Ideas that I think we should be looking into:

• raw material cost/availability/source for RepRap & other similar devices
• scaleability and price hiking material cost, especially when concerned with makers that try to progress past plastic
• intellectual property infringement and reverse-engineering protected items
• quality control/ legal responsibility for when homemade objects fail from other people's designs

-Colin

More ideas:

• stifling innovation due to the lack of monetary reward --> dangers of open source
• questionable safety of d-i-y projects (related to Colin's quality control) --> who monitors/certifies/licenses the products?
• feasibility/culture of convenience: some people just don't have time for MC
• market efficiency of mass production in low-cost labour zones
• the persistence of consumer culture (why? benefits?)
• MC around the world: "newer" phenomenon in West vs. East?

-Isabella

The Elevator Pitch:

Good ideas here, but tell me something I don't know, remember you're also talking about the future, give me a taste of the future in the lead.

-w

As with everything else, the Maker Culture is a balance between vice and virtue. 

Will open access to high quality education, manufactured goods, or fashion lead to enlightenment? or confusions of assumed knowledge and lack of quality control.

 The responsible escalation of the movement, and the road blocks to prevent it will, will decide whether the maker culture progresses organically, or falters and dies.

Research to Date

Assumptions

·         Maker culture does not maximize economies of scale. 

·         More environmentally friendly

·         Politically motivated choice (anti-consumerism)

·         Hobby/lifestyle choice.  Cannot sustain this without money.  How does someone live off of maker culture where everything is free?

·         Can’t eliminate corporate culture (they have the R&D budgets?)

Possible Interview Subjects

The Focus, Scope and Angle of the Piece

·         Before, during, and after in the transition from consumerism to post-consumerism

·            Corporate, Legal, cultural/philosophical and psychological,

- SWOT: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Opportunities:

Threats:

Becoming trendy...urban sheik….ie. do your own canning, make your own clothes

Scope: trends and themes recurring throughout other areas (what are the common themes)

Future: Is there one?  What will it look like?  Scaleability?

Corporate response- will they want to participate/facilitate?  Will it force them to reduce margins or push them to focus more on branding and marketing.

Is this a fad?

If consumerism is brought down by maker culture, what do they think will replace it?  Accumulator-ism?  Clutter-culture….is maker-culture still a form of consumerism by another name (consumption)

Legal aspect- quality control, accountability?  Eg. If a design is posted and tweaked and creates a faulty product, whose fault is it?

Copyright issues?  Will it inhibit research and development?

What are the global ramifications and how will it develop in other parts of the world?  Will it affect development?

• Media Choices

Integrated media-

Each group will need to produce a series of feature stories (one per group member), a podcast and one or more video pieces (contributions from all team members). So, what parts of the story are you going to put in each and how are you going to get the content? You should, in broad-strokes start playing with those ideas here.

• Next Steps

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You are raising important issues here, but strive for balance in the coverage of them. Also, keep in mind you're also looking at what's next? Will the Maker Culture scale, will it cross the Adoption Gap? What if the rich field of ideas laid out here comes to pass. Get folks to think out five, ten years.

-Wayne

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