Emerging technology is already transforming the way we produce goods, services, and experiences, allowing more people to join in the design and fabrication process.
But what would the future of production look like if we could reconfigure it from scratch? What if we could build a sustainable system that was globally networked, but locally executed?
We are a global alliance of people and organizations who believe in a future of production defined by decentralized manufacturing and shared knowledge. We are building a foundation to enable this future, a world where people can quickly create and fabricate products made from a combination of locally sourced materials and global designs.
Groups currently represented in this community cover hardware design, design sharing platforms, manufacturers and manufacturing associations, maker and fab lab communities, assistive technology, disaster relief, international development, and open science hardware.
The Internet of Production Alliance is driven by its team, council, working groups & task forces.
Chair and co-founder of the IOPA, Innovation Advisor for Field Ready. Former CEO and co-founder of Engineers Without Borders. A Shuttleworth fellow focusing on open approaches to Massive Small Manufacturing – the concept of complementing innovative local manufacturing with traditional global manufacturing.
The IoP is the perfect opportunity for me to follow my passion for technology as a DevOps engineer.
As a recent graduate from Fab-academy, Antonio has worked as a prototyping engineer for the last year. Working in this industry has helped develop his skills in digital manufacturing and software development. His most memorable moments were developing projects in rural regions from Mexico and Iraq. We are privileged to have him on board.
The Internet of Production Alliance is going to bring about change that will be the common-sense ‘business as usual’ we need in the world. I want to be a part of that.
Barbara joined the Internet of Production Alliance at the beginning of 2021 as its Coordinator. This role focusses on business development as well as being Secretary general of the Alliance. Prior to this, she lead Libraries Without Borders' strategic development, including piloting innovative tools for offline access to internet-based content. She has also worked in procurement and logistics for private sector companies and NGOs.
“Barbara brings international experience in innovation, fundraising, logistics, procurement, finance, administration, HR, knowledge management and strategy development. The council’s interview panel were particularly impressed by Barbara’s approach to building communities, leading volunteers and consortia and her commitment to open-ness and big, global challenges. We are delighted that Barbara is bringing her skills to the Alliance.” – Andrew Lamb, Chair of Council for IoP Alliance.
Barbara is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and speaks English, French, Danish and Spanish.
Decentralized production is the Future, and I am proud to be a part of the Internet of Production Alliance's efforts to bring about this transformation!
Jessica, an entrepreneur with an extensive international experience, has worked in the fashion sector for over 15 years, creating, sourcing, and living throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. She is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. For her, joining the IOP to work on the mAkE project is very beneficial because it would enable local/regional workforces to strengthen/connect collaborative networks between Europe and Africa in order to produce creative, high-quality goods.
Jessica's currently lives is in Copenhagen, Denmark
It’s exciting to see the progress that has been made since the creation of the Open Know-How standard, and it is a privilege to be a part of the team working to build the Internet of Production.
Max is a communications and software engineer and lecturer who has been an advocate of the open movement. He has participated in various open-source technology, open education, open data and open digital archiving projects as a contributor, maintainer, speaker and facilitator. He is a long-time member of the Creative Commons community and has previously led their Working Group on AI and Copyright.
“Max’s work and passion as a technologist – initially in computer networks and the Internet then in software and web development – has given him the knowledge and skills that we need on our team. His experience in start-ups, teaching and the open movement means that Max brings an approach that is about empowering others. The interview panels were particularly impressed by Max’s intuitive understanding of the challenges we will face, and not just from his involvement in Open Know-How meetings. We are delighted to welcome him.” – Andrew Lamb
Max is based in London, United Kingdom, and speaks English and Arabic.
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It is an incredible privilege to be a part of establishing a decentralized global manufacturing ecosystem, and I am so impressed by how much progress has already been made by the Internet of Production Alliance with partners around the world. As a long-time advocate for open knowledge creation and information sharing for the betterment of society, I believe in the IoPA's mission, and am thankful to be collaborating with such dedicated, passionate, and skilled colleagues.
Sarah Hutton joins the team as Research and Community Engagement Lead. Sarah’s work, generously funded by an Alfred P. Sloan Exploratory Grant, is focused on developing a thematic community around the People and Skills specifications necessary in distributed manufacturing.
Sarah brings with her the network and experience in open hardware, makerspaces and fabrication; as a librarian and qualitative researcher in open knowledge production and an instructor in setting-up and teaching in maker spaces, Sarah has a unique intersection of experiences and skills. Her experience in community and shared governance models in consortia, open publishing and data standards, as well as human-centered research, will also support increasing community engagement surrounding existing IoPA artifacts and initiatives, such as OKH and OKW.
We are building open infrastructures that enable anyone, everywhere, to participate in production.
Our main focus areas are:
More information on what we do can be found on our Initiatives page.
We believe that the future of production lies in decentralized manufacturing based on shared knowledge, allowing us to deliver products faster, made from locally sourced materials and with less ecological impact.
Innovations throughout the 20th century introduced many productivity and technological improvements, leading to the global mass manufacturing system we have today.
These global supply chains work really well for getting mass produced items to mass markets. But they are not effective at getting exactly the products people want, when and where they want them, all over the globe. They have many drawbacks, not least hidden vulnerabilities and high ecological impact.
The 21st century is a century of knowledge and globalization. Latest IT and advanced engineering enable us to share knowledge instantly across the globe.
By introducing decentralized manufacturing based on shared knowledge, we can deliver the right products where they are needed, faster, with lower ecological impact.
We bring together people and organisations interested in creating this future of decentralized production, to define and document open-source tools that can then be implemented by anyone in the world.
We currently have two main modes of operating:
The founding members of the Internet of Production Alliance defined a set of principles for how we work towards creating the future we want to see. We refer to them in everything we do:
Formal launch of Open Know-Where Standard after initial trials in Uganda. Find out more
Launch of the Electronic Components standard development process. Find out more
The first version of the Open Know-Where standard is released following 10 months of community consultation. Find out more
The first version of the Open Know-How standard isreleased. Find out more
The Internet of Production Alliance is founded during the Internet of Manufacturing summit in Warsaw, Poland. A first governance is drafted, a council is appointed and working groups are constituted.
Blockchain based Distributed Contracting System trialled in Kathmandu, Nepal
MakerNet in represented at the Fab13 symposium in Santiago, Chile. MakerNet joins the Enabling Ecosystems panel. Fab13 website
Engagement of the MakerNet with the AfricaOSH community on distributed manufacturing at the AfricaOSH summit in Kumasi, Ghana. Follow AfricaOSH
MakerNet event on Health Innovations held at Gearbox, Nairobi, Kenya
Five organisations come together to start the MakerNet pilot project in Nairobi, Kenya. Read the report
First public airing of ideas behind the IOP Alliance at re:publica in Berlin, Germany. The concept of an IOP was named MakerNet until 2019. View recording here
