Poptech Day 3
- Neil Gershenfeld’s “unique laboratory investigates the relationship between the content of information and its physical representation, from molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments.” His Fab Labs project is really cool. The focus is on giving people tools to innovate rather than just giving them computers, wi-fi etc. Focus is on peer to peer learning.
Neil Gershenfeld says, “Instead of bringing information technology to the masses, the fab labs bring information technology development to the masses….For our education and outreach efforts, rather than telling people about what we’re doing, we thought we’d help them do it themselves. We’ve been pulled around the world by the voracious demand we’ve found each time we’ve deployed a fab lab.”
Via Worldchanging: “The Fab Lab is $20,000 worth of material design and fabrication equipment which can be used nearly anywhere. Six Fab Labs exist, each with a particular focus on local needs: South End Technology Center, in Boston (building community wireless networks); Lygen Alps, in Norway (building larger-scale wireless networks and animal collars to aid nomadic herding); Vigyan Ashram, in India (building agricultural instruments); Bithoor, in India (building 3D scanners and printers for local artisans); TEC, in Costa Rica (building educational tools); and the Takoradi Technical Institute, in Ghana. It’s at the Takoradi Technical Institute that flourescent pink key chains have become the most popular fabricated item among the young students. Each fab lab comes equipped with computer-controlled fabrication tools, open-source computer-aided design and manufacturing software and associated electronic components and test equipment. Capabilities include a laser cutter for 2-D and 3-D structures, a sign cutter for plotting interconnects and electromagnetics, a 3-D precision milling machine for applications such as making surface-mount circuit boards and programming tools for low-cost, high-speed embedded microcontrollers.”
This is ultra super-cool.
More on Fab Labs here (Wired), here (Boston Globe), and here (BBC).
on October 22nd, 2005 at 23:51
I think I’ll need to be blogging about this in one way or another. Thx, Ory!
on October 24th, 2005 at 12:26
[...] .html”>Buzz, Dina, Ory and other friends did a great job of covering the talks I missed. I received lots of kind words about blog [...]
on October 25th, 2005 at 13:19
I enjoyed the pop tech series very much, and echo your sentiments on the ansari prize or something similar to spur innovation in Africa. Kudos to you!
Thanks!