Slides from the Internet of Production Alliance December 2023 Community Call, during which Anna Sera Lowe of Manufacturing Change launched the new Business Models Catalogue and LocalEconomies.org for makerspaces and small-scale production.
Slides include information on upcoming community events. Research and Community Engagement Lead Sarah Hutton is joined by community experts, how the standard is being tested in the Innovative Manufacturing in Africa program, the mAkE Consortium project, and how community members can get involved in contributing to a community-led initiative to further develop this standard and accompanying outreach. To view a recording of the community call on the IOP YouTube channel, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYljJyDKN3Y
The People and Skills Specification provides a structure for verifying the skills and experiences that are needed to make a specific thing, by providing a shared taxonomy of skills and experiences and a framework for the recognition of this knowledge. This supports not only the ability to locate the expertise and skills needed to make a thing - it also gives individual makers the capability to signal their experiences and skills to potential employers, collaborators, and policy makers. This 1-page pdf flyer provides a brief overview of the spec, as well as links for people to get engaged in the ongoing development and application of People and Skills.
Makerspaces are viewed as useful labs in communities as they present users with the relevant tools and equipment that facilitate education, creativity and innovation. Unfortunately, tracking and measuring the impact of makerspaces in Africa has been a challenge and that can be partly attributed to the absence of clear impact indicators. In an attempt to contribute to solving the said challenge, this study presents 74 indicators that can be used by makerspaces in Africa to track and record their impact.
The report presents the research and development on portability of know-how for the use case of peer to peer sharing of designs & documentation, between July and November 2022. 2 app prototypes for file portability were developed, and user testing leads to 5 recommended next steps for further R&D. The work is funded by: NGI-DAPSI and the Sloan Foundation.
