focus of solution

  • setting standards/practices (e.g., "use fabfolk for community")
  • technology solutions (e.g., pre-packaged Drupal system for fablab sharing system)
  • websites, deployed tools (e.g., fabfolk.com, fabhub.net)
  • systems integration (e.g., using openid to have shared identity between websites)
  • Culture
  • social
    • meetings
    • videoconference
    • friends/connections

Content

  • Software list (better than MIT list)
  • Baseline processes
    • plus links to variations/refinements/alternatives
  • Links to recommended external content (e.g., reprap)
  • Press kit
    • not just for press, but for anyone that wants to get basic understanding
    • Needs translation into local languages
  • FAQ
    • Most important, "how do I become a FabLab?"
  • Lab list w/links (maintain on FabWiki, or not?)
  • FabLab charter (on MIT site)
  • How to access the polycom network
  • project files archive (curated or raw?)
  • tutorials for standard equipment
  • lab inventory (in an easily digested format - not unstructured text!)
  • vendors
    • equipment
    • materials
    • services
  • "best of" projects
  • "about us"
    • very wide scope - global, + contact for each lab?

Branding

  • Dutch Fab Foundation has made progress on this
  • Trademark on term "FabLab"
  • Enforced standards - what does it take to be called a FabLab

Capabilities

  • Curation mechanisms
    • rating system
  • Identity management
    • grouping/authorization (technical - how to use identity to do authorization)

Guiding principles

  • no single points of responsibility ("Lass doesn't scale")
  • Not reliant on any one person or organization (continuity)
    • how does this relate to the decision to use FabFolk as central hub?
  • Lead by example
    • share what we (people discussing community) using the common tools

User Scenarios

(Intended to be use case analysis on how people interact with the community tools - needs to be done)


Concrete to-dos

  • Move fabhub forums to fabfolk
  • pilot for sharing files/projects for sites that don't have web infrastructure (e.g., Fox Valley)
  • Form fablab community special interest group (SIG)
    • recruit members
    • create spaces to communicate
      • SIG forum
      • mailing list for announcements
      • near-time messaging
      • workspace on fabwiki
  • Make this (the notes written up here) available through our community tools (done!)



Source

Notes were compiled from these three photos: