While free and open-source software has become a mature concept, open-source co-creation and sharing of hardware comes with the need for organizing a much more diverse set of disciplines and capabilities. A steadily growing number of companies develop open-source hardware (OSH) products based on the existing body of free technological knowledge today, with many of them manufactured in their own vicinity which in turn improves resource productivity and social benefits. Fab labs/makerspaces as openly accessible facilities with local communities of makers have the potential to act as catalysts to mature and disseminate OSH development collaboratively. In the Horizon 2020 project OPENNEXT, 17 case studies were implemented in four clusters where makerspaces worked together with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for a limited time to provide new pathways for OSH co-creation and sharing. Various consumer goods industries, such as electronics, furniture, and mobility amongst others, were in focus. Different roles within the development process emerged from this SME-makerspace-cooperation for OSH that will need to be upscaled and elaborated by makerspaces.
17.1 Introduction
Fab City is an innovative urban model that re-localizes production to the city and its bioregional context. By empowering communities with the technology to build their own sustainable, innovative, and regenerative urban futures, the Fab City approach has been prominently linked to the OSH approach through (1) the Sense network developing environmental sensing technologies based on an all-in open (source) software/hardware/data model such as the Smart Citizen (Sensing) toolkit for citizens concerns (Diez, 2018, p. 200); (2) the REMODEL program, which created a design sprint for (Danish) manufacturing companies to identify new business models for engaging in OSH (Diez, 2018, p. 122); as well as, most recently within the Fab City Hamburg, (3) the Open Lab Starter Kit of OSH machine tools designed for makerspaces and the Interfacer project that develops a free and open-source tool chain for OSH (both subject of this book). These approaches consider a wide range of activities for a more sustainable and resilient technology- and citizen-based transformation of value creation within an OSH ecosystem. OSH can play an important role in enabling the transition to a circular economy, eliminating waste, and promoting the continuous use of resources by keeping them in closed loops through locally accessible distributed manufacturing supply chains, where products are designed to be reused, repaired, or recycled. Thus, makerspaces that facilitate OSH projects can act as central focal points for local production.
However, open-source hardware is still a relatively young field lacking a harmonization of practices and standards. Particularly, the scope of fab labs and makerspaces1 as a frame of reference and intermediary actors within the FabCity approach have been overlooked regarding OSH development. This paper therefore explores the major role makerspaces can play as ‘facilitators’ for effective OSH development by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups based on collaboration and co-creation together with makers, customers, domain experts and many others as observed in the H2020 research project OPENNEXT as part of 17 SME cases. It investigates the challenges and opportunities for this still (arguably) new strategic orientation of makerspaces acting as facilitators for OSH, a critical cornerstone for enabling localized, digital, distributed manufacturing within the FabCity context based on a “data in data out” (DIDO) system of global knowledge sharing for maximized resource productivity in the future (Diez, 2018, p. 80).
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17.2 Theoretical Background
17.2.1 OSH and Circular Economy
OSH development is a process of creating hardware products or devices using open-source principles, in a collaborative, transparent way within open-source-hardware communities or for the sharing of designs (i.e., broadcasting) and generative design. As it expands the idea of open source from software development, it focuses on hardware design, prototyping, and manufacturing which involves physical handling (Raasch et al., 2009). In OSH development, anyone interested can freely access the technical documentation of the hardware product (design files, schematics, etc.) on the internet. According to the definition of the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA),2 open-source hardware is “hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design.” This allows for a greater collaboration and more sharing of knowledge among developers, making it easier for them to improve the design, fix bugs, and add new features. The open nature of the process also means that the developed hardware can be customized and adapted to suit individual needs and preferences and enable decentralized production.
Thus, OSH can play an increasingly important role in the sustainable development and decentralized production. Makerspaces that facilitate OSH can thereby support the development and production of products that are repairable, upgradeable, and recyclable, which can help reduce waste and extend the life of products. Furthermore, OSH can also facilitate the development of new business models that support a circular economy, such as product-as-a-service or leasing models, where companies retain ownership of their products and customers pay for access rather than ownership. Overall, makerspaces have a high potential to support the transition to a more circular economy by enabling collaboration, innovation, and the development of more sustainable products and business models.
17.2.2 Collaboration in OSH
Collaboration is an essential element to many successful projects and initiatives. For OSH projects, it represented the driving force that pushed innovation and creativity and also resulted in long-term relationships and successful outcomes. Collaboration in OSH (and beyond) requires clear communication, mutual understanding, trust, and respect (Peters et al., 2022). The chances of successful collaborations are greatly increased if common goals, among e.g., SMEs, makers and makerspaces are set right from the start. When collaborating, it is important to remember that everyone involved has their own interests and abilities, resulting in different approaches. Thus, OSH collaborations need to make sure that all ideas are given a chance to be heard. At the same time, each participating maker and SME has certain expectations towards the result, the ways of working as well as the revenue. These are important aspects for the collaboration that need to be clearly communicated as well as organized and consolidated. Within the OPENNEXT project, new pathways for OSH collaborations were investigated by fostering a co-creation approach open to the public. Co-creation in OSH development is a process of developing a new product through teamwork with SMEs, makers, inventors, suppliers, customers, experts, and employees. The goal of co-creation is to promote the culture of sharing ideas, instead of keeping them to oneself, in order to improve productivity and sustainability (Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2014; Kurzhals et al., 2022; Redlich et al., 2019). Consequently, these new, innovative forms of collaboration require networking and knowledge sharing, leading to a decentralization as well as a paradigm shift from traditional, firm-centric, and top-down value creation to more open and collaborative approaches, also referred to as bottom-up economics (Redlich et al., 2019). Makerspaces, by their nature, can fulfil exactly these new requirements. They are playing an increasingly important role in value chains of start-ups, specifically in funding, design, and production-related issues since they are cut out for experimentation (Tomczyk & Besenfelder, 2022). They create connections between SMEs and universities and match heterogeneous makers with communities, thus fostering new collaborations and providing a mutual benefit. Much diversity on the focus amongst makerspaces can be found, depending on the orientation of the makerspace/fab lab. They differ greatly in terms of equipment, orientation, motivation, funding as well as the communities and networks they attract. This diversity is a great strength and offers new opportunities for reshaping value creation. However, this raises the question how makerspaces can contribute to OSH product development activities and how they perceive their (own) role in this collaborative setting.
17.3 Methods, Concept and Research Approach
Based on this collaborative approach, within the OPENNEXT project, 17 different case studies were implemented in four clusters where makerspaces worked together with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for a limited period of time to provide new pathways for OSH co-creation and sharing. A wide range of topics and aims was covered in these OSH projects, including designing furniture, developing environmental sensors or tools and add-ons to transportation. While two makerspaces were predominantly commercially driven (MAKER in Copenhagen and HappyLab in Vienna), two other ones (WAAG in Amsterdam and Prototypes4Europe in Berlin) were more community-driven. Based on this overall research setting, OPENNEXT investigated how makerspaces can contribute to OSH product development activities and how they perceive their (own) role in this collaborative setting. The aim of the analysis was to understand how makerspaces can contribute to OSH product development activities and how they perceive and assume their (own) role in this collaborative setting.
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As only limited discussions regarding these two questions were found in existing literature, to get more insight, other than providing a platform for OSH co-creation and sharing, the OPENNEXT project included observational research tasks. This was done through four semi-structured interviews with the makerspaces, three makerspace discussion forums and one reflection workshop involving all four makerspaces. The analysis of the qualitative data from these activities provided an understanding of the complexity of particular roles involved in the process and, at the same time, highlighted the broad range of tasks involved. To achieve synergy and derive priorities in the results, the makerspaces were encouraged to discuss, comment, and share their views during the reflection workshop. The interviews and the discussion forums as well as the reflection workshop were transcribed. The material was analyzed qualitatively (Mayring, 2014), extracting the roles of makerspaces by a hybrid process of deductive (derived from the research questions) and inductive coding approach, allowing for new, unexpected categories and codes (Flick, 2014). Derived from theoretical background and the research questions, initial categories of ‘collaboration’, ‘tasks’, ‘makerspace roles in C3’ and ‘project phases’ were identified. New categories and subcategories (inductive codes) were identified during the coding with the tool MAXQDA. In total, 733 codes were identified, while explicitly 434 codes were extracted in relation to makerspaces’ different roles and tasks in company-community collaboration.
Consequently, this allowed for a first categorization of tasks that enabled the identification of core roles of makerspaces in collaborative OSH project settings.
17.4 Results
While the term ‘makerspace’ is used generally for all creative environments which are based on the maker principles, these spaces can take different forms in terms of organization, where they are established, available tools, and what is being focused on (Schön et al., 2014).
17.4.1 Types of Makerspaces
When it comes to OSH development, the type, focus and direction of the partnering makerspaces played a major part in their cooperation with the SMEs and corresponding communities in terms of the values they brought to the table as well as the ongoing dynamics throughout the different phases of collaboration as part of the OSH development projects. Accordingly, two main types of makerspaces could be distinguished, i.e.:
Technology-focused and business-driven
Collaboration-focused and community-driven
Technology-Focused, Business-Driven Makerspaces
Enabled by ICT infrastructure and digital fabrication tools, such as 3D printing, and facilitated by shared workspaces, such labs provide the needed machinery and equipment as well as the technical know-how to facilitate OSH development activities ranging from design, prototyping, and actual production of small-patch production within its premises for many businesses in a creative environment. Functioning as stand-alone or affiliated organizations, such labs adopt various business models driven by economic sustainability and social impact.
Present as local open workshops, the technology-focused makerspaces offer the needed infrastructure to facilitate local manufacturing opportunities both for individuals, groups, and even business enterprises such as small and medium-sized enterprises to develop and scale products pushing the boundaries of urban and local productions in a globalized world. Being business-driven, means for this type of makerspace that they focus on continuous diversification of their offering to their current members, attracting new members, and exploring strategic collaboration with local businesses and startups creating a win-win economic value to all parties. Examples of such makerspaces include HappyLab in Vienna (https://happylab.at/) and Foreningen Maker in Copenhagen (https://maker-effekt.dk/).
This type of makerspaces focuses on the human factor and centers its activities around the question “who makes it?” Organizations belonging to it provide creative environments set up by local communities, schools, museums, and other public or civic organizations with a focus on creative forms of engagement, not only with makers but also with general and non-technical citizens to bring in their own interests and concerns. Such makerspaces bring along a wide network of citizens and groups of makers engaging in topics affecting the common good. The products and services created by and within such makerspaces are wide-ranging and include, for instance, domains such as: environmental sensing, the questioning of potentially harmful applications of biotechnologies, concerns of privacy and security in digital public spaces, and many more.
This type of makerspaces engages closely with citizens, civic society organizations, cities/municipalities towards creating agency, and the inclusion of the general public and other local stakeholders in shaping the development of a sustainable society maneuvering the ever-changing technological and social challenges. With a citizen-centric mindset that also considers the disadvantaged and most vulnerable, these makerspaces bring local technology businesses and manufacturers together with communities of interests and concerns to find new innovative ways to address their needs, technology acceptance, and socio-ecological impacts. This brings valuable insights to the product development team and an opportunity to participate, shape and influence the development of products for a more sustainable future. Examples of such labs are the Waag society in Amsterdam (https://waag.org/) and Protoypes4Europe e. V. in Berlin (https://www.prototypes.berlin/).
17.4.2 Roles of Makerspaces
These two main types identified tasks in respect to the OSH cases of the SMEs they were matched with and assumed different corresponding roles. When done comprehensively, six roles were observed as relevant for makerspaces facilitating an OSH development project: acting as a matchmaker and broker; being facilitator for prototyping and exchange; organizer and moderator of communication; promoter of collaborative working culture; manager of the co-creation processes; and enabler of the understanding of roles, motivation, and responsibilities (see Fig. 17.1 below). These roles can be taken up flexibly, depending on the specific OSH project scope, the participating makers, SMEs, and the makerspaces: while some OSH projects need more support in finding additional makers with different skills, others might need more support in aligning the different interests of the final OSH product. Usually, OSH development is a process over a certain time period. Makerspaces should be aware that during this process, needs will change. Thus, the required roles and the degree of their engagement will vary throughout the different development stages. The roles are diverse, however, they do not necessarily need to be exclusively filled by makerspaces, hence, they can also be taken over by other actors.
Fig. 17.1
Overview of roles of makerspaces in collaborative OSH development
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Matchmaker, Establisher of Communities
Makerspaces are diverse places that foster creativity and innovation, and they often already have OSH communities established. Nevertheless, it is the daily business of makerspaces to grow their communities and collaborations. Most importantly, makerspaces know their makers and their communities. Consequently, they can act as a perfect interface between industry, (maker) communities and consumers as well as universities: “[A] makerspace should be the communicator between the company who is joining in and the makerspace community. They know all their members and know their interests and profiles … thus can form the right team” (Happy Lab Vienna). To maximize the potential of the collaborations with companies, it is beneficial for makerspaces to match SMEs with makers they already know. Pivotal to the brokering are not only the needed skills of makers but also common interests, motivations and aims as part of the defined project scope. Makerspaces can channel the dynamics of collaboration: “Company-community collaboration doesn’t happen without the makerspace as a broker” (Prototypes4Europe, Berlin). Thus, the collaboration is rather a triangulation between community, makerspace and the company: “It should be ‘community-makerspace-company’-collaboration” (WAAG Amsterdam).
The OPENNEXT makerspace partners saw their own role exclusively as brokers, facilitators and enablers of the OSH process itself, but they prefer to avoid any direct involvement in the industry: “I don’t think that the organization should involve too much in doing bigger commercial projects, because it’s not where we’ve been put in this world to do. I mean, we’re not a consultancy, we’re an association with members who are physical entrepreneurs. So, it’s not our job to do these big commercial projects” (Maker, Copenhagen). The makerspaces see themself rather as a brokerage support that facilitates the development process, yet they reject to liken their role to consultants or broad manufacturers in a traditional sense.
Provider of Infrastructure and Training and Prototype Facilitator
Makerspaces, according to their origin, understood their primary role mainly as providers of infrastructure (Gantert et al., 2022). They enable makers and inventors to use this infrastructure (tools and machines) at their premises based on different financing models. Offering a space and respective tools to commonly design, promote and market a product idea through and within the makerspace can generate beneficial outcomes: a collaborative approach of OSH development can benefit greatly from face-to-face meetings of the team, as it creates a common ground allowing for exchange and discussion (Dai et al., 2020). Physical products should be discussed physically for a better understanding and outcome. Often, neither SMEs nor makers can provide sufficient spaces that allow for creativity and innovation for all involved team members. Consequently, not only do makerspaces operate for manufacturing purposes, but they also provide an added value through the availability of space for workshops, hackathons, or simple team collaboration. Many makerspaces also offer a variety of training courses to educate their members, the community as well as the general public on the safe and proper use of the available equipment and tools for design and manufacturing. Collaborative OSH projects might require specific training that goes beyond these general-training topics. A major skill for makerspaces is to identify the timing when support (training) is needed to foster and bridge the collaboration between makers and SMEs. This may differ from project to project but also depends on already existing knowledge, skills and experiences of SMEs and makers.
Communicator and Moderator of the Development Process
Organizing and running workshops and events is a core task for most makerspaces. A makerspace in an OSH development may organize an innovation workshop in which all team members become familiar with the spirit of a collaborative OSH project, the individual perspectives of the other actors and facilitate a mutual understanding and agreement of the objectives, which is essential to successful collaborations. These events are vital since they establish the same understanding of aims and expectations and bring forward the necessary actions and steps. These events also serve to align the different communication patterns from SMEs and makers. Makerspaces can help by taking over the role of “interpreters, translating between the makers’ language and the business’s language” (Happy Lab Vienna). By offering an alternative to primarily company-branded events, makerspaces can attract different stakeholders gaining manifold perspectives to a workshop, gather inputs from independent experts on specific topics, and moderate the articulation of different goals and expectations of the participants. The OPENNEXT makerspace partners consistently agreed that the management of the communication with the makers as well as the SMEs is highly sensitive and should be taken seriously to balance interests and motivations. Adequate communication and moderation of OSH development is also a time-consuming task; a fact that is easily underestimated.
Facilitator of Working Culture
Makerspaces are rarely just places of fabrication. Rather, they are hubs of communities, where people work together, learn from each other, or simply socialize. At the core, makerspaces are places for making, but the aspects of collaborating, learning by testing and exploring as well as sharing are as important as the making itself. The culture of makerspaces is based on the foundations of an open-minded approach, trust, flat hierarchies, generation of constructive and honest exchange and rapid feedback. Makerspaces can also implement a quite specific working culture in OSH projects that allows for a flourishing of co-creation and collaboration. Thus, typically, the role of the makerspace is to ensure that the collaborative work is done on equal footing. The maker culture compared to the business culture can differ greatly in as much as that it can be much more value-driven: “The open-source approach defines our values and the way we do things” (WAAG, Amsterdam). Consequently, an important issue for makerspaces in respect to OSH product development is to emphasize the attitude of trust as well as an open-minded approach. This value-driven approach of co-creation that was followed up by OPENNEXT makerspace partners was considered to be extremely valuable in the OSH cases, due to its ability to bring about unexpected new outcomes with the help of innovative perspectives of a heterogeneous group of innovators, tinkerers and makers combined with SMEs.
Advisor on Identifying Roles, Clarifying Expectations, Responsibilities and Visions
An OSH project may bring together makers, SMEs, universities, or individuals, working to develop and complete an OSH project successfully whilst all following different motivations. When organized well, OSH project contributors work closely and have clearly defined roles. Consequently, developing a shared vision of an OSH project among the diverse communities and the implication for the developed product is pre-conditional and can be an important task of a makerspace. They can facilitate a clear division of responsibilities and align realistic expectations on goals and tasks.
Coordinator of Co-creation Processes and Coordination
Overall, there is no “one size fits all” model of a makerspace and SME collaboration. Makerspaces often assist their members with project management, documentation, and other operational tasks. Prototyping is a fun and interesting activity that is part and parcel of the development. In fact, it is one of the most important aspects and proper project management is vital in order to succeed with prototyping: “It has been crucial to the process and success of the project that Maker Denmark has connected the dots, driven the process forward and arranged deliverables and security for all participants, being TRP [transparency, responsiveness, and partnering] or community” (MAKER, Copenhagen). Successful OSH projects always document properly, point to deadlines or understand the needed effort, for example. Makerspaces can provide a managing frame by stressing the importance of a constant and well-implemented design process organization or the creation of links to domain experts. Due to their experience in product development, makerspaces are also highly competent in selecting appropriate tools: “Too many new tools and workshops can interfere with your focus and development stage. Which is a very intense stage in the process of creating products” (Maker, Copenhagen). On a very practical level, makerspaces handle false expectations. Especially the time investment of both, makers and SMEs, is often underestimated. The clarification of this effort is crucial for a successful OSH project.
17.5 Discussion
In this paper, we have identified tasks that are highly relevant for makerspaces when facilitating OSH projects. By structuring these tasks, we created a framework of roles for makerspaces. Makerspaces, due to their origin, are a predestined fit for facilitating collaboration and co-creation and can realize great synergies for the benefit of social economy, particularly SMEs and start-ups but also makers and individuals as well as communities and society as a whole. Not all the roles observed from the OPENNEXT makerspace partners were present in all makerspaces at the same time and to the same extent. It heavily depended on the scope of the OSH project, the experience of the makers and SMEs as well as the different identified needs. Consequently, each OSH project required a different emphasis on the roles. As an example, business-orientated makerspaces might be required to provide machines and tools rather than actions as moderators (see Fig. 17.2). Several roles are requested at the beginning of a project (i.e., matchmaking – inner grey circle initial phase), while others may then start at a later stage (i.e., provider of facilities, coordination, amongst others). Moreover, the need to take up certain roles also depends on the individual stages or phases of OSH projects.
Fig. 17.2
Exemplary roles of makerspaces
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Makerspaces that have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in OSH projects are in a better position to effectively foster collaboration and successful completion of projects. In addition, makerspaces need to understand what skills and abilities are expected from them to be able to fulfil these roles, involve their local maker community and integrate these new roles and sets of activities with everyday “making” activities.
17.5.1 Benefits and Impacts of Collaborative OSH Development
The potential of well-working OSH projects and their potential future benefit is highly relevant to distributed manufacturing and open sharing. From an ecological perspective, OSH is significant since it bypasses long transport routes and supports solutions to close local material cycles. OSH avoids restrictions and dependencies of, in comparison, centralized approaches, through its basis on a federated approach. This collaborative approach in OSH adds to a social inclusion and sustainability since knowledge and know-how is openly shared and adapted resulting in unrestricted and adaptable production.
As outlined, OSH is ideally already a part of makerspace values like sharing, co-creation, and knowledge distribution. Yet besides this already existing alignment, what other benefits and impacts did makerspaces experience during their facilitation of the OSH cases within OPENNEXT? For one, makerspaces claimed that they gained new knowledge, new networks and strengthened existing ones. They saw additional business opportunities due to the experience gained in the development and implementation of OSH projects as well as the perceived satisfaction of becoming experts in OSH facilitation. They were able to contribute to systemic change through promoting OSH and demonstrating well-working examples.
Asking makerspaces what benefits and impact for SMEs were observed, they claimed that SMEs benefited most from the direct engagement with makers, innovators, and experts. The access to (local) facilities for testing, development and experimenting resulted in empowerment and engagement and, further, to a change towards a new innovative systemic and inclusive approach. Another advantage was the gaining of new knowledge through the training received from makerspaces. OSH activities overall contributed to a new mindset and perspectives of the SMEs and a different way of scaling. On a practical level, SMEs recruited makers in some cases permanently, thus benefiting by finding skilled employees.
17.5.2 Considerations and Recommendations for Makerspaces Facilitating OSH
The increasing interest in OSH for regional development in different economic areas bears both chances and risks for makerspaces. Their competencies have a high potential to act as a central focal point for distributed manufacturing, considering several aspects which are elaborated and derived as recommendations in the following.
OSH Makerspaces Foster Innovation by Acting as Incubators
According to the interviews with the makerspaces, collaboration between makers and SMEs does not happen by itself but rather needs support from a third party. Makerspaces are in a well-founded position to provide new opportunities for OSH development, as it is in the makerspaces’ DNA (see WAAG, Amsterdam). By providing communities in combination with the (technical) facilities, makerspaces can be a powerful intermediary between diverse makers and SMEs for OSH. However, the openness of a shared space and knowledge as well as the co-creative approach is mostly new to SMEs. At the same time, it might be a challenge for a community of makers to work with SMEs. Makerspaces need to bridge this transition towards a more innovative approach to business, provided they conform with the identified roles.
OSH Makerspaces Need to Align (or Professionalize) with New Tasks and Roles
As shown, these revealed roles are highly interdisciplinary but inevitable for makerspaces to act as successful incubators of innovation. Many makerspaces already comply with some of the described tasks and roles but with a limited scope. Facilitating OSH projects however requires increased and flexible efforts in collaboration, communication, and management tasks. Other tasks, like bridging innovative makers and SMEs or fostering the understanding of the makerspace culture to new target groups, were new to them. Consequently, makerspaces will need to scale up their portfolio and will have to increasingly professionalize already existing roles.
Evolving from Classical Makerspace to Innovative OSH Makerspace
Further, makerspaces originally defined themselves as “… places where people came together to create and invent things using crafts or technologies, allowing individuals with different abilities and interest to fulfil their talent. They were associated with like-minded people coming together driven by personal interest for purposes such as common good and fun” (Vuorikari et al., 2019). As the analysis of the interviews has shown, the matchmaking between communities and SMEs is one of the major assets of makerspaces. Thus, it is essential for makerspaces to maintain a very close connection to their community. Shifting the focus towards OSH projects will need to go along without fear of becoming ‘institutionalized’ for industrial prototyping or becoming part of established structures in the wider economy.
Expanding Collaborations and Costs
While this report focused mostly on the collaborations between makerspaces and SMEs, the field of other regional stakeholders is rich in cultural/social organizations, educational entities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector actors who work with diverse groups. Next to a significant amount of time that has to be invested, an expanded OSH collaboration to other stakeholders is associated with an increase in flexibility and costs, i.e., for hosting workshops or inviting experts. This should be offset by the created multidimensional benefits for the maximization of the social economy, which requires future research for appropriate assessment schemes as well as quantitative and qualitative metrics.
OSH Implementation on Large Scale
Investments from the wider economy in OSH is still at a low level. Unsolved potential liability (Staed, 2017) risks with OSH products as well as highly bureaucratic, untransparent product certification processes and a lack of standardization (Bonvoisin et al., 2020) hinder the implementation on a broader scale. OSH can have a significant impact on the economy, society, and environment, but its reach and scalability are often limited. Most OSH is only used by a few applicants, consumers, or groups. OSH is still a niche and considered to be an inferior alternative to commercial products. Incentivizing good practices in integrating makerspaces and making activities could help overcome this shortcoming. Also, the understanding of the new, innovative product development that is done by a collaborative approach requires a re-thinking by the industry. Therefore, new attractive business models need to be created underpinning the economic benefits.
17.6 Conclusion and Outlook
Using structural qualitative analysis, the authors analyzed six different roles of: matchmaker, provider of facilities, communicator, facilitator of open working culture, advisor on clarifying roles, and coordinator of the co-creation process. Being in the position to foster innovative OSH development, makerspaces can fill the gap as catalysts to provide critical skills and infrastructure as well as support shared knowledge and amplify effective OSH development with the effect of maximizing the impact on economy and society. They need to position themselves in the role of promoters for distributed manufacturing, boosting local value creation. Through the facilitation of makerspaces acting as an intermediary between economy and society, OSH projects could indeed get initiated by or adapted to local and individual needs of makers by SMEs and start-ups, leading to a decentralized production whilst opening up for global collaboration and knowledge sharing.
The identified six roles were case-based and emerged to be essential in facilitating OSH projects of SMEs with makers, customers, and citizens. Nevertheless, this change towards a more OSH development orientation might have a considerable effect on the makerspace’s overall orientation and internal organization. High flexibility and adaptation to the different needs of the engaged OSH team members is required. While some OSH projects might need more support in communication, other projects could challenge the makerspaces with increased match-making requests.
However, other intermediary actors and public infrastructure will be needed in future. As described, the foundational knowledge and infrastructure already exists in open-source hardware communities. If policy initiatives further support OSH-related efforts of makerspaces, it could help them grow their communities, further expanding the capacity for innovation, collaboration, and decentralized production (primarily for SMEs and start-ups).
Finally, a collaborative OSH development can play a significant role in supporting local manufacturing, especially when addressing local needs and issues. Sharing the outcome and the gained knowledge allows the wide spreading of these solutions and, thus, can serve well as an incubator for a more distributed production in the future.
Acknowledgement
This work was created as part of the project OPEN_NEXT funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant no. 869984.
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Fab Labs stands for “Fabrication Laboratories” where so-called makers (e.g., designers, creatives, engineers, students and citizens) can “make (almost) anything” for local communities with digital fabrication tools from desktop machines to industry-grade equipment and creative spaces for peer-to-peer exchanges to invent and produce highly personalized products (Gershenfeld, 2012). The term makerspace comprises fab labs but also other types of hackerspaces and open workshops that all interested parties can access. For simplicity, we only refer to the latter in the remaining chapter.
