Fab business

Here are some ideas about some Fab Lab Business models.

2011 Discussion

1 Feb 2011 (John)

• Uploaded draft file "Documenting Lab Sustainability" (http://www.fablab.is/w/images/f/f2/Documenting_Lab_Sustainability_-_Jan_11_2011_DRAFT.pdf) to use for interviewing and learning more about labs that are sustainable.

18 Jan 2011 (trox)

• explained additional material
• agreed on procedure as follows
  • use John's (improved) list of questions for the first interview
  • use Business Model Canvas for analysis
  • fill in gaps in second interview
• next steps
  • John to refine his set of questions (until end of the week, to everyone)
  • everyone to comment on refined list (until Mon Jan 24)
• next meeting: Fab 1, 1400 UK time (1500 CET, 0800 Eastern)
  • use Frosti as quinea pig to be interviewed (as a dry run of the questionnaire)

11 Jan 2011 (trox)

• Draft questionnaire John Boeck
• Experiences from India (Dhananjay)
• Additional material Trox (Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/businessmodelgeneration_preview.pdf), Hackerspaces Design Patterns (http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Design_Patterns))

5 Jan 2011 (Sherry)

We just had a short Fab Biz meeting online with me, Troxler and Boeck. As noted below, in my fevered fog, I forgot to send out advance notice so attendance was less than usual. We discussed the need to generate case studies in fab lab sustainability for the community, to help guide both established labs and labs coming into being.

We've identitfied four labs that we think we can start with:

• Manchester (business prototyping),
• Lyngen Norway (community lab),
• Barcelona (educational institution), and
• Amersfoort (new approach to building a sustainable fab lab).

Our next meeting will be next Tuesday at 8:00AM US East Coast time, if we can do this via Polycom/video conference, that would be terrific. But we can also skype in the folks who can't make the videoconfernece. We would greatly like the participation of Kenya (Kamua) and India (Dhananjay) if at all possible, as their experiences can inform our process greatly.

Online Community

• Proposal
• Case Studies
• Tools

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• Homework for next telco, due 16 July 2010 eob
• Notes from telco 7 July 2010
• Notes from telco 16 June 2010
• Notes from telco 21 May 2010

Ideas for revenue

Thoughts on how to make Fab Labs more sustainable.

Ideas that can make revenue for Fab Labs

• Knowledge
  • Solve problems
  • Education programs
• Fabrication
• Designs
• Global meeting point

Showcases

One idea is to organize events or place where the labs can present their ideas. People could join in to the Fab Lab network around the world. Each lab could present few ideas at each time. (2-3)

The purpose of the presentation could be

• a) to share knowledge
• b) to seek for knowledge
• c) to present the idea for possible partners (e.g. technical partners or business partners)

Different meetings could be held around different topics. Each idea should come with some basic information.

Every inventor should write this about his/hers idea:

• Idea number.
• Name of idea:
• Inventors name:
• Description
• Collaboration details
• Type of partner sought
• Sectors / Categories

These could be events where inventors and possible investors could be led together

Physical Presence

Before trying to start TheUltimateFabLabDirectory I'd rather provide a few links to where such information is already collected:

• The list of labs maintained at MIT is here: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/labs/
• Ton Zylstra has initiated a MindMeister diagram of "all" Fab Labs (maintained by the community) here: http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show_public/12546135?password=FabLabNL
• There is a google map, linked from the Fab Lab Links site
• On the Icelandic wiki there is a list at the bottom of the Main_Page which can be seen (and edited) here: Template:LabsBlock -- I'll include it below
• Also, Wikipedia's entry on Fab Labs carries a list of labs: wikipedia:Fab_lab#Lab_Locations

Labs | map
Minimal conditions for being a FabLab (EN/FR/DE)
Africa	Europe		North America
Ghana Sekondi-Takoradi: TTI Fab Lab Kenya Majiwa: ARO Fablab Kenya West South Africa Soshanguve: BMW community center, Bright Youth Council Pretoria: Innovation Hub Cape Town Asia Afghanistan Jalalabad India Pabal: Vigyan Ashram Delhi: Under construction Pune : College of Engineering,Pune	Austria Vienna: Happylab - Vienna Fab Lab Belgium Leuven KU Leuven Gent Timelab Czech Republic Prague: fleq (planned) France Toulouse: Artilect FabLab Gennevilliers: [FacLab http://www.faclab.org/] Germany Aachen: RWTH FabLab Munich: FabLab München (planned) Berlin: Betahaus Potsdam: Science Shop Potsdam (planned) Dusseldorf Nuremberg planned Hamburg planned Bremen planned Iceland Akranes Reykjavík Saudarkrokur Vestmannaeyjar: NMÍ	Netherlands Amsterdam: Waag Society Utrecht: Protospace Den Haag: CabFabLab Groningen: FabLab Groningen Arnhem: HAN FabTruck: mobile lab Amersfoort: FabLab Amersfoort Enschede: FabLab Enschede Rotterdam: to be opened around 1 Nov 2011 Dutch Initiatives: planned labs Norway Lyngen: MIT Fab Lab Norway Spain Barcelona: Institute for Advanced Architecture in Catalonia DHUB Barcelona: DHUB LABoral FabLAB, Gijón [1] Sweden Malmø: Under construction Switzerland Luzern/Lucerne UK Manchester: The Manufacturing Institute Cambridge: Makespace, http://makespace.org/	USA Mobile fab lab: MIT Massachusetts, Boston : South End Technology Center (SetC) New York, South Bronx : Sustainable South Bronx Ohio Elyria : Lorain County Community College Cleveland : MC2 STEM High School 41.A Illinois, Chicago: Museum of Science and Industry Wisconsin, Appleton: Fox Valley Technical College Minnesota, White Bear Lake: Century College California, San Diego: Heads on Fire Oklahoma, Ponca City: Pioneer Technology Center (Manufacturing Education Training System Skills on Wheels Mobile Lab) Oklahoma, Claremore: Will Rogers Junior High School South America Costa Rica Peru Lima

Further Reading

A list of near-random readings from the web on Fab Lab business model

• The Fab Fund presentation from Fab5: http://cba.mit.edu/events/09.08.FAB5/FabFund.pdf
• Chris Anderson's Wired article (Jan 2010), http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_newrevolution/all/1, and the Gizmodo reply http://gizmodo.com/5457461/atoms-are-not-bits-wired-is-not-a-business-magazine
• the copy shop (Kinko's) analogy, e.g. http://www.sampablokuper.com/2010/04/19/commercially-copying-the-fab-lab/
• the "market of one": http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200604/gershenfeld.cfm
• Hobbyist Knowing, thesis by Tanja Kotro, related paper: http://www.humantechnology.jyu.fi/articles/volume3/2007/kotro.pdf
• Cloud Fab: http://www.cloudfab.com/fab_facts/cloudfab
• the inventor model, e.g. http://wistechnology.com/articles/4908/, http://www.newnorthb2b.com/mar09cvrstry.html
• Eric Hunting ((ToolBook), on the ToolBook microcosm business idea: http://groups.google.com:80/group/openmanufacturing/browse_thread/thread/57c91e1db7b877c8?pli=1
• Fab Labs have a health-club model: http://fussingwithstuff.com/2007/10/personal-fabrication-summit.html
• an interesting interaction on "Open Business Models"; 2 fundamentally different understandings of "open": http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2009-March/001648.html
• a shapeways blog post on 3D printing:: http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/358-HP-3D-printing-PLASTIC-JAM-OPEN-INPUT-TRAYS.html
• Michel Bouwens on peer-to-peer manufacturing: http://www.masternewmedia.org/how-peer-production-and-economic-p2p-model-can-subvert-physical-production/ (on a horrible site)