1 of 72

FALL 2024

“why” and “who” makes

almost anything

dec 5 recitation

2 of 72

Fab All In Recitation @FabAcademy - FALL 2024

5:05 Welcome to the FabLab Network

from around the World:

Sherry Lassiter + All

“Why” Make (Almost) Anything - welcoming everyone
Fab Lab Network - intro highlights

5:15 Collaboration + Natural/Cultural Context Beno Juarez

Symbio Game collaboration
FabLab in Peru/Amazonian Region

5:25 FabLab - Social Infrastructure & Large-Scale Systems Change - Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Academany, Fab Foundation, etc. as part of the Consortia Century!

Thinking laterally -- not just top-down or bottom-up
Orienting and connecting to do together what you can’t do separately

Your experience doing together what you can’t do separately

Designing human/social systems

5:35 “Fab All In – sampler!” - Vaneza, (Rico tbd), others with Megan + All

Expanding Aperture: Vaneza Caycho, Lima, Peru
Fab All In - Fab Lab Sampler
Fab All-In Course Overview
5 Interactive Content Sessions (Intro/Welcome + 4 topical clusters) – with 4 Exercises: RoseBudThorn, 5Ws+H, Ask-Listen-Engage, SolutionsPalooza!
2 Skills Sessions + Office Hours (optional)
Final SolutionsPalooza celebration session

5:45: Solution Making Through Inclusion - Megan Smith

Scout & Scale, Build Communities of Practice, Network the Networks (Cross Fluency), Spring Pilot Prototype (begin as a way to begin), Share Stories and Data

5:50 Q&A // Discussion

3 of 72

The Fab Lab Network

~3000 Labs in 150+ Countries

https://www.fablabs.io/labs/map

35,000 Users, 450 organizations

WELCOME TO THE NETWORK!!

Fablabs.io | +3,000 LABS | +35,000 USERS

4 of 72

The Fab Lab Network

~3000 Labs in 150+ Countries

https://www.fablabs.io/labs/map

35,000 Users, 450 organizations

WELCOME TO THE NETWORK!!

Fablabs.io | +3,000 LABS | +35,000 USERS

Exploration and sharing

Belonging

Achievement

Composition

any topic

any person

5 of 72

It’s not only about the machines…

(

+

)

+

it’s what we do together.

Global Community of Practice

6 of 72

.edu

.org

.com

7 of 72

2001

Fab Labs, and the Fab Foundation emerged from the Center for Bits & Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Neil Gershenfeld, a Physicist, established the Center with a grant from our National Science Foundation. We were tasked with researching the digital-physical boundary. Where ”Its” meet “Bits”. In essence our research merges physical science with computer science, exploring the potential of the digital bits of computation becoming physical objects, and vice versa, the physic objects of the world becoming digital representations.

Through the National Science Foundation funding, we were able to establish a large digital fabrication research facility at MIT, one that would allow us to make physical objects from the nano-scale to the building scale, and to measure and actuate electronically to microsecond resolution. Our students pulled for access to these tools, both for their MIT projects, but also for personal expression. Prof. Gershenfeld created a course called “How to Make (Almost) Anything” that would teach the principles and practices of digital fabrication and personal expression in one semester. Student projects went beyond our wildest imagination, showing the power of digital fabrication for both innovation as well as personal express. For example one student make a web browser for parrots, such that they could visit other parrots online. Another created a dress that protects a woman’s personal space – if a gentleman gets closer that 2 feet away, the dress deploys metal spins that keep the suitor at a distance. One created an alarm clock that you have to wrestle with to turn off. And of course we had students create communication devices, networking devices and much much more. This class, and this facility are what inspired the fab lab concept.

8 of 72

2001

Fab Labs, and the Fab Foundation emerged from the Center for Bits & Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Neil Gershenfeld, a Physicist, established the Center with a grant from our National Science Foundation. We were tasked with researching the digital-physical boundary. Where ”Its” meet “Bits”. In essence our research merges physical science with computer science, exploring the potential of the digital bits of computation becoming physical objects, and vice versa, the physic objects of the world becoming digital representations.

Through the National Science Foundation funding, we were able to establish a large digital fabrication research facility at MIT, one that would allow us to make physical objects from the nano-scale to the building scale, and to measure and actuate electronically to microsecond resolution. Our students pulled for access to these tools, both for their MIT projects, but also for personal expression. Prof. Gershenfeld created a course called “How to Make (Almost) Anything” that would teach the principles and practices of digital fabrication and personal expression in one semester. Student projects went beyond our wildest imagination, showing the power of digital fabrication for both innovation as well as personal express. For example one student make a web browser for parrots, such that they could visit other parrots online. Another created a dress that protects a woman’s personal space – if a gentleman gets closer that 2 feet away, the dress deploys metal spins that keep the suitor at a distance. One created an alarm clock that you have to wrestle with to turn off. And of course we had students create communication devices, networking devices and much much more. This class, and this facility are what inspired the fab lab concept.

9 of 72

fabfoundation.org

10 of 72

EDUCACIÓN E

INVESTIGACIÓN

.EDU

The Academy of (almost) Anything

11 of 72

12 of 72

EDUCACIÓN E

INVESTIGACIÓN

.EDU

Fab City Global Initiative

MACHINES

MOBILITY

MONEY

ACCESS

FOOD

The network organically follows and supports projects that produce social and environmental impact. This project started in Barcelona in 2015, when the then Mayor of Barcelona signed a pledge to become a sustainable city within 40 years. The Fab City Gobal Initiative supports projects and programs that work to produce what they consume. IF we think about the economic model of a traditional city like Barcelona, it was built by importing goods, and exporting trash. But the Fab City vision is to be locally productive, and globally connected, meaning that cities produce what they consume, supplies, manufacturing, distribution all happen locally, and designs are shared globally. There are more than 50 cities worldwide that have signed on to the Fab City project, including Plymouth! as the first FAB City in the UK. Also Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburb, Boston, and many more. Each city forms public-private partnerships between local fab labs and makers, the city government and local private interests to fund and guide each city’s participation. The goal is to have a playbook for sustainable cities within 40 years.

13 of 72

Addressing UN Sustainable Development Goals

14 of 72

Scout/Surface

& Scale…

Belonging, Impact, Composition, Infrastructure, Engagement, Fun, Decentered/All-In/Anyone-centered

(already in our network)

….solution making through inclusion

All-In =

Anyone/

Everyone +

All Topics

Belong

15 of 72

Indigenous Communities

Fab Labs

Research

Industry Collaborators

HyTech

A GLOBAL OPEN HYGIENE MATERIAL INITIATIVE

Open Source - Traditional knowledge - Local Production - Folklore - Biodiversity - Scientific Support

Open Global Archive: https://hytech.fabcloud.io/

16 of 72

Global and Regional Networks

17 of 72

Annual Fab Lab Network Conference & Symposium

July 4-11, 2025

Miana M Smith

18 of 72

Fab All In Recitation @FabAcademy - FALL 2024

5:05 Welcome to the FabLab Network

from around the World:

Sherry Lassiter + All

“Why” Make (Almost) Anything - welcoming everyone
Fab Lab Network - intro highlights

5:15 Collaboration + Natural/Cultural Context Beno Juarez

Symbio Game collaboration
FabLab in Peru/Amazonian Region

5:25 FabLab - Social Infrastructure & Large-Scale Systems Change - Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Academany, Fab Foundation, etc. as part of the Consortia Century!

Thinking laterally -- not just top-down or bottom-up
Orienting and connecting to do together what you can’t do separately

Your experience doing together what you can’t do separately

Designing human/social systems

5:35 “Fab All In – sampler!” - Vaneza, (Rico tbd), others with Megan + All

Expanding Aperture: Vaneza Caycho, Lima, Peru
Fab All In - Fab Lab Sampler
Fab All-In Course Overview
5 Interactive Content Sessions (Intro/Welcome + 4 topical clusters) – with 4 Exercises: RoseBudThorn, 5Ws+H, Ask-Listen-Engage, SolutionsPalooza!
2 Skills Sessions + Office Hours (optional)
Final SolutionsPalooza celebration session

5:45: Solution Making Through Inclusion - Megan Smith

Sount & Scale, Build Communities of Practice, Network the Networks (Cross Fluency), Spring Pilot Prototype (begin as a way to begin), Share Stories and Data

5:50 Q&A // Discussion

19 of 72

https://app.simbiocreacion.com/onedot/6751b4bf301d984800bdb492

20 of 72

21 of 72

Fab All In Recitation @FabAcademy - FALL 2024

5:05 Welcome to the FabLab Network

from around the World:

Sherry Lassiter + All

“Why” Make (Almost) Anything - welcoming everyone
Fab Lab Network - intro highlights

5:15 Collaboration + Natural/Cultural Context Beno Juarez

Symbio Game collaboration
FabLab in Peru/Amazonian Region

5:25 FabLab - Social Infrastructure & Large-Scale Systems Change - Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Academany, Fab Foundation, etc. as part of the Consortia Century!

Thinking laterally -- not just top-down or bottom-up
Orienting and connecting to do together what you can’t do separately

Your experience doing together what you can’t do separately

Designing human/social systems

5:35 “Fab All In – sampler!” - Vaneza, (Rico tbd), others with Megan + All

Expanding Aperture: Vaneza Caycho, Lima, Peru
Fab All In - Fab Lab Sampler
Fab All-In Course Overview
5 Interactive Content Sessions (Intro/Welcome + 4 topical clusters) – with 4 Exercises: RoseBudThorn, 5Ws+H, Ask-Listen-Engage, SolutionsPalooza!
2 Skills Sessions + Office Hours (optional)
Final SolutionsPalooza celebration session

5:45: Solution Making Through Inclusion - Megan Smith

Sount & Scale, Build Communities of Practice, Network the Networks (Cross Fluency), Spring Pilot Prototype (begin as a way to begin), Share Stories and Data

5:50 Q&A // Discussion

22 of 72

23 of 72

What Roses do you see around “all in” collaboration with digital fabrication?

What Thorns have you experienced or observed?

What Buds look promising?

24 of 72

Fab All In Recitation @FabAcademy - FALL 2024

5:05 Welcome to the FabLab Network

from around the World:

Sherry Lassiter + All

“Why” Make (Almost) Anything - welcoming everyone
Fab Lab Network - intro highlights

5:15 Collaboration + Natural/Cultural Context Beno Juarez

Symbio Game collaboration
FabLab in Peru/Amazonian Region

5:25 FabLab - Social Infrastructure & Large-Scale Systems Change - Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Academany, Fab Foundation, etc. as part of the Consortia Century!

Thinking laterally -- not just top-down or bottom-up
Orienting and connecting to do together what you can’t do separately

Your experience doing together what you can’t do separately

Designing human/social systems

5:35 “Fab All In – sampler!” - Vaneza, (Rico tbd), others with Megan + All

Expanding Aperture: Vaneza Caycho, Lima, Peru
Fab All In - Fab Lab Sampler
Fab All-In Course Overview
5 Interactive Content Sessions (Intro/Welcome + 4 topical clusters) – with 4 Exercises: RoseBudThorn, 5Ws+H, Ask-Listen-Engage, SolutionsPalooza!
2 Skills Sessions + Office Hours (optional)
Final SolutionsPalooza celebration session

5:45: Solution Making Through Inclusion - Megan Smith

Sount & Scale, Build Communities of Practice, Network the Networks (Cross Fluency), Spring Pilot Prototype (begin as a way to begin), Share Stories and Data

5:50 Q&A5:50 Q&A // Discussion

25 of 72

26 of 72

How to Run a Noodle Shop

Applying Small Business Principles

to Sustain a DEI+ Community Fablab

Niniwanted/Jenny Lelong

The Skylab Workshop Experiment

27 of 72

if you see this, wait for the image to load :)

28 of 72

Start simple and facilitate the growth

“Great acts are made up of small deeds”, Lao Tzu

Local to Global

2015

2016

2017

2022

29 of 72

包括

(Hou katsu; inclusion)

Fab Kākou

(Fab all of us together)

Fab Todos Incluídos

(Fab all included)

Fab per Tutti

(Fab for everyone)

เอกภาพ

(unity, oneness)

आत्मनिर्भर

(aatmanirbhars; self realiant)

Luq’u nitghe shesh q’a ch’ghetnuh nitu nqezhada

(We all support our work for our future)

सबै भित्र

(All In)

Kaikenkattava

(All inclusive)

Fab pour tous

(Fab for everyone)

30 of 72

Fab All In – Intro to Our Collaborative Course Structure

31 of 72

Fab All In

Course Overview

STRUCTURE

5 Interactive Content + Conversations Sessions

Intro/Welcome kick off session (all in topics + people)
4 topical clusters: Systemic All-In Impact, The Natural/Cultural Context, Economic Vitality, Changing Systems, Together

4 Embedded Exercises:

RoseBudThorn, 5Ws+H, Ask-Listen-Engage, SolutionsPalooza!

2 Skills + Conversations Sessions - mixed in (2+5 above)
Office Hours for Co-work (optional)

Final SolutionsPalooza!! Celebration Session

32 of 72

Rose, Bud, Thorn

Your task is to observe.

Are there Roses you notice that could be lifted-up or expanded – as leading practices, actions, programs, methods, other – that make a difference?
Are there Thorns you see or recognize that work as barriers or create difficulties?
Are there Buds to identify as emerging opportunities?

Come prepared to share for 1 min. some of your observations (use 1 slide if you choose — to provide a visual image/images to support your update)

5Ws + How

What: What is your focus? Please specify the “Rose,” “Thorn,” or “Bud” to be addressed and do so as a potentially shared vision of success.

Why: Why are you doing this? Please indicate the “why” so that everyone involved is “on the same page” with the need for change.

Who: Who are the key co-creators, stakeholders, rightsholders, or futureholders relevant to your focus?

When: Please indicate key milestones with timing, both over the next 6 weeks and beyond.

Where: Where will this be taking place – both the overall location on the planet and any specific locations in your community?

How: What methods, strategies, and approaches will you use so that people can let go of the old and embrace what is new?

Act-Listen-Engage (multiple activities)

Dialogue/Sense of Urgency

Dialogue with others/diverse stakeholders to explore points of alignment and misalignment - motivating change. Try different configurations.

Whiteboard Flashmob

Create a communal whiteboard with everyone sharing ideas

Shared Vision of Success

What does this look like? Emphasis on “shared” in 3-5 years

33 of 72

MAY 13 + MAY 14, 2024

SOLUTIONSPALOOZA

34 of 72

Adrian Torres & Nuria Robles, Fab Lab León, Spain

When I'm not longer here...

35 of 72

QR link to documentation

When we talk about a Fab Lab, machines come to mind. But it is not true, without people these machines will not create anything.

That's why I thought of a manifesto called Fab Lab Culture. Who are the different people that surround a Fab Lab and the connections between them?

Looking at Fab Lab Leon, the people who come to the Fab Lab can be a consumer, a parent or a costumer. Depending on the needs of each, they will be more or less involved. A parent might want their child to learn and become a maker. Or a consumer may end up being a maker.

Then those makers can be volunteers or Fab Lab employees.

So seeing my evolution, apprentice, volunteer, student, instructor... everything was related. That's why my idea for the Fab Culture Manifesto was born. But all this has an answer, the PEOPLE.

This analysis can be used to find the community of any Fab Lab, and as Nuria Robles says, "It is difficult to work alone".

Here is the video summary of Fab Lab Culture.

36 of 72

37 of 72

1. What kind of data would you like to map globally?

(e.g. education or gender gaps, access to technology, industrial maturity levels, etc.)?

2. How would you apply the power of this distributed network to generate the impact you want?

Imagine the Distributed Fab Network as a global network of sensors and actuators...

38 of 72

39 of 72

40 of 72

41 of 72

42 of 72

Fab All In Recitation @FabAcademy - FALL 2024

5:05 Welcome to the FabLab Network

from around the World:

Sherry Lassiter + All

“Why” Make (Almost) Anything - welcoming everyone
Fab Lab Network - intro highlights

5:15 Collaboration + Natural/Cultural Context Beno Juarez

Symbio Game collaboration
FabLab in Peru/Amazonian Region

5:25 FabLab - Social Infrastructure & Large-Scale Systems Change - Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Academany, Fab Foundation, etc. as part of the Consortia Century!

Thinking laterally -- not just top-down or bottom-up
Orienting and connecting to do together what you can’t do separately

Your experience doing together what you can’t do separately

Designing human/social systems

5:35 “Fab All In – sampler!” - Vaneza, (Rico tbd), others with Megan + All

Expanding Aperture: Vaneza Caycho, Lima, Peru
Fab All In - Fab Lab Sampler -
Fab All-In Course Overview
5 Interactive Content Sessions (Intro/Welcome + 4 topical clusters) – with 4 Exercises: RoseBudThorn, 5Ws+H, Ask-Listen-Engage, SolutionsPalooza!
2 Skills Sessions + Office Hours (optional)
Final SolutionsPalooza celebration session

5:45: Solution Making Through Inclusion - Megan Smith

Sount & Scale, Build Communities of Practice, Network the Networks (Cross Fluency), Spring Pilot Prototype (begin as a way to begin), Share Stories and Data – unlocking collective genius

5:50 Q&A // Discussion

43 of 72

44 of 72

45 of 72

46 of 72

47 of 72

https://medium.com/@ObamaWhiteHouse/it-takes-a-network-9e7831333906

48 of 72

“In Effort There is Joy” ….expand our frameworks, capacity, listening, acceleration of others

49 of 72

50 of 72

51 of 72

https://chiefscienceofficers.org/regions/

52 of 72

53 of 72

54 of 72

55 of 72

56 of 72

57 of 72

58 of 72

59 of 72

60 of 72

61 of 72

62 of 72

63 of 72

64 of 72

All-In = Anyone/Everyone, All Topics

65 of 72

“....one thinks of all the hands, that are raising dingy shared, in a thousand furnished rooms.” (imbalanced industrial ages) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44214/preludes-56d22338dc954

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/24694140-ada-byron-lovelace-and-the-thinking-machine

66 of 72

For all of us for FabAll in thinking… How can we include everyone… support passion, support teamwork & sustainability…

share creative confidence for all — sharing this work from a colleague and his phrasing “what will work & what will last”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q7ynvBbXZo "UCSD: INK Salon Fellows Roadshow - What Will Work and Last, Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, Dhun.Life”

67 of 72

68 of 72

A Great Experiment: After graduation, Ellen Swallow Richards became involved with the Women’s Education Association (WEA), an organization founded in 1872 to promote education for women. As a student at MIT, Richards had not been allowed to conduct laboratory research alongside her male counterparts due to a lack of proper bathroom facilities for women. Richards wanted to ensure future women students had better access to laboratories than she had.

In 1875 WEA approached MIT with a proposition: if WEA provided the funds, would MIT house a laboratory specifically for women to conduct laboratory work in chemistry and biology?

On May 10, 1876, the MIT Corporation voted to approve the use of the Rogers Building Annex for the Woman’s Laboratory and accepted the WEA’s funding condition "that hereafter special students in Chemistry shall be admitted without regard to sex."

https://digital-exhibits.libraries.mit.edu/s/under-the-lens/page/exhibit

69 of 72

70 of 72

71 of 72

Globe.gov

72 of 72

Fab All In Recitation @FabAcademy - FALL 2024

5:05 Welcome to the FabLab Network

from around the World:

Sherry Lassiter + All

“Why” Make (Almost) Anything - welcoming everyone
Fab Lab Network - intro highlights

5:15 Collaboration + Natural/Cultural Context Beno Juarez

Symbio Game collaboration
FabLab in Peru/Amazonian Region

5:25 FabLab - Social Infrastructure & Large-Scale Systems Change - Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Academany, Fab Foundation, etc. as part of the Consortia Century!

Thinking laterally -- not just top-down or bottom-up
Orienting and connecting to do together what you can’t do separately

Your experience doing together what you can’t do separately

Designing human/social systems

5:35 “Fab All In – sampler!” - Vaneza, (Rico tbd), others with Megan + All

Expanding Aperture: Vaneza Caycho, Lima, Peru
Fab All In - Fab Lab Sampler -
Fab All-In Course Overview
5 Interactive Content Sessions (Intro/Welcome + 4 topical clusters) – with 4 Exercises: RoseBudThorn, 5Ws+H, Ask-Listen-Engage, SolutionsPalooza!
2 Skills Sessions + Office Hours (optional)
Final SolutionsPalooza celebration session

5:45: Solution Making Through Inclusion - Megan Smith

Sount & Scale, Build Communities of Practice, Network the Networks (Cross Fluency), Spring Pilot Prototype (begin as a way to begin), Share Stories and Data

5:50 Q&A // Discussion