[p2p-research] P2P Milestone of the Day 15/8/2009: 100k garages combine decentralisation and scalability

[Michel Bauwens]

A milestone for distributed manufacturing: 100k
Garages<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/a-milestone-for-distributed-manufacturing-100k-garages/2009/09/19>
[image: photo of Michel Bauwens]Michel Bauwens
19th September 2009

 The Treehugger
<http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/ponoko-shopbot.php>blogs
says, “this changes everything” (and
Core77<http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/100kgarages_a_new_initiative_to_connect_designers_with_local_makers_14655.asp>agrees):

Why? *Because the 100kgarages initiative combines hyper-localization and
global scalability!*

100kgarages supports and celebrates the idea of small industry and
individual innovation by maintaining a network of “garages,” or fabricators,
throughout the world. If you have a design ready, you can proceed in one of
two ways: either find a local fabricator and work directly with them, or
post the job and wait for fabricator bids to roll in. They are beginning
with a focus on CNC routers, the most versatile of digital fabrication
tools, but hope to incorporate more technologies (like laser cutters and 3D
printers), as time goes by.

*Suddenly, anyone can pick one of 20,000 Ponoko Designs (or build one
themselves) and get it cut out and built just about anywhere.*

The 100kgarages initiative <http://100kgarages.com/> is a partnership
between Shopbot <http://www.shopbottools.com/>, manufacturer of digital
fabrication tools, and Ponoko <http://www.ponoko.com/>, a digital making
community.

Here’s a map of the existing network:

[image: 100k Garages Network]

Here’s an interesting general take <http://embraceunity.com/?p=327> on the
relationa between localizatio and scalability of which the above might be
considered an example.

*Edward Miller:*

*“Centralized powers are able to create artificial scarcities, in order to
inflate profits at the expense of everyone else. This invariably requires
things like corporatism, regulatory capture, secrecy, and rent seeking.*

*None of these things are very amenable to true progress, which requires
openness, peer review, constructive criticism, and creativity. The types of
innovations that occur under these centralized systems, even if they take on
a bourgeois bohemian quality and aren’t bland and soul-crushing, are
incredibly stifling of progress. Open standards are shucked in favor of
closed proprietary ones whenever a corporation can get away with it. Parts
are never interchangeable. The production processes are so far removed from
our daily lives that we have no idea about the processes involved in the
creation of the product, and indeed breaking open the gizmo more likely than
not voids the warranty…. though I’m not sure you’d even want to open it up
considering the high density of toxic crap trapped inside.*

*All of this has had corrosive effects on our culture, as well as our
environment. Our hyper-consumerist culture encourages us to get the latest
and greatest stuff. We follow a sequence of fads specialized to our exact
niche market (hipster, redneck, emo, rock, punk, goth, anime, whatever). We
indulge in enormous quantities of unsustainable, non-renewable, and
disposable products. Even more discouragingly, many companies use engineered
obsolescence to artificially increase output at the expense of the
environment.*

*We are now lamenting the fact that none of us have a clue about what it
actually takes to produce tangible, concrete things which improve our lives.
We are too busy answering phones, producing ad campaigns, and writing
paperwork. Thus, instead of becoming active participants in the production
of our culture and economy, or even informed consumers, we have become
totally and completely dependent upon forces far beyond our control. As the
market swings out of control, so do our jobs, our homes, and our very lives.
*

*Yet, a revolution has occurred right under our noses whose effects have yet
to be fully explored, and most of us are completely unaware. Digital
communications technologies, especially the Internet, have enabled new modes
of production and organization, such as Open Source and P2P, which have
never before been possible. If we can learn to harness the power of these
systems, we can escape the path our current world is on where each
labor-saving device seems only to cause us to work longer hours. Where
social programs seem only to foster dependence. Instead of innovating in
accordance with the logic of centralized power and artificial scarcity, we
can innovate in accordance with human needs and wants.*

*We can collaboratively build all the necessary life support systems needed,
but have it be on a self-contained and local scale. It cannot be known
whether the shape this takes will favor truly scale invariant systems, like
the hyper-local RepRap project which is allowing production right in your
living room, or whether it ends up fostering a new urbanism where production
takes place in vertical farms, factories, and community hackerspaces. Talk
about vertical integration! It also cannot be known how it will reshape our
communities, since each community would be redesigned in a participatory
fashion by the members of the community itself. Some may opt for small scale
pedestrian-friendly towns in harmony with nature, while others may opt for
sustainable urban metropolises, and others may ditch both for
self-sufficient mobile homes and yachts.*

*In each of these cases, the means of production will likely have been
placed in the hands of individuals, and drudgery will be automated away much
like how open source software projects collaboratively eliminate bugs and
expose flaws in wiki articles. Considering all of this, it may be useful to
begin talking again about incentivizing local production. “Import
substitution,” has long been a naughty word among economists. It is the
process of breaking free of foreign dependence by incentivizing local
production. Usually via tariffs and other measures. However, this would be a
misguided way of going about this.*

*We don’t need to incentivize local production of just any type. We need to
incentivize open and collaborative production. For example, creating prizes
for contributing to the Commons. In 2007 there was a proposed bill called
the Medical Innovation Prize Act which sought to incentivize patent-less
medical inventions. If only it was this sort of mentality that guided us for
the past few decades, then we wouldn’t have ever had such a monstrosity of a
healthcare system. The same mentality could guide any industry. A useful
exercise would be to think how it could guide the industry you are currently
involved in. Finally, the creation of new local credit systems could also
incentivize collaborative local production. There are lots of new concepts
along these lines.”*


-- 
Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20090917/4cecb283/attachment-0001.html>