Fab Academy 2018
by JEAN-BAPTISTE NATALI
jbnatali@gmail.com
Attending the Fab Academy in Barcelona, I document each week of intense learning as I come across new digital fabrication techniques.
This documentation is as much a report of what I do as a reflection on why I do so, and will hopefully guide me back to Oceania to spread and make good use of the knowledge gathered along the path.
--- summary of the assignment ---
objective :
Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project. Prepare drafts of your summary slide (presentation.png, 1920x1080) and video clip (presentation.mp4, 1080p HTML5, < ~minute, < ~10 MB) and put them in your root directory
what I did :
I developped a plan for dissemination of my final project and drafted files for my summary slide and video clip.
08.06.18 / I heard back from the application I sent for grant . While one was unsuccessful, the other has been put on hold since the local council is considering funding the Gribblehirst space as a whole. This is more likely to succeed. I have re-written and sent another documentation about fablab / the network and other things to the board members of Gribblehirst, who will meet in person in the local council in two days. Fingers crossed.
About my final project and its future developement, I have considered an option which was part of the initial project :
To make this level of collaboration happen, I must allow other labs to replicate and use learning kits for commercial purpose. My intention is to help spread knowledge though use of this design.
Specifically, I wish to allow labs and other educational places to sell the experience of using the learning kits to their members/customers. I do not wish them to make a profit selling the kits to other entities. By doing so I hope that they will have a vested interest in developing new learning kits and share their own (specific) knowledge.
I give below a few example. A fablab which has a set of learning kit in their labs, and let their (paying) members use them is fine to me. A lab that has set up the learning kit in a library (or other physical spaces) and look after it, updating the setup with new kits every month, is fine too. A lab which builds and sell the kits to another entity and so they can use it as they wish is not fine. This entity has no way to refresh the knowledge available through the kit. They won't participate in the activity of sharing knowledge.
Sharing the digital designs can be done via Github. A video on Youtube for both users and developers will make their researches and learning steps easier. It is also necessary to pass the message across.
Patenting my creation is of no use since I do not have (and am not looking for investors with) the financial means and incentive to protect it afterwards. Defining the use of my personal work via the selection of the right type of copyright is necessary, so I look at Creative Commons, GPL, LGPL, BSD, MIT/X11, Apache and fab type of copyrights.
Creative commons license seems to either allow full commercial use of the work or not at all. SO does GNU, LGNU, BDS and MIT license. I have not been able to fully decipher the Apache license, so I wil stay away from it. Finally the Fab license is very straight forward but does not allow for commercial use.
In the future I will need a license stipulating the commercial usage of my creation. I do not have the solution yet and once a functionning version of the product will be ready, I will look more closely at what copyright to use or modify.
Last thought : perhaps the way to go is to freely release the design of the object under creative commons license but make the online database of other new learning kit a paid features (as a membership). money collected this way goes to makers that participate in the elaboration of new learning kits. This way users that are also makers will have access to this system for free. And users who simply want to use the system without participating in the activity of knowledge sharing will finance others who want/can.
What is left to design is who (or how to) curate these many designs. To be continued.
09.06.18 /I prepare the draft for the slide and the videos. Below is the slide and you can find the video here.
I was inspired by this slide from Wilhelm Schutze :
I made the video with Open shot Video editor.
18.06.18 /LAST MINUTE ADDITION : . I finally chose a (temporary) license for my creation. I selected the license below since it provides me with extra time to think about a potential business plan for this concept - or, considering later on that it is not necessary, I can swap it to allow commercial use of my work. this license is :
