Lift France 10 news

Open Data was one of the main theme explored at the second edition of Lift France 10 by some of the leading experts on the subject.

• Michael Cross, journalist for the Guardian is one of the instigators of the campaign "Free our data".
  
• Jarmo Eskelinen, President of the Forum Virium in Helsinki, a non-profit innovation company in the area of digital services. FVH brings together ideas and innovators and leads development projects. All activities are based on the principles of open and user-driven innovation.
  
• Hugues Aubin, in charge of ICT for the city of Rennes (France).
  

More on Open data:
• See "La nouvelle science des données" ("The new science of data") section of InternetActu.net on the theme of Open Data.
• In 2010, the Fing launched a campaign on the opening of government data in partnership with several regions. The objective is to support the opening and reuse of public data to stimulate local innovation and create value. Check out the road map of the Fing on the sharing and reuse of public data.

Stefana Broadbent is an anthropologist at University College London (UCL). Between 2004 and 2008 she was responsible for the development of the User Observatory at Swisscom. In the last 15 years of applied research, Stefana has been working on two main areas of investigation: the evolution of digital activities at home and the analysis of complex and highly automated work environments.

At Lift France 10, Stefana talked about the way people manage information and communication at their workplace, based on the real-life example of a railway accident which occurred 2008 in California. That day, a passenger train collided with a freight train, killing 25 people.

The investigation revealed that the train driver had sent more than 50 text messages during that ride. An emergency law prohibiting the use of telecommunication at the workplace was put in place immediately. Stefana argued that law enforcement does not really solve the problem. Giving people interesting and challenging jobs is the only solution. As Lift founder Laurent Haug puts it in today's Swisster article about another workplace disrupting technology (Facebook): "The hard truth is that the only solution is to give people a job they like! That way they don't need to go on Facebook."

Related links:
• Watch the video of Stefana Broadbent's Lift France speech
• Watch the interview she gave at Lift France 10

How can design methods help visualize potential futures and broaden our perspectives? Can we reveal the unusual and invisible possibilities by prototyping objects and services that do not exist yet?

This is the topic chosen by Anab Jain in her talk at Lift France 10. Following up on her previous appearance, she showed inspiring examples of speculative designs and prototypes made by Superflux, the London and Ahmedabad based studio she founded to explore the implications of technological change on people, society and the environment.

Such projects shed some light on how to create new dialogues between science, emerging technologies and the wider public. Another important aspect lies in the interdisciplinary approach: collaborating with futurists, technologists or hardcore scientists generates a greater chance to find fresh ideas and perspectives on the future.

Related links:
• Anab put her slides and a summary on the Superflux's blog
• [in French] Hubert Guillaud wrote a very complete write-up published in Le Monde.fr.

Fab Labs are workshops where almost anyone can design and make almost anything. Under the name Fab Labs or other names such as Tech Shops and Hackerspaces, hundreds of shared spaces are providing the means to design, prototype and produce new objects, to create installations, to customize existing products.

Fab Labs are made of computer controlled tools creating rapid prototypes of physical objects - and revolutionizing the fabrication processes. The initial program launched at the Media Lab at MIT in 2007, spread to all over the world. At Lift France 10 the Fab Lab pioneers Adrian Bowyer (University of Bath, UK), Ton Zijlstra (FabLab foundation Netherlands) and Haakon Karlsen Jr. (MIT FabLab Norway) presented their insights.

Adrian Bowyer (University of Bath, UK) introduced the session by presentation RepRap, a tool that is both used and produced in Fab Labs. It is a self-replicating machine made of a cheap desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Bowyer showed both the underlying principles of the RepRap and the community tools (such as the sharing of digital designs) and gave an outlook on the legal and economical implications of RepRap.

Adrian Bowyer "The RepRap" (Lift France10 EN)

Ton Zijlstra followed up on the previous presentation by highlighting the community side of Fabs Labs. He presented how the various Fab Lab initiatives in the Netherlands/Benelux area are both unique and complementary: They have their own agenda but also cooperate (see for example the on the Fab Lab conference in Amsterdam or the Fabacademy).

Ton Zijlstra "FabLab Netherlands" (Lift France10 EN)

Haakon Karlsen Jr. presented the MIT-FabLab Norway. He exemplified how a geographic context such as this area in Norway leads to specific design and interests. To contrast this, Haakon presents examples of Fab Labs in Africa and Afghanistan to describe how other places' constraints lead to different rapid prototyping.
As of July 2010 there are already 45 Fab Labs in 16 countries including Afghanistan, Kenya, Ghana, Costa Rica and Columbia!

Haakon Karlsen Jr. "Fab Labs network" (Lift France10 EN)

For our Lifters currently in Paris: the project FabWall of the Lift France 10 speakers Jean-Louis Frechin and Uros Petrevski is on exhibition until 15 August at the Musée des Arts décoratif. More info here.

Also check out the video of their Lift speech (in french) about "Hacking industrial machinery to design desirable objects" / "Hacker les machines industrielles pour concevoir des objets désirables"

Le projet FabWall de Jean-Louis Frechin et Uros Petrevski est exposé jusqu'au 15 août dans le WallPaperLab du Musée des Arts Décoratifs à Paris. Pour en savoir plus visitez leur nouveau site web NoDesignLab.

We are now publishing the Lift France 10 videos: Check out Ivo Gormley inspiring speech about the relationship between social innovation and digital technologies.

Ivo Gormley "Us Now" (Lift France10 EN)
Hochgeladen von liftconference.

The BBC just featured a short clip on one of Ivo's project, the good gym.

Ivo Gormley is a filmmaker and anthropologist working as head of media at Think Public, an award-winning agency focused on using design to improve service experiences in the public sector. In 2009 Ivo released Us Now, a much acclaimed film that demonstrates how mass collaboration online is changing the way we organise our lives and relate to other people.

Ivo's latest movie Playmakers explores the emerging area of pervasive games, the implications of reclaiming play into the public domain and the possibilities offered by new technologies.

For our french speaking Lifters: an article on the Lift France 10 privacy session was featured a few days ago in Le Monde.

The article explores the views of Daniel Kaplan (FING), Alma Whitten (Google) and Adriana Lukas (Big Blog Company).

This is the 4th of a series of articles in Le Monde, and we are really proud of our partnership with such a prestigious media!

You can read the other articles here.

Check out the two clips Euronews did on Lift France 10. We had an amazing time in Marseille, the official Lift France 10 videos will be published in a few days.

Amit Zoran is a designer and student at Smart Cities Group of the Media Lab at MIT, where he has worked on many design projects, including mixed objects at the intersection of technology and culture.

He dedicated his research work in developing hybrid objects, a fusion between traditional and digital elements like his famous Guitar Chameleon . This electric instrument is an evolving and adaptable device, with a interchangeables oundboard to convert the acoustic guitar, not only digitaly but also in a physical manner. The quality of this guitar is connected to the physical property of materials that compose it, hence the idea to make them partly interchangeable.

He also designed Cornucopia (the horn of plenty), a 3D printer support. This machine addresses each of the fundamental processes that are central to the kitchen, mixing ingredients (through the "digital fabricator" who can assemble flavors and textures in the manner of Boris Vian's Pianococktail ), their physical and chemical processing (via the "mixer Virtuoso") and presentation (via the "robot head"). The idea behind the design of these devices is to imagine a "gastronomy digital optimizing both the potential for creative expression and personal digital as the kitchen. These instruments are not intended only to extend the range of what we can cook, but also to make them available digitally, collaborative, networked ...

These two examples of the more recent work Ami Zoran illustrate the particularity of its approach. His presentation will provide an opportunity to explore the question of hybridization: how culture meets technology and how the design is the crucible.

Haakon Karlsen Jr runs the 5-year-old MIT FabLab in Lyngen, up North in the Norwegian Alps. He also chairs the Fab Foundation, which co-ordinates the international network of Fab Labs.

“Few people tend to visit rural northern Norway from other parts of the world. Thanks to the Fablab network, we have been able to welcome the world's foremost and most imaginative experts, entrepreneurs and inventors

in Lyngen, allowing us to innovate in education, research, development and commercialization. But we also bring something that we have to the network: A sense of welcoming, of respect, and tolerance."

"In the Fab Foundation, we have struggled with the definition of "'What is a Fab Lab' for some time, and come up with this: Fab Labs are a global network of people who want to cooperate. The machines that equip them are tools to make this happen. In the beginning, a Fab Lab was a place for rapid prototyping. But more and more, Fab Labs turn into community centers where people come with all sorts of questions, projects and desires.

"All successful Fab Labs originate from, or become, a grassroots movement. You plant the seeds, but you're never sure what will grow. Theses roots need to be connected: Fab Labs must not be strangers in their own communities - even in their architecture. They need to be integrated in the local community. Then people can come in and tell about what they need where they live. The setting up of a Fab Lab needs a strategy on how to involve the community.

"The second most important thing is people: Who runs the Lab? You need people who burn for the idea, for this mix of local and global cooperation.

The 3rd success factor is, How to make the FabLab economically sustainable in a short period? There are solutions, from small prototyping to bigger projects, such as engineering other labs, organizing workshops... And the network can help.”

At Lift France 10, Haakon will share with us his experience with Fab Labs from around the world, what makes them successful (or not), what it takes to become a Fab Lab, and what comes out of them.