The Elevator Pitch:

 

Does maker culture have a sustainable future or is it a fad?

 

As with everything else, the Maker Culture is a balance between vice and virtue. Will open access to high quality education, manufactured goods, and fashion lead to enlightenment? Or will confusion around assumed knowledge and lack of quality control lead to its demise?  The responsible escalation of the movement, and the road blocks to prevent it will decide whether the maker culture progresses organically, or falters and dies.

 

 

Research to Date

 

An essay about the concept of maker culture as a societal revolution. The author will be a good contact, as with some of the referenced sources.

http://c4ss.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/C4SS-Desktop-Manufacturing.pdf

 

A blog from Former 2007 TED director who writes about the applicability of maker culture to people without expensive manufacturing tools etc. He could help answer the question of whether it can ever make it mainstream, or only mainstream for the elite.

http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/08/fabrication-and-maker-culture.html

 

Clive Thompson wrote an article for Wired about the profitablity of the maker culture niche and how consumers are shifting towards customized goods. He said Etsy has "2 million users buying nearly $90 million worth of stuff annually."

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

·         Contact other groups to find out who they are speaking with to find out counter views

·         Social Historian – expert on social revolution and change

·         Philosophers of science (Kuhn)

·         Psychologist to comment on what the culture is representing and the motivational aspects behind it.  Makers to comment on their personal motivation.

·         Lawyer to discuss legal ramifications

 

The Focus, Scope and Angle of the Piece

 

Areas of Focus: Corporate (Savithri), Legal (Julianne), cultural/philosophical-societal(Colin) and psychological

individual/personal impact(Mark)

 

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

- Examine the before, during, and after in the transition from consumerism to post-consumerism

-SWOT analysis - Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats - will be performed for each area.

 

 

 

 

 

Questions to ask:

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

- Maker culture is becoming trendy has taken on the image of urban chic ….ie. do your own canning, make your own clothes.  Will it continue?

- 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 people start jumping on the bandwagon will the fanboys move on to the next trend?

 

- 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

Podcast ideas:

 

3-5 minute feature on each area in our focus: Corporate, Legal, cultural/philosophical and psychological.  Will tweak as we find out more from our research.

At the beginning, middle and end discuss how the process is going.  Look into what the cultural bias will look like if maker culture picks up.  Each piece will have an evolutionary look at what will it will take to get maker culture into the mainstream and cross the adoption gap.

The video pieces will illustrate the evolution of maker culture.  Potentially re-enacting a theme through a skit.

 

 

 

 

 

Next Steps

We will contrast the views of our experts with interview subjects found by other groups.  We will then interview the makers found by the other groups (media, education, politics etc.).  It will be a continuous evolution of material as we discover more about makers and their critics.

 

Cultural

 

Description

 

This would examine the participants of maker culture on an individual scale, and go in depth on why their motivation is to create in a society where the norm is to consume. Those within maker culture could be interviewed on what their own personal reasons are for getting involved, and their responses would be compared to see if there is a trend in what motivates a maker.

 

Specialists in fields of psychology such as behavioural psychology and industrial psychology would be asked for their own thoughts on individuals who pursue this lifestyle. It would be worth asking these experts if the drive to partake in maker culture is something that inherently resides within most people, or is an exception to the rule in our consumer driven culture. They could also be asked what participating in maker culture has to do with someone’s own personal interaction with society, and if it relates to a desire for individualism.

 

Research

Cyberpsychology.edu

 

Journal Article: An examination of the values that motivate socially conscious and frugal consumer behaviours, By International Journal of Consumer Studies.

 

Possible Interview Contacts

Dr. Laura Freberg- California Polytechnic State University

Faculty of Psychology

Office: 38-211

Phone: (805)756-2357

Email: lfreberg@calpoly.edu

-          This contact also runs a blog (http://laurafreberg.com/blog/) which has analysed hacker culture in the past, so she may have a very relevant perspective on maker culture. 

 

Dr. Natalie Allen- UWO

Faculty Of Social Science

Psychology

Office: (519) 661-2111, ext. 83013

nallen@uwo.ca

 

-          Industrial psychology  

 

 

Dr. Christine D. Tsang- UWO

Assistant Professor, Psychology

Affiliated Colleges

Huron University College

Office: (519) 438-7224, ext. 260

ctsang33@uwo.ca

-          Perception, social psychology

 

 

 

 

Corporate

 

Description

 

 

The corporate focus will examine whether it is a trend that major corporations are going to join and compete in or if maker culture will be a threat to corporate dominance in the retail environment.

 

 

 

For example, Kashi is a perceived as an organic, healthy cereal brand but is actually owned by Kellogg’s.  Will the larger population want to jump on the maker culture trend to get the same look but end up buying it from the corporate conglomerate?

 

The free movement, where people can get share concepts and access goods for nothing is catching on.  Chris Anderson wrote an article in Wried that discusses how “People are making lots of money charging nothing.  Not nothing for everything, but nothing for enough that we have essentially created an economy as big as a good-sized country around the price of $0.00.” 

Virginia Posterel's book review of Chris Anderson’s book for New York Times about the free model being profitable also brings forth several interesting points that will be examined.

 

Possible Interview Contacts

Virginia Postrel

Author of “The Substance of Style” and the editor in chief of DeepGlamour.net.

Email: Virginia@deepglamour.net.

 

 

 

 Chris Anderson

The editor in chief of Wired, wrote “Free: The Future of a Radical Price”

 

 

 

Twitter: @chrlsa

 

 

 

Email: Gca2@earthlink.net

 

Noreen Javed

Marketing Consultant, The Daggerwing Group

Email: njaved@daggerwinggroup.com

Etsy

 

Email: press@etsy.com

 

Janice Leung

Social Media Coordinator

 

One of a Kind Show

 

 

 

Tel: 416 512 3817

Email: janice@oneofakindshow.com

 

Clive Thompson

Writer

 

 

 

Email: clive@clivethompson.net

Legal

 

Description

As the maker culture movement grows, potential legal issues become apparent. 

 

If makers make more and more objects, will their designs infringe on intellectual property laws?  And who will be responsible if maker objects fail? Does maker culture have the ability to change laws and how the legal system operates, perhaps even advance the legal system?

 

This article will feature law professors specializing in intellectual property, technology and philosophy. Subsections of maker culture that have already dealt with legal ramifications or areas that are seen as murky by the law, will be examined.  We will speak with both legal and maker culture experts on future legal issues, what the future legal system will look like and how this could affect society.

 

Possible Interview Contacts

Arthur Ripstein

Professor

Faculty of Law and Philosophy

University of Toronto

Address: Room FL 413, Law Faculty

Tel: 416-978-0735

Margaret Ann Wilkinson

Director, Intellectual Property, Information and Technology Law

University of Western Ontario

Email:     mawilk@uwo.ca

Phone: 519 661-2111 ext. 88407

Office:     LB 22

Mark Perry

Professor

Faculty of Law and Science

Email:     mperry@uwo.ca

Phone: 519 661-2111 ext. 88599

Office:     LB 10

- Intersection of law and technology, Open Innovation, intellectual property rights, software licensing

 

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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 

 

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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check out: http://www.innocentive.com/ <- it rewards people for their creations