Videos: Fab Labs pioneers at Lift France 10

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)