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The Makerspace Is the Next Open Source Frontier
An anonymous reader writes: Jono Bacon explains that in the same way open source spawned millions of careers and thousands of companies, the same openness has massive potential when applied to products. It could potentially jumpstart a revolution in how we conceptualize, build, and share things and how we experiment and innovate to push the boundaries of science and technology. He outlines some steps for adapting open source principles to physical creations: "...we will need to create a premise of a blueprint bundle. In much the same way I can download a branch from Git or a tarball with some code, complete with build system, we will want to be able to download a single branch or tarball with the full software, hardware designs, and more for how to create an open product. ... we will need to figure out how we collaborate and improve different pieces of these projects. For example, if someone refines a 3D printed piece of a drone, how do they fork the blueprints, submit their changes, have them reviewed, and get them merged into the project? Another question could relate to automated testing: when building physical products we can't always afford to build and test new physical hardware for it to then crash and burn, so how can we have unit tests for hardware or test in a virtual setting?"
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It doesn't. There's no replacement for experience and actually working on things for real. A lot of 'makers' don't understand this.
Just as an example, Ikea is manufacturing ten thousand flatpack shelters. This was the result of people with materials experience getting together with people that manage refugee camps and are aware of the conditions, and people that do shipping and other materiel distribution, so that they could manufacture something that's durable, simple to assemble, and capable of being transported easily. Sure, corrugated plastic, extruded metal tubing, and rivets aren't sexy like a 3d printer, but the point was to build and deliver a product, not to navel-gaze in self-congratulatory smugness while the 3d printer warms up...
Sorry, I don't have a lot of respect for "makers". Those that self-identify with that label are as silly as those rooftop gardeners in high-density environments that try to call their 2' by 6' patch of dirt a "farm".
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
if someone refines a 3D printed piece of a drone, how do they fork the blueprints, submit their changes, have them reviewed, and get them merged into the project?
Where I work, this happens as part of our normal product develop processes. Design documents, whether for hardware or software, are still documents. Granted, "merging" changes in a "blueprint" or 3D model is harder to do, but not impossible. Right now, it still requires a lot of human work, but that can improve over time.
Don't try to out wierd me, three-eyes. I get stranger things than you, free with my breakfast cereal. --Zaphod Beeblebr
In other words, 'nerds' will discover what the DIY and crafting communities have been doing for longer than any of us have been alive, but since THEY do not have those hobbies it must be a new revolutionary idea!
Which is kinda the pattern I see a lot in tech, people living in bubbles discovering what others have already been doing, giving it a new name, and claiming they came up with something new that all those non-makers couldn't have.
Most makerspaces are hobbyist-level workshops. They don't usually have industrial grade software or fabrication machines available, because those are expensive. I'm working on the idea of a "MakerNet", where instead of a converted warehouse space with hobbyist tools and home-made workbenches, you have more commercial-grade machines spread around, either run as small businesses, or owned by groups of more serious hobbyists. For example, a $6,000 lathe might be split among half a dozen people. When you have a more serious project to do, you send the files for the various pieces to the respective machines that can make them. You also send payment, or deduct from a network account, to pay for the raw materials and other items you use up.
So higher quality machines, and people who regularly use them, therefore better output. But networked and distributed cost, so it is affordable on a hobbyist budget, and you have access to machines you can't afford on your own. Makerspaces can certainly be part of such a network. They would just need to have some machines and people that are able to do the better quality work.