This document compares a fab lab and hackerspace in Toulouse, France. The fab lab was founded in 2009 and provides access to digital fabrication tools like laser cutters and 3D printers. It aims to popularize these technologies but struggles to foster collaboration. The hackerspace was also founded in 2009 and occupies a freight container. It has a looser structure and focuses on curiosity, tinkering and sharing knowledge between its 30 members. While the spaces differ in their goals and cultures, they both provide environments where people can be creative and innovative through access to tools and collaboration with others.

1. Empowering the hacker in us: a
comparison of fab lab and
hackerspace ecosystems
Cameron Guthrie
Toulouse Business School
LAEMOS, Cuba 2014

3. “We all are makers: as cooks preparing food for our families, as
gardeners, as knitters. Although this view may not be part of
mainstream thought, there once was a time when most
Americans commonly thought of themselves as tinkerers.
Tinkering used to be a basic skill, and you could get a little bit
more out of life than the average person if you had good
tinkering skills—if you could fix your own car, for example, or
improve your home or make your own clothes. I think we lost
some of that over the decades, but I also think it is coming back,
for a lot of reasons. While people today may not treasure this
ability out of the same sense of necessity as they once did, they
are finding their lives enriched by creating something new and
learning new skills”
Dale Dougherty, The maker movement, 2012

4. We all have a little hacker in us
Hacker
Poltical or social
message,
transform
function, artistic
expression,
Tinkerer Maker
Self-sufficiency, DIY
movement, pleasure
of making
Repare and
maintain,
functionally
improve

5. Enabling spaces
• Makerspaces, hackerspaces, hack labs, fab labs and techshops
are their enabling spaces.

6. What am I ?

9. Two very different similar spaces
Fab Labs
• Founded by the Center for
Bits and Atoms, 2003
• A local lab that enables
“invention by providing
access to tools for digital
fabrication”
• Must respect the Fab Lab
charter
Hackerspaces
• German Chaos Computer
Club 30 years ago
• “Community-operated
physical places, where
people can meet and work
on their projects”
• No guidelines but a “hacker
ethic”

10. 10 years of growth
• There are 260 fab labs and over 1000 hackerspaces, hack labs
and makerspaces

11. Democratizing production
• Spaces that mutualise the means of production – machines,
materials and knowledge
• Spaces that encourage “cultures of participation” in which “all
people are provided with the means to participate actively in
personally meaningful problems” (Fischer, 2013).

12. A potential for social creativity
“ People shouldn’t need a 4
year engineering degree in
order to become an
inventor. We’re going to
make it accessible for anyone
to learn how create devices
for themselves and reach
local markets who need
them through short term
module classes on technical
skills ”
ARO Fab Lab Kenya - solar cooker prototype

13. From ignorance to social creativity
• “A potter must know clays and glazes and the various
processes by which to prepare, form and fire them. A clothing
designer must know fabrics and fasteners, sizing, cutting and
sewing [...] Mastery of materials and processes - obtained
through direct experience - is fundamental to making things in
any domain” Gross and Do (2009)
• “ Bringing different points of view together and trying to
create a shared understanding among all stakeholders can
lead to new insights, new ideas, and new artifacts” (Fischer,
2001)

14. Research question
• How does a fab lab and a hackerspace create the conditions
for individual creation and social creativity in the same urban
area ?

15. Method
• Case study approach
• Data was collected through interviews, observation and
documentary analysis
• Bloom and Dees (2008) ecosytem approach was used to
compare the two cases

16. Ecosystem approach
• To create long lasting change, social entrepreneurs must
“understand and often alter the social system that creates and
sustains the problems in the first place”
• Two paths to systemic change
– change the environmental conditions that shape the behavior of
players in the ecosystem
– introduce new practices, organizational structures and business
models to establish new behaviors in the ecosystem
Bloom, Paul N, & Dees, Gregory. (2008). “ Cultivate your ecosystem ” Stanford
social innovation review, 6(1), 47-53.

17. One fab lab and one hackerspace in
one city
But where is
Toulouse ?
A
B
C
D
Hackerspace
Fab lab

18. The Fab Lab
• Founded in 2009
• 750m2 inner city location
• Two laser cutters, 4
personal 3D printers and
one digital milling
machine
• Organizes an annual
national fab lab
conference

20. Environmental conditions
Politics and administrative structures : French Department for Industrial Renewal, FrenchTech policies
Economics and markets : FabLab movement, access to digital manufacturing technologies
Geography and infrastructure : Local high-tech industry and research laboratories
Culture and social fabric : Large university and student population, industrial activities
Competition
• Other associations (for
• Rapid prototypers and 3D print
shops (for B2B clients)
FabLab
resources)
« A place for multidisciplinary
creation, the sharing and diffusion
of knowledge. Access to scientific
culture for everyone »
Bystanders
• Professionals, companies and
universities : « Should we start
our own? »
• Rapid prototypers and 3D
printer shops
Beneficiaires and customers
• Members
• Science for youth program
• Start-ups and incubators
• Students and schools
• Laboratoires/universitaires
• Designers, architects, and
companies
Opponents and trouble makers
Sceptical technicians in local
adminsitrations
Resource providers
Financial
• Membership dues
• Paid machine time
• French government
Material and technological
• Municipality
Human
• Members’ knowledge
• FabLab manager
Networking
• FabLab network
• Science for youth program
• Municipality
Technological
• Open source movement
Complementary organizations
and allies
• Local industrial clusters and
professional associations
• 3D printer manufacturer
• Municipality
• Incubators, schools
Impact
Popularize access to digital manufacturing technologies and knowledge.

21. The fab lab’s theory of change
• “It’s very hard to fight against something, but for an individual
to undertake an action at his or her level is already a start. We
need to give the people the possibility to act locally” [co-founder
fab lab]
• “We can change mentalities. You have to be in the ecosystem,
multiply your contacts, show that you too can contribute to
innovation. The fab lab can help make a prototype, you know!
And you also have to remain loyal to your values” [co-founder
fab lab]

22. Fab lab´s obstacles to change
• “We’ve got lots of people that come and look for some skills
but we rarely have someone that comes in with a project that
everyone can work on. It’s mainly point-to-point where
people come for some specific help” [co-founder fab lab]
• Need to become self-financing within two years

23. The hackerspace
• Founded in 2009 by a core
group of ten enthusiasts
• Occupies a set-out freight
container amongst a larger
collective of artists.
• 30 fee paying members
• Organizes an annual free
hardware conference

24. “I prefer the word vision. With a spirit of
collaborating and sharing, transform objects
from the main function. Create new
technological objects, more or less useful but
that give us a super buzz. Find complex solutions
to non-existent problems. Make porn, because
WE MAKE PORN.” [member 1]

25. A hackerspace, a climate for curiosity
• “In a lot of hackerspaces that I know, they are mixed spaces
[...] The uses that are made of objects, the things that are
done to them, the animations may all be artistic in some way.
When you go to a festival at a hackerspace, they are places
where you feel good. Its ‘trans genre’. There is more than
technology. A hackerspace is really about curiosity. And if it
emerges it’s because these different people meet up”
[cofounder hackerspace].
• Liquid democracy

26. Environmental conditions
Politics and administrative structures : Invasive government actions and laws
Economics and markets : Consumerist society, big data collection
Culture and social fabric : Local like-minded associations
Competition
• « The word competition is not
really part of our language »
• « If someone does the same thing,
they will be encouraged to do it
with us »
Tetalab
A hackerspace the respects the ideals
of the hacker movement.
Complementary organizations and
allies
• Local artists collective
• Local not for profit ISP
• Local free software user group
• Not for profit youth science and
technology association
Bystanders
• R&D departments of
manufacturing companies
• Wary manufacturers
Beneficiaires and customers
• Members
• Allies
• Innovation arms of
manufacturing companies
Opponents and trouble
makers
Manufacturers that don’t
want their products hacked
Resource providers
Financial
• Membership dues
• Open days
• Occassional paid services
Material and human
• Members’ knowledge
• Like minded associations
• Salvaged equipment
Networking
• Hackerspace network
• Like minded associations
Technological
• Members
• Open source movement
Impact
« This is not the sort of vision we have. We are a space for exchange and collaboration »
« I reach my objective when I get sick of a project and move onto something else »

27. Case comparison
Fab Lab
• Increase access to digital
manufacturing technologies
and knowledge
• Financial dependence
• Multiple users with diverse
needs and expectations
• Needs to change practices
within its ecosystem
Hackerspace
• No intended impact
• Financial independence
• Hacker culture bonds
members together
• Must resist tendency to
become mainstream
• Already central to its
ecosystem

28. Discussion
• Different spaces offer different “climates” (Ashforth, 1985)
that both favor “play” (Bergen, 2009)
• The challenge is to bring together communities of practice in
a community of interest
• Fab Lab needs to move beyond “early adopters”
• The importance of “keystone species” in their ecosystems
(Iansiti and Levien, 2004)

29. What’s next ?
• Work with the Fab Lab on new collaborative practices to help
it become a real space for social creativity and change