a summary of the first main assumptions and findings of the EU H2020 research project about "DiDIY" (Digital DIY), presented at the Rome Maker Faire of 2015

1. Digital DIY: social,
cultural and
economical impacts
Maker Faire Rome
17 October 2015
by Marco Fioretti

2. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
What is Digital DIY?
● a social, NOT technical phenomenon, based on
– Much easier and cheaper production of all sorts
of“products”, including “unique” or «smart» ones
– accessibility of the related knowledge
● whose greatest «enemies» are NOT technical
limits, as much as legal, social and political barriers

3. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Impacts of Digital DIY?
● DiDIY touches many sensitive areas,
from privacy and culture to responsibility,
safety and fairness
● Far-ranging consequences on rights,
responsibilities and opportunities of
individuals, organizations and society

4. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY: often, still searching for PURPOSE
«Hey, I
finally 3D
printed
something
useful!»
(and it's a
LOW-tech
spare part!)

5. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
...and still distant from people
#digitalDIYperchi ?#digitalDIYperchi ?

6. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
...and still distant from people (2)
● 3D print is a buzzword exploited by mainstream media
● But for the general public, DiDIY as a whole is still:
● even more remote than... Free/Open Source Software
● very far from being really known, or even perceived as
really relevant

7. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY: MUCH more than 3D printing
and/or High Tech
The biggest, most relevant
impacts of DiDIY will come
from its arrival into «low-
tech» sectors and basic
needs of society:
Agriculture
Furniture
clothing

8. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
A 3D printer in every home?
● Probably a terrible idea. Above all: WHY? WHAT FOR?
Image: Marcello Casal Jr./Agência Brasil, from Wikipedia - CC By 2.5
● Whereas an pay-per-use
«Digital DIY center»:
– in every city block...
– properly supported and
regulated
● May have a HUGE impact

9. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
What about agriculture and farming?
Image: Marcello Casal Jr./Agência Brasil, from Wikipedia - CC By 2.5
● Tractors?
● Beehive monitors?
● Robots for:
– Farming
– Milking
– Making cheese
– ...

10. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY in organization and work
● scarcely related to the skills of individuals
● promotes reliance on individual initiative and
Commons based peer production
● challenges traditional institutions and norms that
establish control
● changes workplace processes and structures

11. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY Education and Research
new teaching
and
learning
opportunities,
from
primary schools
to
universities

12. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY and Creativity
● DiDIY is an ethos and mindset
● impacts on individual creativity
● brings disruptive innovation on the whole
society
● makes possible stronger connections between
hands-on creative practices, networked people,
and shared, open design processes

13. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY and Ethics
● “The ability to reproduce potentially anything MAY mean ‘radical
abundance’ but surely means radical dissolution”
● extends Pirate Bay-level “piracy”, or sharing, to the physical realm
● But, unlike music, physical objects can be directly, physically HARMFUL:
– “forget” weapons or viruses: think medical devices, furniture, car parts...
– raising whole new issues of ‘consumer’ safety and property rights
● Digital DIY forces societies to renegotiate general ethical norms, that is
what is “the right thing to do”
● Being prepared for this requires specific research

14. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY project objectives
● understand the impacts of DiDIY on society
● foster a DiDIY-based, human-centric
development in Europe
● driven and shaped by social and cultural
strategies, not technology
● produce useful results for European teachers,
researchers and (primarily) policy-makers

15. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
From www.didiy.eu/blog
Digitally manufactured weapons:
can they be controlled?

16. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
From www.didiy.eu/blog (2)
Beyond "Right to
Repair":
the
Right to Keep Buying

17. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
From www.didiy.eu/blog (3)
Milan Makerspaces:
from furniture to wearables

18. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
From www.didiy.eu/blog (4)
DIY Flu?
Design-at-
home-
viruses?

19. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
From www.didiy.eu/blog (5)
«Reshaping
craftmen's work
through Digital
DIY»
Inside...
Auchan

20. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
From www.didiy.eu/blog (6)
«Ulisse:
a fantastic
example of
Digital DIY
in
education»

21. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DiDIY for artisans and SMEs
● Current insurance, consumer or environmental
rules may block DiDIY usage in SMEs
● It is necessary to:
– catalog and analyse the legal issues that could
hinder or help growth of DiDIY in European
companies
– distinguish between rules that are out of date and
– actual needs for new, positive regulation of DiDIY
Source https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/epractice/news/researchers-track-down-obstacles-digital-diy

22. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Biourbanism and Digital DIY
● Biourbanism: «making the
places we inhabit worth
living thanks to sustainable,
small-scale and self-
organized actions»
Biourbanism could not
avoid DiDIY components and
practices, even if it wanted to!
Source: www.biourbanism.org/didiy-an-interview-with-marco-fioretti/

23. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Please submit
your
«DiDIY cases»!
www.didiy.eu
> Resources
> Add a DiDIY Resource

24. 2015/10/17 Maker Faire Rome CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Evaluate
DiDIY
support and
awareness
in
Europe www.didiy.eu/contact
Please help us to...