Fab business

Fab Business site

Showcases

(t.b.a.)

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

Online Community

(t.b.a.)

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
• 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)