tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/makers-8052/articlesMakers – The Conversation2022-03-03T20:55:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1767792022-03-03T20:55:26Z2022-03-03T20:55:26ZHow a nondescript box has been saving lives during the pandemic – and revealing the power of grassroots innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449640/original/file-20220302-17-1cft1ff.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4025%2C2251&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A do-it-yourself air purifier in use in a classroom.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Douglas Hannah</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One afternoon, <a href="https://news.asu.edu/20220126-arizona-impact-asu-students-faculty-build-filter-boxes-schools-fight-covid-19">a dozen Arizona State University students gathered</a> to spend the morning cutting cardboard, taping fans and assembling filters in an effort to build 125 portable air purifiers for local schools. That same morning, staff members at a homeless shelter in Los Angeles were setting up 20 homemade purifiers of their own, while in Brookline, Massachusetts, another DIY air purifier was whirring quietly in the back of a day care classroom as children played. </p>
<p>The technology in all three cases – an unassuming duct tape-and-cardboard construction known as a Corsi-Rosenthal box – is playing an important part in the fight against COVID-19. The story of how it came to be also reveals a lot about <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0682">communities as sources of innovation and resilience</a> in the face of disasters.</p>
<h2>A simple technology with a big effect</h2>
<p>As it became clear that COVID-19 was spread through <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-coronavirus-spreads-through-the-air-5-essential-reads-146735">airborne transmission</a>, people started wearing masks and building managers rushed to upgrade their ventilation systems. This typically meant installing <a href="https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/what-hepa-filter-1">high-efficiency HEPA</a> filters. These filters work by capturing virus-laden particles: Air is forced into a porous mat, contaminants are filtered out and clean air passes through.</p>
<p>The efficacy of a building’s ventilation system is governed by two factors, though, not just the quality of the filters. The amount of air moved through the ventilation systems matters as well. Experts typically recommend <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/environmental/appendix/air.html">five to six air changes per hour</a> in shared spaces, meaning the entire volume of air in a room is replaced every 45 minutes. Systems in many older buildings <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeaoa.2022.100152">can’t manage this volume</a>, however.</p>
<p>Portable air filters are an option for augmenting ventilation systems, but they typically cost hundreds of dollars, which puts them out of range for schools and other public spaces that face budget constraints.</p>
<p>This is where the Corsi-Rosenthal box comes in. It’s <a href="https://cleanaircrew.org/box-fan-filters/">a cube consisting of</a> four to five off-the-shelf furnace filters topped by a standard box fan blowing outward. Once sealed together with tape, it can sit on a floor, shelf or table. The fan draws air through the sides of the cube and out the top. The units are simple, durable and easy to make, and are <a href="https://www.texairfilters.com/iaq-research-practice-in-action-the-corsi-rosenthal-box-air-cleaner/">more effective</a> than simply placing a single filter in front of a box fan. It usually takes 40 minutes, minimal technical expertise and US$60 to $90 in materials that are available from any home supply store.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447401/original/file-20220220-42890-1uhgrv8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a woman tapes together a cube measuring 2 feet on a side" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447401/original/file-20220220-42890-1uhgrv8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447401/original/file-20220220-42890-1uhgrv8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447401/original/file-20220220-42890-1uhgrv8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447401/original/file-20220220-42890-1uhgrv8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447401/original/file-20220220-42890-1uhgrv8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447401/original/file-20220220-42890-1uhgrv8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447401/original/file-20220220-42890-1uhgrv8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Building a Corsi-Rosenthal box portable air filter comes down to duct-taping together a set of furnace filters and a box fan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Douglas Hannah</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite this simplicity, though, these homemade units are extremely effective. When used in a shared space like a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0050058">classroom</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.09.012">hospital ward</a>, they can supplement existing ventilation and remove airborne contaminants, including smoke and virus-laden particles. A raft of recent peer-reviewed research has found portable air purifiers can dramatically reduce aerosol transmission. Other preprint and under-review studies have found <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.09.22268972v1.full">Corsi-Rosenthal boxes perform as well as professional units</a> at <a href="https://energy.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/Case-Study_DIY-Portable-Air-Cleaners-083121.pdf">a fraction of the cost</a>.</p>
<h2>Origins of the Corsi-Rosenthal box</h2>
<p>The formal story of the Corsi-Rosenthal box began in August 2020, when Richard Corsi, an air quality expert and now dean at the University of California, Davis, <a href="https://twitter.com/CorsIAQ/status/1291614466027618310?s=20&t=waJfZUFzvSR4UwdOi8DS5w">pitched the idea of building cheap box-fan air filters</a> on Twitter. Jim Rosenthal, the CEO of a Texas-based filter company, had been playing around with a similar idea and quickly built the first prototype. </p>
<p>Within days, tinkerers and air quality engineers alike were constructing their own Corsi-Rosenthal boxes and sharing the results on social media. A vibrant conversation emerged on Twitter, blending sophisticated technical analysis from engineers with the insight and efforts of nonspecialists. </p>
<p>By December, hundreds of people were making Corsi-Rosenthal boxes, and thousands more had read press coverage in outlets <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/could-a-janky-jury-rigged-air-purifier-help-fight-covid-19/">like Wired</a>. In different corners of the world, people tweaked designs based on the availability of supplies and different needs. Their collective improvements and adaptations were documented by <a href="https://cleanaircrew.org/">dedicated websites</a> and blogs, as well as news reports.</p>
<p>In some cases, design tweaks proved to be influential. In November 2020, for example, <a href="https://www.texairfilters.com/iaq-research-practice-in-action-the-corsi-rosenthal-box-air-cleaner/">a homeowner in North Carolina discovered an issue</a> with air being drawn back in through the corners of the most commonly used square fans. Subsequent testing by air quality experts showed that adding a shroud to the fan increased efficiency by as much as 50%. </p>
<p><iframe id="L2N2P" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/L2N2P/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Analyzing social media and news coverage gives a sense of the scale of the Corsi-Rosenthal box phenomenon. As of January 2022, more than 1,000 units were in use in schools, with thousands more in homes and offices. More than 3,500 people had used the hashtag #corsirosenthalbox on Twitter, and tens of thousands more contributed to the online conversation. News articles and explainer videos on YouTube had collectively accumulated more than 1.9 million views. </p>
<h2>Communities as sources of innovation</h2>
<p>The story of the Corsi-Rosenthal box is part of a broader story of the grassroots response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The early days of the pandemic did more than just take a terrible toll on people. They also galvanized a massive entrepreneurial effort, with <a href="https://opensourcemedicalsupplies.org/impact/">tens of thousands of everyday citizens</a> lending their hands to design and produce the critical medical supplies and personal protective equipment that was suddenly needed.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447398/original/file-20220220-60506-d29ee2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="about a dozen boxes with taped edges stacked in a garage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447398/original/file-20220220-60506-d29ee2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447398/original/file-20220220-60506-d29ee2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447398/original/file-20220220-60506-d29ee2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447398/original/file-20220220-60506-d29ee2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447398/original/file-20220220-60506-d29ee2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447398/original/file-20220220-60506-d29ee2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447398/original/file-20220220-60506-d29ee2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Corsi-Rosenthal boxes assembled and awaiting delivery to a homeless shelter in California.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Douglas Hannah</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research team has been tracking these efforts. Through dozens of interviews and months of archival research, we’ve built a database of more than 200 startups – formal and informal, nonprofit and for-profit – whose activities ranged from designing oxygen concentrators to 3D printing face shields to building UV disinfection rooms. The picture of innovation that emerges is a far cry from the traditional <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-does-technological-innovation-come-from-1447258125">lab coats and middle managers image</a> that is commonly associated with new technologies.</p>
<p>First, few of the innovations we’ve tracked were actually invented by a single person, or even a single team. Rather, they were the joint project of broad networks of individual contributors from different backgrounds and organizations. This breadth is important because it brings more knowledge and more diverse perspectives. It can also be helpful for tapping existing knowledge. For example, as Corsi-Rosenthal boxes gained traction, the community was able to draw on <a href="https://tombuildsstuff.blogspot.com/2013/06/better-box-fan-air-purifier.html">earlier iterations</a> that had been developed to help with wildfire smoke.</p>
<p>Second, the innovation process lacked hierarchical control. There was no single person directing where or how the technology was used. This lack of control made it easier to experiment and adapt to local conditions. One example is the development of oxygen concentrators for use in hospitals in India. Realizing that existing Western technologies failed frequently in the more humid operating environment typical of India, teams of innovators rallied to <a href="https://www.pubinv.org/project/the-ox-project/">develop and share improved open-source designs</a>. </p>
<p>Third, these communities shared knowledge online. This allowed individual contributors to communicate directly and share ideas, which helped knowledge spread rapidly through the network. It also meant that knowledge was more readily accessible. The detailed designs and test results from air quality engineers working on Corsi-Rosenthal boxes were readily available to anyone in the community. </p>
<p>Also, most of the organizations we tracked used Facebook, Twitter and Slack as tools to manage collaboration within and between organizations. <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/02/one-way-to-build-more-resilient-medical-supply-chains-in-the-u-s">As I and others have argued</a>, this gives grassroots innovation tremendous promise – especially in a world where large-scale disruptions like a pandemic are increasingly common.</p>
<h2>Pitfalls of grassroots innovation</h2>
<p>Despite this promise, there are areas in which grassroots innovation communities falter. One challenge is a lack of technological sophistication and resources. While some of the communities in our study produced remarkably complex devices, the greatest contribution was in far simpler products like <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2020/face-shield-ppe-manufacture-covid-19-0331">face shields and surgical gowns</a>. </p>
<p>Then there are rules and regulations. Even when grassroots communities can produce safe and effective innovations, existing rules may not be ready to receive them. Some hospitals were unable to accept personal protective equipment provided by the community during the pandemic because of inflexible procurement policies, and today <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-school-hepa-filter-donation-1.6337417">some schools continue to prohibit Corsi-Rosenthal boxes</a>. </p>
<p>A final issue is sustaining effort. While <a href="https://www.somethinglabs.org/">grassroots communities were vital</a> to allowing hospitals and medical facilities to remain functioning during the early days of the pandemic, many of the efforts that depended on volunteer labor eventually ran out of steam.</p>
<h2>What this means for the future</h2>
<p>As the second anniversary of the U.S. declaration of emergency approaches, a key lesson the world has learned is the importance of investing in indoor air quality, for example through <a href="https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0686?ys=2022RS">monitoring</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/595534-as-mask-mandates-end-we-need-an-operation-warp-speed-for-clean">improved ventilation and filtration</a>. And the value of ventilation as a noninvasive public health tool is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/health/covid-mask-restrictions.html">even greater as mask mandates wane</a>.</p>
<p>Another, broader lesson is the power of grassroots innovation and citizen engineering to develop these technologies. The story of the Corsi-Rosenthal box, like the <a href="https://buildforcovid19.io/">thousands of other grassroots innovations</a> developed during the pandemic, is fundamentally about people taking the welfare of their communities into their own hands. The <a href="https://www.twitter.com/user/status/1475222397607366661">most popular tweet</a> shared about Corsi-Rosenthal boxes was from a 14-year-old aspiring engineer in Ontario offering to build and donate boxes to anyone in need.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Douglas Hannah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>3D printers got a lot of attention when DIYers leapt to action to address equipment shortages early in the pandemic, but some everyday items found in hardware stores played a big role, too.Douglas Hannah, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Innovation, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/992022018-07-04T21:19:19Z2018-07-04T21:19:19ZHow fab labs help meet digital challenges in Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225604/original/file-20180701-117377-1qh8ygs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C1500%2C979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jerry-can computer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fab labs serve at the same time as production, creation and prototyping workshops, hands-on training spaces and facilitators of social ties. They contribute to reducing the traditional head-on opposition between “knowing” and “doing”.</p>
<p>The wave of fab labs came about in the United States in 1998, under the impetus of <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_gershenfeld_on_fab_labs">Neil Gerhenfeld</a>, professor at MIT. They are workshops designed to be open, shared and collaborative. Their objective is to provide a physical space comprising digital tools (laser cutters, 3D printers, etc.) for everyone to use, which allows an individual to create and invent. They therefore make it possible to design, prototype, build and test a wide variety of objects.</p>
<p>These spaces take on a particular meaning in Africa, where they are becoming relays for the development of educational Commons.</p>
<h2>The specificity of African fab labs: educational commons</h2>
<p>While Sub-Saharan countries have made huge strides in the development of their education systems, the fact that they initially lagged behind and have strong population growth mean that the region still has 50 million primary or secondary school-aged children not enrolled in school. In addition to these difficulties of access, there are the major challenges concerning the equity and quality of teaching given to students.</p>
<p>Sub-Saharan African fab labs offer a huge diversity, but they set educational objectives more clearly and more systematically than their counterparts in developed countries.</p>
<p>For example, many offer workshops, not only for children and teenagers, but also for students, to make up for the lack of equipment in universities, or for women, to facilitate their social and professional integration. Beyond the training aspect for the youngest in the rudiments of electronics or digital manufacturing, the educational project thereby aims to address local societal issues.</p>
<p>Sésamé Koffi Agodjinou, founder of <a href="https://www.woelabo.com/">WoeLab</a> in Togo, is an anthropologist who was trained as an architect. He sees fab labs as a way of working with citizens to rethink cities, which are usually designed only by urban planners. In line with the principles of vernacular architecture, and its vision of a city that is more of a village, the fab lab offers a space and moments to create social cohesion, and symbolically a new place of initiation for young people.</p>
<p>Guiako Obin, creator of <a href="http://www.baby-lab.org/">Babylab</a> in Côte d’Ivoire, chose an underprivileged neighbourhood of Abidjan, which suffers from poverty and insecurity, to install a fab lab and make it a driver for social transformation via education. In this way he also fights against idleness and delinquency among youth.</p>
<p>Finally, the <a href="http://www.blolab.org/">Blolab</a> in Bénin, created by Médard Agbayazon, has the objective of promoting digital literacy among young people and local professionals (artisans, farmers), as well as helping them build inexpensive, accessible and rapidly developed solutions. Here, the ingenuity of the fab lab community, inspired and supported by global informational resources, provides solutions tailored to local needs. For example, the lab has allowed the development of an application to report cases of gendered violence.</p>
<h2>Frugal and tinkered innovation central to the system</h2>
<p>With more than <a href="https://www.fablab.io/labs">40 spaces</a> created in the recent years, the vitality of this movement in Africa is confirmed. They all provide new spaces for innovation thanks, in difficult conditions, to the resourcefulness, creativity and strong will of its promoters.</p>
<p>In the workshop, the production itself also needs to cope with the challenges of the lack of available financial and material resources. Fab lab communities, which therefore have a frugal approach to innovation, make every effort to meet local needs with simple and customised solutions. They also use and contribute to online resources, whether for manuals, building instructions, communities of practice or even crowdfunding websites.</p>
<p>This is exemplified by the <a href="http://youandjerrycan.org/">Jerry Do-It-Together</a> initiative, which organises workshops to build Linux computers using recycled electronic components housed in a 20-liter jerrycan. Users, designers and hackers get together around Jerry computers to learn how digital technology is made and gear it to their needs.</p>
<p>The growing movement of African fab labs is also driven by a will to share knowledge and open up innovation: in Africa as elsewhere, they thereby call into question the usual production, education and intellectual property methods and, more generally, make us question the role of the citizen in economic and societal projects.</p>
<h2>In what way do these spaces constitute the Commons?</h2>
<p>Fab labs are entrepreneurial, associative, public or academic. They illustrate how the theory of the Commons can inspire production activities. Since the Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to Elinor Ostrom in 2009 for her research, there has been an unprecedented enthusiasm for the Commons. It refers to the collective management of a resource by a community, which defines ad-hoc rules and sets up a governance structure allowing the distribution of rights and obligations and the resolution of conflicts.</p>
<p>The objective set by the community is central to what is done in common. In the case of a Commons structured around a natural resource, it often – but not always – involves preserving the quantity or quality of the resource. This definition inherited from traditional Commons (agriculture, herding, fishing) extends to a whole new generation of Commons, what we call the “informational” Commons, whose objective is rather to share, disseminate and enrich the good, along the principle of “additionality”.</p>
<p>Fab labs are drivers of these dynamics. Those physical spaces aim to develop digital knowledge, disseminate it, share it (within communities), and conserve it (on web libraries and platforms). It pools machines as well as experiences. It contributes to the accumulation of knowledge and the redistribution of this knowledge via training programs. Knowledge is consequently both a component of the fab lab, but also an objective.</p>
<p>They are spaces which are both part of a territory, but also of the many online communities (free and open-source software, <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap</a>, social networks). This duality of physical and digital communities leads to a two-pronged movement: a reterritorialisation, via a local use, of digital Commons developed on a global scale and, otherwise, a deterritorialisation of knowledge generated in fab labs for uses on a global scale.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This text is based on the working paper <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vvawhIISpiU8-_SiUCoAoADzn5maG_12/view">“From Informational Commons to Educational Commons: Fab labs in French-speaking Africa”</a>, co-authored by Stéphanie Leyronas, Isabelle Liotard and Gwenael Prié.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The Viva Tech Fair took place in May 2018 in Paris, showcasing innovation in Africa. The continent’s fablabs, driven by digital tools and collaborative dynamics, are shaking up traditional foundations.Stéphanie Leyronas, Chargée de recherche sur les communs, Agence française de développement (AFD)Gwenael Prié, Responsable d'Equipe Projet, Agence française de développement (AFD)Isabelle Liotard, Maître de Conférences, HDR , domaine d'expertise : économie de l'innovation, économie des réseaux, Université Sorbonne Paris NordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/984402018-06-26T20:14:56Z2018-06-26T20:14:56ZWhat should be the EU policy for Mediterranean ‘third places’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223398/original/file-20180615-85849-8lj0vm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C1497%2C862&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Finale of the projet COWORKMed in Zagreb, April 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">COWORKMed</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://coworkmed.interreg-med.eu/">COWORKMed</a> project is a multidisciplinary European research partnership aimed at understanding the challenges and potential benefits of coworking spaces in territories across five European countries: France (PACA region), Spain (Catalonia), Italy (<a href="https://coworkmed.interreg-med.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Sites/Social_and_Creative/Projects/COWORKMED/2.2.2_Tuscany.pdf">Tuscany</a> region), <a href="https://coworkmed.interreg-med.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Sites/Social_and_Creative/Projects/COWORKMED/2.2.2_Greece.pdf">Greece</a> and <a href="https://coworkmed.interreg-med.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Sites/Social_and_Creative/Projects/COWORKMED/2.2.2_Croatia.pdf">Croati</a>a. The project began in December 2016 and ran until April 2018. The final presentation of the COWORKMed project took place in Zagreb on April 2018_</p>
<h2>Defining, counting and mapping</h2>
<p>Led by the <a href="https://www.avitem.org/fr/projet/coworkmed-recherche-sur-l%E2%80%99innovation-sociale-des-clusters-de-coworking">Agency for Sustainable Mediterranean Cities and Territories</a> (AVITEM) and several European partners – the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (Greece), Barcelona Activa SA SPM (Spain), IRIS Research Institute s.r.l (Italy), Conseil Régional Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte-D’Azur (France), Zagreb Development Agency (Croatia), Barcelona International Business Incubator (Spain).), the project’s primary goal was to define the concept of coworking spaces. After discussions, which considered the importance of the idea of territories, in particular, partners agreed on the following <a href="https://ied.eu/what-about-coworking-spaces/">definition</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A coworking space is a physical space aiming to build and implement a dynamic community of users sharing a propensity to foster collaborative, open and sustainable relationships. Coworking spaces are actively managed to promote these goals, also by organising events and activities supporting mutual learning and exchanges and by developing new functional typologies and interactions with other services or centres.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Using this definition, the partners sought to compile a <a href="https://coworkmed.interreg-med.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Sites/Social_and_Creative/Projects/COWORKMED/3-3-1_-_Coworkmed_Census.pdf">census</a> of coworking spaces through <a href="https://livemap.getwemap.com/iframe.php?emmid=6326&token=JOQ39BO9ZT34EQAI4TVUH9ULS">collaborative mapping</a>. More than 320 coworking spaces were identified across the territories of the COWORKMed project, with heavy concentration in Catalonia (more than 150 spaces). The spaces are all of recent creation (since 2012) and most (66.7%) are privately run. These spaces account for 2.3% of the world’s coworking spaces (COWORKMed, 2018).</p>
<p>This census showed the extreme diversity of coworking spaces, which take many forms: fab labs, maker spaces, living labs, third places, business factories, public innovation laboratories, etc. Bearing this in mind, the project’s partners decided not to stick to a static understanding of coworking spaces so as to remain open to new opportunities, especially relating to the development of third places. The number of third places is expected to rise over the coming years along with the continued growth of independent operators, the transformation of economies (knowledge economy, collaborative economy, digital economy and so on) and the emergence of a regulatory and incentive framework that encourages <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/emploi/article/2017/09/12/la-reforme-du-code-du-travail-favorise-le-teletravail_5184562_1698637.html">remote working</a>.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="600" src="https://livemap.getwemap.com/iframe.php?emmid=6326&token=JOQ39BO9ZT34EQAI4TVUH9ULS#/search@43.72552940054183,9.552607327980922,6)" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<h2>Identifying third places’ externalities and needs</h2>
<p>The study’s second goal involved identifying the socio-economic, environmental and territorial benefits of coworking spaces. Reports were produced showing the capacity of third places to increase the productivity and performances of companies, employees and workers. These spaces also enhance quality of life while stimulating changes in the labour market and collaboration and innovation processes (read the reports at coworkmed.interreg-med.eu). Other reports aimed to establish details about the extent to which third places reduce commuting distances, greenhouse gas emissions and the numbers of people on public transport at peak times.</p>
<figure>
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<p>In order to increase this impact on territories, the COWORKMed study also highlighted the need to structure public action in a way that helps to create and develop third places. The project leads often expressed this requirement in terms of regulation, networking and financial and methodological support. With regard to methods, managers of coworking spaces and public actors appear to be insufficiently equipped to assess third places’ externalities. Studies on externalities are still based more on assumptions than on qualitative and quantitative data that could be used to evaluate and establish objective facts about observed phenomena. Moreover, it became clear that more is needed in terms of structuring networks for third places in order to pool resources and increase the visibility and attractiveness of coworking spaces. It seems essential to support the development of third places’ networks like <a href="http://www.cowocat.cat/">Cowocat</a> (Associació Coworking de Catalunya), <a href="https://arize-leze-europe.org/coworking-pyrenees-en-cours/">Cowopy</a> (Coworking Pyrénées) or the <a href="https://fr-fr.facebook.com/eucoworknet/">European Coworking Network</a>.</p>
<p>Lastly, the study demonstrated the need to make third places more firmly and deeply rooted in their territorial and innovation ecosystems. Performances of third places are, according to the economist <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-reseaux-2016-2-p-81.htm">Raphaël Suire</a>, heavily dependent on their capacity to become well embedded in territories. This view has to be taken into consideration along with the need to build mutually beneficial ties between territories and develop third places in low density areas (rural and outer-urban zones). With the exception of the PACA (Provence, Alpes, Côte d’Azur) region, third places in CoWorkmed regions are mostly (more than 80%) based in urban areas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219735/original/file-20180521-14987-y5hpsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219735/original/file-20180521-14987-y5hpsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219735/original/file-20180521-14987-y5hpsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219735/original/file-20180521-14987-y5hpsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219735/original/file-20180521-14987-y5hpsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219735/original/file-20180521-14987-y5hpsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219735/original/file-20180521-14987-y5hpsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conclusion of the COWORKMed project in Zagreb, April 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Paving the way for European public action</h2>
<p>Workshops were held in Zagreb, Florence, Marseille and Barcelona to pursue a third goal of the COWORKMed project: to design a European public policy conducive to third places. What public policy should be put in place to support multifunctional and intermediary spaces that often operate with horizontal organisational systems? Four main strands of action were identified:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Support the creation and development of coworking spaces in low-density territories (support with initiating projects, subsidise investment allocated after calls for proposals and on top of regional development support, etc.). The leverage effect that coworking spaces can have on development in these territories could be decisive, especially by cutting down commuting and by revitalising fringe areas and village centres (boosting local services by retaining/attracting independent workers, employees or new country dwellers to these territories).</p></li>
<li><p>Support the creation and development of networks of coworking spaces and third places across the Mediterranean so as to improve these spaces’ connections with each other and with their territorial and innovation ecosystems, make them better equipped (by pooling methods), better understood and more visible through combined and targeted publicity and, lastly, to stimulate demand through lobbying (e.g. raising employers’ awareness of the benefits of remote working). It may also be worth holding discussions at a later date about creating a “Mediterranean third places” label.</p></li>
<li><p>Use third places to support more agile European public policies that are closer to territories and citizens. third places can become special areas for jointly forming and testing new European public policies. Furthermore, discussions could be held about the staff of the European Union and its partners using coworking spaces in order to help inculcate a third places culture within EU administrations (collaborative work, horizontal government, digital culture, etc.).</p></li>
<li><p>Launch a European call for proposals for projects aimed at supporting coworking spaces and third places by directly impacting economic, digital, ecological, organisational and/or territorial transitions.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219737/original/file-20180521-14957-8srxk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219737/original/file-20180521-14957-8srxk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219737/original/file-20180521-14957-8srxk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219737/original/file-20180521-14957-8srxk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219737/original/file-20180521-14957-8srxk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219737/original/file-20180521-14957-8srxk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219737/original/file-20180521-14957-8srxk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workshop organised in Marseille on February 20, 2018, at the Mars Medialab.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Obviously, the intention is for these strands to help shape a facilitating, non-prescriptive European public policy. The mindset of third places hardly seems compatible with a vertical, top-down public policy in which a public authority plays the central role as driver, coordinator, approver, financer and arbitrator. It is less about setting out a top-down planning policy for coworking spaces, more to do with introducing a public policy capable of creating conditions that encourage the emergence and development of coworking spaces, performing what Michael Foucault would call an “environmental-type intervention”. </p>
<p>Alongside this, issues of social and organisational innovation within the EU must be addressed, alongside those that the EU promotes in territories through public policies. With this in mind, the regular use of third places by EU staff could help the European Union to transform the positions it takes and the way it works.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98440/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphaël Besson is Director of the Villes Innovations agency, Associate researcher at the PACTE laboratory (University of Grenoble), Grenoble Alpes University</span></em></p>More than 320 coworking spaces were identified in the regions studied during the COWORKMed project.Raphaël Besson, Directeur de l'agence Villes Innovations, Chercheur associé au laboratoire PACTE (Université de Grenoble), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/867922017-11-22T05:07:38Z2017-11-22T05:07:38ZProductive cities: toward a new biopolitics of cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193245/original/file-20171103-1020-11qcol9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Helsinki s City Wall, a collaborative social space.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The idea of the productive city emerged with the development of industrial capitalism. In this way, the productive model imposed its own logic on cities, which came to be regarded as passive receptacles harbouring economic activities. Cities were supposed to furnish enterprises with basic resources such as transportation networks, reasonably priced property, affordable labour, or sites separated into monofunctional segments. At this time, the city was still largely absent from economic thought, or at least it was marginalised and eclipsed by the interest given to national and regional economies.</p>
<p>With the rise of the “knowledge-based economy”, economists came to look more closely at urban situations. In this new economy, knowledge appears to be replacing natural resources and physical effort as the tool for economic development. But knowledge that creates value is not codified or computerised, it’s that which is tacit, living and happening. Under these conditions, production methods change. It’s no longer a question of producing what we know we can do, but rather of organising conditions in which collective intelligence can develop and thrive. These mutations are particularly affecting the importance of externalities and are taking production out of enterprises. Cognitive capitalism has a fundamental need to multiply contact points with society and with living activity.</p>
<p>Metropolitan territories, with their production and research sites, density, amenities and social and functional diversity, are becoming production centres. All city material and immaterial resources are activated. Communities are furnishing laboratory zones where full-scale innovations can be produced and tested: creation and innovation zones, technology districts, urban cognitive systems. Progressively, production is infusing urban society. The co-working spaces, hacker spaces, fab labs, city labs and other living labs are making the social productive. Residents, tourists, businessmen – the “users” – are invited to act upon the fabric of the city itself and to participate in testing, evaluating and co-producing innovations, services and urban data.</p>
<p>This is among the intentions of the <a href="http://lameva.barcelona.cat/bcnmetropolis/en/dossier/dels-fab-labs-a-les-fab-cities/">Fab City project in Barcelona</a>, the objective being that Barcelonans produce their own “energy, food, goods and knowledge in self-sufficient neighbourhoods” (Tomas Diez, director of the Barcelona Fab Lab). The project, supported by the Barcelona Fab Lab, the <a href="https://iaac.net/">Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia</a> (IAAC) and the city of Barcelona, foresees the creation of approximately 15 microfactories, self-managed by local groups. Other dispositions, like Barcelona’s <a href="http://fablabbcn.org/0000/01/06/smart-citizen.html">Smart Citizen Kit</a> or Shanghai’s Airwaves and Noisetube projects, intend to supply all inhabitants with sensors giving them real-time access to urban data like pollution, humidity, temperature, traffic, luminosity and airwaves. Via these experiments, the citizen’s activity is not only registered, but the citizen himself plays a proactive role by being a sensor of his environment.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193024/original/file-20171102-26432-1ijxiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193024/original/file-20171102-26432-1ijxiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193024/original/file-20171102-26432-1ijxiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193024/original/file-20171102-26432-1ijxiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193024/original/file-20171102-26432-1ijxiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193024/original/file-20171102-26432-1ijxiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193024/original/file-20171102-26432-1ijxiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Valldaura Self Sufficient Labs, Barcelona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Quentin Chevrier for Makery</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Areas related to culture and knowledge figure in the dynamics of productive cities. These spaces, historically considered as places of retreat and protective shelter, are called upon to open up and participate. Thus, libraries, museums, theatres, universities and centres for science and culture become “third places”, progressively integrating leisure, diversion, public service or entrepreneurial functions. They become open, relational spaces, able to stimulate informal encounters among a wide variety of actors (artists, residents, scientists) while ultimately being able to valorise knowledge produced.</p>
<p>The infrastructures themselves are rendered productive. Smart grids, intelligent urban furnishings, and strategies of infrastructure reversibility or temporary management of vacant spaces, contribute to the same political optimism and activation of global city resources. The <a href="https://lesgrandsvoisins.org/">“Grands Voisins”</a> experience in Paris is the French incarnation of temporary urbanism possibilities. While awaiting the conversion of the former Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital into an eco-quarter, the associations Aurore, Yes We Camp and Plateau Urbain banded together to animate and manage the space. Today the site houses 600 persons in reinsertion (250 migrant workers and 350 emergency shelters for Aurore), and 180 structures (associations, artists, tradespeople and social entrepreneurs), which employ more than 1,000 people on a daily basis.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193025/original/file-20171102-26432-35ztlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193025/original/file-20171102-26432-35ztlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193025/original/file-20171102-26432-35ztlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193025/original/file-20171102-26432-35ztlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193025/original/file-20171102-26432-35ztlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193025/original/file-20171102-26432-35ztlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193025/original/file-20171102-26432-35ztlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grands Voisins, Paris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luc Legay</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This dynamic concerns the very nature of the city. The French projects Productive Landscape or Positive Biodiversity, enhance natural resources in cities working toward self-sufficiency in food and energy. Other examples exist in the <a href="http://valldaura.net/">Valldaura Self-sufficient Labs</a> in Barcelona’s Collserola Park, a 130-hectar nature reserve with remarkable flora and fauna. Located in the centre of Barcelona, Valldaura was acquired by the IAAC in 2010 with the objective of using its natural potential to co-produce prototypes related to city self-sufficiency. Activity is structured around three labs: the Energy Lab (energy production), the Green Fab Lab (production of goods) and the Food Lab (food production), and is financed by the Spanish government, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Valldaura prototypes under development include bio-batteries, micro-bio architectures, bio-photovoltaic panels, solar ovens, and connected beehives among others, and will be tested in the city of Barcelona.</p>
<p>This short review of contemporary thought in productive cities, calls for a hypothesis of a new biopolitics of cities. Beyond economic institutions, production spreads to urban morphology and infrastructures as well as social and cultural organisations, places of knowledge and natural and vacant spaces. All actors and other aspects the city have become productive. In this integrated urbanism, vacant lots and passages, third places or collaborative digital platforms become new production sites. These intermediary spaces, essentially unstable and subject to friction, are proving themselves well adapted for experiments, for creation and for inventing new life styles, new forms of organisation and ways of doing things. These areas are not unlike the “biological layers” described by the landscape architect, botanist and author <a href="http://www.gillesclement.com/">Gilles Clément</a> when he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The limits – interfaces, canopies, edges, outskirts and borders – are in themselves biological layers. Their richness is often greater than that of the environment they delineate”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Consequently, all urban vitality is mobilised in production. The pitfalls of the productive city, in that it produces, transforms and valorises the living, are therefore potentially numerous. How can production coming from intermediary spaces or from freely developed and shared collaborative, digital platforms be evaluated in economic terms? Everyone’s productions can hardly be reduced to the status of merchandise. They are similar to public property and the danger would be in establishing measures to harness and privatise these free cognitive resources. Another hazard of the productive city resides in the tendency to overstimulate contacts among residents.</p>
<p>No vacant area, abandoned lot or alley seems able to resist this movement of creating hyper-relational spaces. But aren’t these intermediary spaces the last shelters of protection from an urban society in constant acceleration? Aren’t they community belongings to be preserved rather than be transformed into third places or something else like “digital space 3.0”? A final risk of the productive city is in the mass distribution of sensors. These would collect and analyse considerable amounts of data produced by individuals. While intended to optimise city function and management, it’s also subject to questions about threats to personal liberty.</p>
<p>One understands the necessity to regulate the potential drifts of productive cities by defining urban policies related to city life itself, be it social, cultural, vegetal or proper to spaces with “biological layers”. The stakes reside in mobilising all the productive and creative forces for the benefit of cities’ democratic and ecological organisation, and less to a “technified productionist” oriented logic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphaël Besson ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>With the rise of the knowledge-based economy, fab labs, maker spaces and more, cities are being transformed into production centres. This dynamic movement is ripe with promise, but also has risks.Raphaël Besson, Directeur de l'agence Villes Innovations, Chercheur associé au laboratoire PACTE (Université de Grenoble), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/804992017-07-06T19:39:16Z2017-07-06T19:39:16ZFrom communities to territories: towards a Mediterranean coworking network<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176778/original/file-20170704-23217-ish9o3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coworking space Make it Marseille.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Studiolartisan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article was written with Léonard Lévêque, director of the Pôle Coopération of <a href="http://avitem.org/">AVITEM</a> and Charlotte Yelnik, a consultant for <a href="http://adhocverbis.com/">AdHocVerbis</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In the last few years there has been a growing number of what are known as “coworking” spaces in the world. While they first appeared in the United States, half are now located in Europe. Given the growth of freelancers and teleworking practices, their emergence corresponds to a certain need. Beyond a transformation of the world of work, with fewer salaried employees and localized businesses, they also show another form of management, an alternative production, territory and governance management model – even a new economic and democratic model.</p>
<p>That is the context of the European project <a href="https://ied.eu/what-we-do/projects/coworkmed/">CoWorkMed</a> led by the Agency for Sustainable Mediterranean Cities and Territories (AVITEM). Co-financed by the <a href="https://interreg-med.eu/">Interreg MED</a> programme, the project involves French, Greek, Italian, Croatian and Spanish partners. It aims at providing an inventory of coworking spaces in these five partner countries and at creating tools adapted to cross-border networking between these third places.</p>
<p>A first study carried out in the framework of this project enables us to examine the emergence of these new ways of working and social construction methods. What do these new places tell us about the transformations of our professional, social and political world? What are they witnessing? How can we turn them into springboards for territorial development?</p>
<h2>The community</h2>
<p>The first coworking spaces started out in 2006 in the United States and were directly related to the development of knowledge-based and digital economy – they were created for freelancers who wanted to share a workplace in a community of needs, constraints and values, as well as through the will to create an active network to trigger professional opportunities. The first principle of coworking is therefore a place and a community, a network of shared skills and assets, often animated by social events whose aim is forging links between coworkers on both the social and professional aspect. It is a direct emanation of the concept of the “third place”, between private and public place, home and work, with an informal meeting place that creates opportunities.</p>
<p>Over the following decade, the concept spread to other sectors, resulting in the creation of collaborative production sites, in particular in innovation and research sectors, especially with “fab labs” (for <em>fabrication laboratories</em>). Then the social, cultural and public-service sectors seized them, producing shared spaces adapted to their needs, with a desire to involve stakeholders and users to develop services through a co-construction logic. Fifteen years later, there is a strong and direct impact on the territories.</p>
<h2>The territory</h2>
<p>Following the logic of pollination, acceleration, incubation and other processes of transformation of ideas involving a community, these places have become true hubs of local innovation. Bringing together a range of actors in a spontaneous way, they’re epicenters of creativity at the scale of a territory, a city or a city center. Thus they activate local economic dynamics and combine them with the unique features of a territory, creating a genuine regenerative ecosystem.</p>
<p>In addition to the direct effects of economic growth, coworking spaces also have indirect impacts on land management. For example, users of these places place an emphasis on proximity between living places and work, they influence mobility and transport. They thus act against urban congestion, reducing commuting and decreasing the environmental and economic costs linked to transport.</p>
<p>These meeting and interaction points between professionals and users also contribute to restoring the wealth of a territory in its geographical coherence. By creating a concrete and driving network between the inhabitants, citizens, users, workers, who are concerned by the same issues, especially local ones, they value the territory as an integral capital, converging its strengths towards common objectives.</p>
<h2>The governance</h2>
<p>These third places were designed as spaces for sharing knowledge and building collective dynamics. They are built on values of sustainable development, including in terms of management and governance. Through the development of teleworking, big companies improved their employees’ working and living conditions, giving them more autonomy and making them more creative and productive. Entrepreneurs can boost their territories through related projects. Communities are inspired by this trend, seeking to revitalize declining territories through the impulse of third places in the social and public-service sectors.</p>
<p>Groups and stakeholders that were formerly less open are now creating links. Indeed, from the first “coworking spaces” where professionals from various sectors formed “opportunistic” partnerships (optimising the opportunities offered by the circumstances) to the new forms of innovative, social and cultural third places, real public-private-citizens partnerships are being formed. Through more or less informal places that help people meet each other, civil society and popular democracy reinvent themselves.</p>
<p>After 18 months of implementation, the CoWorkMed project will provide a global vision of these networks in the partner territories (France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia) to promote their institutional recognition and their transnational structuring as a lever of innovation in the Mediterranean. Through the study of new models, it will provide the basis for the creation of a Mediterranean coworking network.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphaël Besson ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>What do these new places tell us about the transformations of our professional, social and political world? And how to turn them into springboards for territorial development?Raphaël Besson, Directeur de l'agence Villes Innovations, Chercheur associé au laboratoire PACTE (Université de Grenoble), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/797172017-06-27T18:25:32Z2017-06-27T18:25:32ZHow Madrid’s residents are using open-source urban planning to create shared spaces – and build democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174795/original/file-20170620-29242-1mvrtv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Neighbours enjoy Madrid's outdoor Cinema Usera. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://afasiaarchzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Todo-por-la-Praxis-.-CINEMA-USERA-.-Madrid-10.jpg">Todo por la Praxis </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the 2008 economic crisis, Madrid has become the epicentre of major political and urban change. The city’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-spanish-political-laboratory-is-reconfiguring-democracy-74874"><em>Indignados</em></a>
are back, asserting that residents have a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042098009360239">“right to the city”</a> as well as “lodging, work, culture, health, education, political participation, the freedom of personal development and the right to first-necessity products”, as expressed in the manifesto of the <a href="http://www.democraciarealya.es/manifiesto-comun/manifesto-english/"><em>¡Democracia Real Ya!</em> movement</a>. These and other groups have thus revived a traditional Madrilenian citizens’ movement, based in part on self-management.</p>
<p>This is witnessed today in the phenomena of <em>laboratorios ciudadanos</em> (citizen laboratories) created in vacant city spaces. Not the result of any urban-planning strategy, they seem to have materialised from the spontaneous impulse of ordinary citizens and highly qualified groups working together in areas like collaborative economy, the digital technology, urban ecology or social urbanisation. These laboratories are fertile grounds for open-source urban planning (in Spanish, <em>urbanismo de codigo abierto</em>) and collectively rethinking the urban commons. The challenge is to (re)make the city <em>in situ</em>, using neighbourhood resources rather than acting like public authorities or already-established municipal groups.</p>
<h2>Hacking, a production mode common to Madrilenians</h2>
<p>Citizen laboratories use digital tools and “hacker ethics” to reclaim and coproduce in Madrid’s vacant spaces. Some twenty <em>laboratorios ciudadanos</em> have emerged over the last few years, including <em><a href="http://latabacalera.net/c-s-a-la-tabacalera-de-lavapies/">La Tabacalera</a></em>, <em><a href="http://estaesunaplaza.blogspot.fr/">Esta es une plaza</a></em> or <em><a href="https://es-la.facebook.com/campodecebada/">Campo de la Cebada</a></em>. Each specialises in a particular field, such as agriculture and urban economy, social and cultural integration, collaborative art or digital economy.</p>
<p>The <em>Campo de la Cebada</em> came to be in October 2010, when the city decided to demolish a sports complex in the La Latina area. Residents and neighbourhood groups worked together to create and manage an area dedicated to citizen social and cultural initiatives, with shared gardens and sports fields. Benches and bleachers were designed and made from recycled materials using free designs and fab-lab tools. Participants even created a geodesic dome 14 metres in diameter for hosting different cultural and social events.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Campo de la Cebada in Barcelona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Raphaël Besson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <em>Campo de la Cebada</em> has since grown to include exchange services, workshops for street art, photography, poetry and theatre, and events such as open-air music and film festivals. Activities are totally self-managed by groups representing residents, retailers, and associations, as well as architects, urban planners, researchers and engineers. It’s administered collectively rather than within the closed circle of a few elected officials or experts. Its objective is “that anyone may feel concerned and be implicated in the functions of the place”, according to Manuel Pascual of the <a href="http://www.zuloark.com/">Zuloark</a> architectural agency.</p>
<h2>Toward open-source urban planning</h2>
<p>Community groups such as <em><a href="http://www.ecosistemaurbano.com/">Ecosistema Urbano</a></em>, <em><a href="http://basurama.org/">Basurama</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.todoporlapraxis.es/">Todo por la Praxis</a></em> or <em><a href="http://www.paisajetransversal.org/">Paisaje Transversal</a></em> are also testing an urbanism based on collaborative management, experimentation, sustainable development, and the integration of artistic and cultural events. Inspired by the universe of open-source software, these groups advocate open-source urban planning. This translates into the development of design-thinking methods and digital tools that can help stimulate citizens’ ability to express themselves and their needs and turn projects into co-productions.</p>
<p>For example, the <em>Basurama</em> group organised an initiative called <em><a href="http://basurama.org/proyecto/autobarrios-sancristobal/">Autobarrios San Cristobal</a></em> in which residents of a neglected Madrid neighbourhood developed a shared space using local knowledge and recovered materials. The <em>Paisaje Tetuàn</em> project encouraged residents of the Tetuàn neighbourhood to collaborate with urban architects, artists and designers to rehabilitate the central Leopoldo Luis square as well as its surrounding area.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Autobarrios San Cristóbal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Basurama</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Open-source urban planning is less a business than a process of establishing relational spaces required for building the commons. This is one of the objectives of collaborative digital platforms that can connect of socially different worlds. These platforms serve as a “middle ground”, connecting the “underground” of residents, users, hackers and artists, with the “upper world” of administrations, businesses and engineers.</p>
<p>Online social networks thus facilitate self-managed citizen laboratories and mobilise hundreds of people for events in record time – equipment and infrastructure for <em>Campo de La Cebada</em> were financed through crowdfunding. Platforms for citizen laboratory networking, like the program “Ciudadania 2.0” (“citizenship 2.0”) created by <a href="http://medialab-prado.es/">Media Lab Prado</a> and the <a href="http://segib.org/">Secretaria General Iberoamericana</a> (SEGIB), facilitate resource sharing and visibility. The collaborative map <a href="http://www.losmadriles.org/">“Los Madriles”</a> features real-time polls of social and citizen innovations, including social centres, shared gardens, artistic events and more.</p>
<p>The Media Lab Prado <a href="http://medialab-prado.es/convocatorias">call-for-projects platform</a> helps spread the word about workshops and experiments related to the city and shared spaces – urban agriculture, data visualisations, cultural events, urban economics, etc. The Media Lab Prado digital façade provides real-time information on research, workshops, and on-going experiments to residents of the <em>Letras</em> district are updated on programs, and also enables them to publish their own announcements for events as well as neighbourhood news.</p>
<h2>Making the Madrid commons : intense daily activism</h2>
<p>The movement around Madrid’s public spaces has roots that stretch back to the <a href="https://monoskop.org/Situationist_International">Situationist International</a> of the 1960s. It asserts that experimentation and the mobilisation of a wide range of knowledge, be it expert or profane, are the basis for renewed vision of the urban fabric. By inciting citizens to act directly on the urban landscape and to freely create daily life, it differentiates itself from militant politics, to defend an intense daily activism.</p>
<p>In contrast to Madrid’s experiments, the Situationist movement
remains largely confined at a <a href="https://metropoles.revues.org/2902">literary and conceptual level</a>. New digital manufacturing techniques and tools have changed this situation. They enabled Madrid activists and residents to demand the material realisation of the Situationist ideal and to defend a “right to the infrastructure of cities”. This right is not limited to demanding equal access to city resources, but also concerns the city’s infrastructure, the “urban hardware”.</p>
<p>It going beyond social, educational and cultural life to coproducing city public spaces, equipment and other urban infrastructures. Thus Madrid’s movements are part of the “maker age”. In citizen laboratories, physical and material aspects come before intellectual and political considerations. Residents go first to the garden, where they can exchange and create; only then do they debate broader political issues. In this “soft activism”, the shared space becomes the new <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-multitudes-2007-4-page-101.htm">“interstice where political reconstruction could begin”</a>.</p>
<p>Exploring Madrid’s urban experiments permits us to better understand the conditions needed to making the urban commons. First is some vacant space and the possibility of using a portion of it to experiment and create. The space also need to be intermediate – neither private nor public – and inherently unstable and suitable for gathering. Then come the digital tools and acquisition of the technical capacity to produce shared space. Finally the “making” begins, and with it the continuous interaction between the materials and the intellectual end result.</p>
<p>How such urban commons experiments are to be developed and managed over the long-term remains to be answered. From this point of view, everything remains to be done.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This text was translated by Joan Thomas and Sarah Marcelly Fernandez.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphaël Besson ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Born seemingly spontaneously out of a desire to create and manage shared spaces, Madrid’s “citizen laboratories” are using new tools to build a new vision of how cities should be planned and run.Raphaël Besson, Directeur de l'agence Villes Innovations, Chercheur associé au laboratoire PACTE (Université de Grenoble), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/463242015-09-01T20:11:23Z2015-09-01T20:11:23ZHacking the body: the scientific counter-culture of the DIYbio movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93478/original/image-20150901-25763-1x4gj70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=197%2C161%2C3706%2C2443&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A biohack event called Rock’n Roll BioTech, held at Aalto University in Helsinki, brings people together to learn about the fundamentals of molecular life-sciences outside of conventional circles.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GaudiLabs</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Science and biology are slowly, but smoothly, being co-opted by a DIY approach that’s looking an awful lot like the start of the tech start-up boom. </p>
<p>It makes some sense that this makeshift biological movement is taking lessons from the same trajectory that <a href="http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/homesteading/hacker-history/index.html">computer hacking</a> and small tech companies took. Once <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/molecular-biology">molecular biology</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/genetics">genetics</a> came to grips with the fact that DNA and genes are essentially just another programming language, it was almost inevitable that someone would try to hack it, whether for the benefit of the majority or, more likely, just for fun.</p>
<p>“DIYbio” is an emerging area, riding on the coattails of tech start-up interest and the rising “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker_culture">Maker</a>” movement. This is where people provide a space for scientists and non-scientists to come into a lab and basically do what they want.</p>
<p>There are not many of these labs yet, as they tend to raise red flags in the eyes of authorities which are concerned about bio-warfare or drug manufacturing. And, until recently, it was rare to have a lab running outside of the highly regulated realm of business or academia.</p>
<p>But these labs, if they are involving “wet science”, tend to work in close accordance with the law. They go through the proper avenues of approval, and no one can work in the spaces without adequate training. </p>
<p>But once you have completed this training, you can go in and do whatever it is you want. It’s reminiscent of the way that science used to be done many decades ago. Back then, a researcher didn’t require approval or funding for an idea, they just did it, often in unorthodox of spaces. So DIYbio is the biological equivalent of the <a href="http://mashable.com/2013/10/29/steve-jobs-apple-garage-landmark/">garage in which Apple</a> was supposedly born. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some of the DIY lab equipment produced by GaudiLabs, a part of the hackteria.org open source biology art network.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GaudiLabs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Democratising science</h2>
<p>It’s exciting to watch just how much DIYbio has taken from tech culture. Tech start-ups, indie game development and the Silicon Valley “underdog” culture were all born from the computer hacking days of yore. Currently, DIYbio is still in its controversial and small stage of its growth, but we are already seeing the next part: science start-ups. </p>
<p><a href="http://synthorx.com/">Synthorx</a> is one of the first companies to take on that title. It’s trying to extend the language of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/dna">DNA</a> beyond the current four chemical bases we have now. </p>
<p>There is also an tremendous increase in companies that are selling DIY science kits you can buy online. Larger companies are also dabbling in this, such as <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/">Ancestry.com</a> which sells cheap and easy to use DNA kits.</p>
<p><a href="http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/cnmdk/">Dr Denisa Kera</a>, Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, is heavily involved in the “political” side of the DIYbio movement. </p>
<p>“There is no single technology or institution, which would prevent misuse,” Denisa said on the similarities between hacking biology and hacking tech.</p>
<p>“DIYbio for me is not some teenage rebellion of a few bored graduates from Ivy League Universities, it is maybe our only chance to open and democratise science.”</p>
<h2>Counter culture</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This DIY Mobile Gen Lab is a functional prototype of a genetic lab built into a.
suitcase. It was built by Urs Gaudenz of GaudiLabs during the MobileLab Hackaton in 2013 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GaudiLabs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although DIYbio often produces pure curiosity-driven research, this isn’t always the case, such as with the group <a href="http://www.makery.info/en/2015/06/30/gynepunk-les-sorcieres-cyborg-de-la-gynecologie-diy/">GynePunk</a>. </p>
<p>It has created a cheap and easy to use kit for people to run tests on their own bodily fluids. With a DIY centrifuge, incubator and microscope, it brings the control of gynaecological assessment into the hands of the patient. For those who don’t have health care access, or who are faced with discrimination, or just want to do it themselves, this is an amazing achievement. </p>
<p>With all this work on DIYbio by rogue researchers or citizen scientists, the face of clinical science is changing. With a couple of thousand dollars, I could conceivably open up my own lab with services to benefit those without the access. </p>
<p>With the cheapest of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/3d-printing">3D printers</a>, I could make my own gynaecological tools using designs such as the <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:865593">3D printed speculum</a> uploaded to open source sites by GynePunk. </p>
<p>Groups like GynePunk regularly upload how-tos for making microscopes, incubators and other commercially expensive tools, by using stripped parts from old computers or DVD players. All anyone needs to accomplish this is a basic understanding of biology and the training on how to safely handle biological fluids and specimens.</p>
<p>Of course, there is the financial concern, but that is where the benefit of the start-up culture comes in. These labs are often run on a cheap membership fee. You pay a fee, come in and use the lab for whatever weird experiment you want to try, and I could successfully stay open to also develop more applicable services.</p>
<p>Essentially, hacking medicine and biology is not only a fun way to do your own science, but is also something of a middle-finger to mainstream scientific culture, which has long been in the control of academia, bureaucratic research institutes and government funding. </p>
<p>But these two motivations work hand-in-hand, says Dr Kera, adding that the largest benefit of DIYbio is that the more people there are who know how to spot a problem and react using science, the better it is for society as a whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leigh Nicholson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s a new counter-culture movement that is seeking to bypass the bureaucracy of science and hack biology for the benefit of the masses.Leigh Nicholson, PhD candidate in cellular and reproductive biology., University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/262442014-05-16T04:51:43Z2014-05-16T04:51:43Z‘Repair cafés’ are about fixing things – including the economy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48691/original/rhmmd87q-1400211860.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C8%2C2782%2C2103&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What goes around: repair cafés aim to embrace the so-called 'circular economy' of making stuff last longer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jade Herriman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine your smartphone’s screen gets smashed, or your bike wheel gets buckled, or your favourite boots get a hole in them. What do you do? You could buy a replacement. Or you could join the worldwide trend of taking your broken stuff to a “repair café”.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bower.org.au">Bower Reuse and Repair Centre</a> has just launched Australia’s first repair café, in Sydney’s inner west. The <a href="http://www.pozible.com/project/176325">crowd-funded</a> project will hold weekly repair sessions focusing on bikes, furniture and electrical items.</p>
<p>The first repair café was set up in Amsterdam in 2009, and the <a href="http://repaircafe.org">Repair Café Foundation</a> says there are now <a href="http://repaircafe.org/already-over-400-repair-cafes-worldwide">more than 400 around the world</a>.</p>
<h2>What is a repair café?</h2>
<p>A repair café is a free face-to-face meeting of skilled volunteers and local residents who want things fixed. Many run as a weekly, monthly or seasonal “drop-in” space at a local workshop or community centre, or offer stalls at a local fair or park. Visitors bring broken items from home and watch, learn or help as the repairs get done. Some things are fixed during the event, while for more challenging items people might be referred to local speciality repair shops. </p>
<p>Volunteers aren’t necessarily tradespeople but they are tinkerers – people who love to work with objects. Many people who love bikes have learned how to repair and maintain them; others can sew, alter and transform old clothes; still others are fascinated by how watches work. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48694/original/hrvkt5sv-1400212042.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48694/original/hrvkt5sv-1400212042.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48694/original/hrvkt5sv-1400212042.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48694/original/hrvkt5sv-1400212042.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48694/original/hrvkt5sv-1400212042.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48694/original/hrvkt5sv-1400212042.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48694/original/hrvkt5sv-1400212042.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Up and running in Sydney’s inner west.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jade Herriman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this sense, repair is a natural extension of understanding, and a creative process that gives immense satisfaction. Many visitors to repair cafés end up becoming repairers themselves.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://repaircafe.org/faqs/1-what-kinds-of-things-can-i-bring-to-the-repair-cafe">list of items successfully repaired at repair cafés</a> is huge: bikes, clothing, cameras, mobile phones, computers, lawnmowers, luggage, lamps, toasters, CD players, microwaves – basically, almost anything you can physically bring along.</p>
<h2>Why bother?</h2>
<p>Our relationship with material objects has changed dramatically in the generations since wartime Britons were told to “make do and mend”. Simple repairs – resoling a shoe, mending a hole in a dress or gluing the leg of a chair – became less common as the disposable culture developed beyond small items like razors and pens, to include clothes, furniture and electronics. Mending came to be seen as old-fashioned and unnecessary, and cheap mass-production meant that anything less than perfect could be thrown away and replaced. </p>
<p>Last year, <a href="http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/CFBA5C80F706EE86CA257B16000E1922/$File/4602055005_2013.pdf">according to the ABS</a>, Australians sent more than half a million tonnes of leather and textiles to landfill – more than ten times the amount that was reused or recycled. But as <a href="http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/Resources/Other_Reports/UK_textiles.pdf">British researchers conclude</a>, reusing old clothes reduces environmental impact and boosts social equity.</p>
<h2>A culture of repair</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48695/original/d32cx2sg-1400212162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48695/original/d32cx2sg-1400212162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48695/original/d32cx2sg-1400212162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48695/original/d32cx2sg-1400212162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48695/original/d32cx2sg-1400212162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48695/original/d32cx2sg-1400212162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48695/original/d32cx2sg-1400212162.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fixing things can be fun.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jade Herriman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mending represents a <a href="http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/v5/a33">deliberate attempt to resist the throwaway culture</a>. Repair cafés <a href="http://www.getreading.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/reading-repair-cafe-returns-town-6504904">get people talking</a> and give them the chance to network and learn about the local resources available. And, perhaps most surprisingly for anyone who considers mending to be some kind of frugal drudgery, repair cafés can be fun and creative. After one event in Palo Alto, California, organisers <a href="http://www.repaircafe-paloalto.org/events.html">wrote on their blog</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Visitors to the Repair Cafe were delighted. It seems we really struck a chord with people - not only touching their desire to do something positive about their accumulated, broken stuff, but also appealing to the desire people have for this kind of community participation. The event also sparked lots of ideas among different people who came by – partnerships with other community groups, a community tool library, and advice on how to do things better next time. Most of all, though, everyone just had fun.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, repair café organisers in <a href="http://brightonrepaircafe.wordpress.com/about">Brighton, UK</a> stress that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Repairing is not only a creative and political activity – creating a sense of empowerment and independence – it is also a way of creating community cohesion and reducing waste.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>New approaches to old stuff</h2>
<p>This wave of 21st-century DIY enthusiasm is also evident in the rise of the <a href="http://makerfaire.com/maker-movement">Maker Movement</a>, <a href="http://blog.hackerspaces.org">Hackerspace</a> and other networks for hobbyists, students, or enthusiasts. </p>
<p>While repair cafés are general, other similar projects are more specialised, such as <a href="http://www.remadeinedinburgh.org.uk/p/about-us.html">Remade in Edinburgh</a>, which focuses on clothes and crafts, and <a href="http://freegeekchicago.org">Free Geek Chicago</a> and the London-based <a href="http://therestartproject.org/events/">Restart Project</a>, which help people repair and upgrade their own phones and electronics without buying new ones.</p>
<p>Online, there is a host of resources about repair – from the basics of <a href="http://loveyourclothes.org.uk">mending clothes</a>, to detailed and complex <a href="http://www.ifixit.com">repair guides</a> for computers, phones, games consoles, cameras, and even trucks. Some “fixers” have challenged themselves to make it the <a href="http://mymakedoandmendyear.wordpress.com">entire basis of their lifestyle</a>.</p>
<h2>It’s the circular economy, stupid</h2>
<p>“In a circular economy, repair cafés fit right in”, says the movement’s original founder <a href="http://repaircafe.org/repair-cafe-is-hot-topic-in-germany">Martine Postma</a>. In rejecting the linear model of buy-use-dispose, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-circular-economy-23298">circular economy</a> aims to keep resources moving around in the economy, rather than shunting them through it to a dead end, where they are lost to valuable use. </p>
<p>The Restart Project describes efforts such as theirs as the <a href="http://therestartproject.org/consumption/we-are-the-circular-economy/">“inner circle of the circular economy”</a> – small-scale solutions that involve sharing skills to develop a local economy of maintenance and repair, before items are even considered for recycling. </p>
<p>It might be quicker and easier to throw stuff in the bin, but it’s more expensive and less fun too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jade Herriman has received funding from the City of Sydney Environment Grants to deliver a series of repair workshops for staff, students and the general community at UTS during 2014. One of these workshops will be in partnership with the Bower, others will be other providers including UTS academics. </span></em></p>Imagine your smartphone’s screen gets smashed, or your bike wheel gets buckled, or your favourite boots get a hole in them. What do you do? You could buy a replacement. Or you could join the worldwide…Jade Herriman, Research Principal, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204442013-11-21T23:32:02Z2013-11-21T23:32:02ZMakers bridge the gap between science and art<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35725/original/sf26rsyw-1384989653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A home-made hexapod robot on display at a Mini Maker Faire at Somerville in the US. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Devers</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One evening when I was young, my father confiscated my radio because he said I was playing it too loud (I wasn’t).</p>
<p>Fortunately, I had a bunch of broken down receivers in my room, so I built a new one. In hindsight, this was probably the start of my career as a Maker.</p>
<p>Makers see a need but rather than asking somebody else to address it, they take matters into their own hands and fix things themselves.</p>
<h2>Rise of the Makers</h2>
<p>The Maker movement has recently gained a lot of momentum, with <a href="http://makerfaire.com/">Maker Faires</a> – where these home tinkerers meet at gatherings billed as “the greatest show and tell on Earth” – popping up around the world.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35728/original/sj9zzcbw-1384990421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35728/original/sj9zzcbw-1384990421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35728/original/sj9zzcbw-1384990421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35728/original/sj9zzcbw-1384990421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35728/original/sj9zzcbw-1384990421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35728/original/sj9zzcbw-1384990421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35728/original/sj9zzcbw-1384990421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just about sums it up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Beale</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now Sydney is hosting its first <a href="http://makerfairesydney.com/">Mini Maker Faire</a> this Sunday at the Powerhouse Museum. </p>
<p>Yet, in many aspects, Makers have been around for a while, from <a href="http://www.wia.org.au/discover/introduction/about/">amateur radio operators</a> adjusting their rig to allow clearer communication with remote contacts to software hackers <a href="http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch01.html">reprogramming their printer</a> so it works the way they want it to.</p>
<p>Even the casual DIY-er who builds a vertical garden <a href="http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/flickr-finds-ar-1-24327">out of found materials</a> is a Maker.</p>
<p>As it turns out, seeing a problem and fixing it yourself (rather than buying a new radio, printer or a bigger house) is often not that hard and quite rewarding. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35727/original/ctmv9zsc-1384990309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35727/original/ctmv9zsc-1384990309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35727/original/ctmv9zsc-1384990309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35727/original/ctmv9zsc-1384990309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35727/original/ctmv9zsc-1384990309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35727/original/ctmv9zsc-1384990309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35727/original/ctmv9zsc-1384990309.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Making is fun.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Beale</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A recent study found that <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/02/06/171177695/why-you-love-that-ikea-table-even-if-its-crooked">people value IKEA furniture more if they built it themselves</a>. Imagine the satisfaction one could get from such furniture without the pre-cut boards or instructions.</p>
<h2>New tech makes it easier to Make</h2>
<p>What recently united these tinkerers, technology enthusiasts and other life hackers under the same name is <a href="http://makezine.com/">Make</a>, a magazine published since 2005 that reports on the movement and showcases Maker projects.</p>
<p>However, perhaps the real reason we see more Makers these days is the increasing availability of cheap and easily hacked technology.</p>
<p>The advent of the <a href="http://www.arduino.cc/">various models of Arduino boards</a> (a single-board microcontroller used in electronics) or the single board computer <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">Raspberry Pi</a> tremendously lowered the barrier to entry to tinkering with electronics. <a href="http://forum.arduino.cc/">Communities</a> quickly <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/">formed</a> around these new technologies.</p>
<p>One no longer needs a degree in computer science to work out how to make computers do interesting things.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35732/original/djntgqk5-1384991107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35732/original/djntgqk5-1384991107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35732/original/djntgqk5-1384991107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35732/original/djntgqk5-1384991107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35732/original/djntgqk5-1384991107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35732/original/djntgqk5-1384991107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35732/original/djntgqk5-1384991107.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Makers see a problem and want to fix it themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Beale</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3d_printer">3D printers</a> also have a large part to play in the shift from user to Maker.</p>
<p>These devices transform reels of plastic filament (or metal wire) into physical items: structural elements, cogs, or silly-looking creatures.</p>
<p>The cost of producing prototypes and parts is greatly reduced, and design by trial-and-error is much more affordable.</p>
<p>Granted, these printers are not cheap yet (they can range from A$500 to A$10,000 and beyond), but many Makers get together to share the costs. There also are some <a href="http://reprap.org/wiki/Category:RepStrap">makeshift printers, cobbled from cheap elements</a>, which can print only one thing: <a href="http://reprap.org/">another, fully functional, 3D printer</a>.</p>
<h2>Is it art?</h2>
<p>Not all makers are driven by a prosaic problem they need to solve. Artists are also embracing these new technologies and the possibilities they represent.</p>
<p>Added to the usual toolbox, these new media allow artists to extend their visions beyond traditional art forms, and create <a href="http://vimeo.com/44645036">works</a> that audiences can respond to and interact with directly.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YdstMcTGijE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Maybe this is leading the way towards realising Australian comedian Tim Minchin’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoEezZD71sc#t=440">vision</a> of a closer relationship between art and science.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pudo7DcZkJ8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Arduino and Raspberry Pi-based sculpture simulating a brain that senses and reacts to people using the space.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning through making</h2>
<p>All things considered, though, I think the most important aspect of the maker movement is its potential to be used for education.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35726/original/3d2jmnbj-1384990156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35726/original/3d2jmnbj-1384990156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35726/original/3d2jmnbj-1384990156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35726/original/3d2jmnbj-1384990156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35726/original/3d2jmnbj-1384990156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35726/original/3d2jmnbj-1384990156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35726/original/3d2jmnbj-1384990156.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hammer Time Button.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Olivier Mehani</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I built my backup radio, I learnt some electronics. When I started brewing beer, I understood how yeast breaks maltose into ethanol and carbon dioxide.</p>
<p>For the Sydney Mini Maker Faire, I built the <a href="http://makerfairesydney.com/2013/11/15/meet-the-maker-hammer-time-button/">Hammer Time Button</a>, an alluring red button that, when pressed, prompts the MC Hammer classic <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo">U Can’t Touch This</a> to be blasted through speakers. You know that you can’t touch this button, but you just can’t help it.</p>
<p>Through this project, I reacquainted myself with <a href="http://www.narf.ssji.net/%7Eshtrom/wiki/projets/hammerbutton">computer interfaces</a>.</p>
<p>Now that I am getting into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio">ham radio</a>, I’ll finally get a chance to understand radio antennas. Whenever I need help, I know I can rely on the Maker communities around the Internet for information and advice, but most importantly, I’m having fun while learning.</p>
<p>Making represents a great opportunity to teach technology – not only how to use it, but also how it works – to the next generation of adults.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35729/original/kcsq3jww-1384990757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35729/original/kcsq3jww-1384990757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35729/original/kcsq3jww-1384990757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35729/original/kcsq3jww-1384990757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35729/original/kcsq3jww-1384990757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35729/original/kcsq3jww-1384990757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35729/original/kcsq3jww-1384990757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Kids learn to solder at a Mini Maker Faire in Albuquerque in the US.</span>
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<p>Makers know how to bend the world to their needs, and don’t let objects dictate their use to us. In a world increasingly reliant on technology, it is important to be able to lift the cover of everyday black boxes, and make devices behave the way we want them to (not the other way around).</p>
<p>The Maker communities offer a great way to learn how to do just that and may help shape the next generation of scientists, engineers and artists.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivier Mehani does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One evening when I was young, my father confiscated my radio because he said I was playing it too loud (I wasn’t). Fortunately, I had a bunch of broken down receivers in my room, so I built a new one…Olivier Mehani, Researcher, Data61Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.