Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Digital DIY: challenge or opportunity for degrowth?
International Degrowth Conference 2016September 1st, 2016
by Marco Fioretti
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
Digital DIY and ABC:a SOCIAL, not technical phenomenon
● Digital DIY: DIY design and manufacturing only possible thanks to
– digital product design processes
– digital networks that let people directly share, and co-develop, those digital designs
– "Atoms and Bits Convergence" (ABC): the possibility to transform (digital) designs, without manual work, directly into physical products, thanks to..
– personal manufacturing tools digitally controlled, that is directly operated, not by humans, but by software in their own computers
● much cheaper and simpler to use today than even a few years ago
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
The DiDIY Project(www.didiy.eu,@digital_diy)
● EU H2020 research project, ending in June 2017, carried on by international consortium
● studies and models present and future DiDIY social, economical, cultural, ethical... scenarios, and their long term implications for European society
● will produce (also) guidelines, for EU educators and policy makers, about how to deal with DiDIY and maximize its positive impacts on society
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
Characteristics of Digital DIY
● Really ubiquitous and flexible. Just like software
● Applicable with EVERY MATERIAL: including services and low-tech products
● gives more people more opportunities to
● do what they could have never done otherwise, like "sculpting" by controlling a 3D printer
● do it together online, by freely exchanging designs and know-how through open communities
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
The «dark sides» of Digital DIY
«3D-print your gadgets straight from your smartphone»...
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
The dark sides of Digital DIY (2)
● solution in search of (first world) problems
● extra consumption, waste, futility
● “non-limitable” (“flexible like software...”)
● depends on huge polluting global infrastructures (Internet, microelectronics industry...)
● challenges responsibilities, guarantees, definition of good and bad
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
Digital DIY may stimulate...
● new roles and relations among individuals, organizations, and society
● more Digital (or digitally-based) Commons, and Commons-based peer production and sharing
– typically under free licenses
– of ALL kinds of resources, from single products or tools (tool libraries) to community services (car sharing, internet access, healthcare)
● transition to an overall lower environmental footprint
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
Digital DIY can last a long time (2)
«a washing machine designed to last
FIFTY YEARS...»
Digital DIY can last a long time (2)
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
Digital DIY may contribute to make..
● WITHOUT ANY NEED for «a 3D printer in every home»
● small scale production/ mass customization economically viable
– local, bottom-up solutions and production
– also for services (OpenCare, local online markets)
● planned obsolescence avoidable:
– bottom-up, collaborative design for reuse, modularity and repair
– spare parts for everything, forever
● recycling and repair much easier, and convenient
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
DIY, digitally designed and/or controlled farming drones, milking machines, greenhouses, micro-watering systems, pest mapping...
Today’s Possibilities...
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
The real issues:legal, economical and cultural
barriers
● a world with almost no intermediate steps/levels conceived between
● (globalized), industrial mass production● or full time single artisan, overwhelmed by bureaucracy
– and totally passive consumers
● lack of effective legal/regulatory SUPPORT (IPR, liability..) for
– really on demand, distributed manufacturing
– design for durability, fair reuse, right to repair
– open digital standards (all too often, the only problem is in software)
CC BY-SAMarco Fioretti
Digital DIY and Degrowth:working together?
● make Digital DIY known in degrowth circles:
– visits makers, enter fablabs, to get help/co-develop common solutions
● coordinate lobbying with makers, to favour pollution-reducing and energy-saving applications of Digital DIY
● support the research of the DiDIY project by sharing proposals, case studies, questions...
– See you online!
● Www.didiy.eu● Twitter: @digital_diy
