Establishment of An Academic Makerspace at the Bataan Peninsula State University: Prospects and Challenges

Makerspaces are now fixtures in smart cities and universities in advanced countries. Many universities, especially in the United States, have Academic Makerspaces serving students and faculty, helping them with their projects. In Bataan Peninsula State University our goal is to have an Academic Makerspace with services and facilities at par with international standards. This Academic Makerspace will be a place where our students can ideate, conceptualize, build and manufacture their projects, either academic projects,  or just extracurricular projects they are interested in. The goal is to promote invention, innovation, creation and making. This study summarized the best practices of Academic Makerspaces in the United States. The practices of local innovation centers were also benchmarked. With this study, we have identified what facilities are needed, which equipment to purchase, and what kinds of programs should be made available in the Makerspace. Fund source, possible partner agencies, and other important details have been discussed. This study provides short- and long-term plans/programs which would be very important in the establishment of BPSU’s Academic Makerspace. These plans will be used to recommend future facilities/services in BPSU. The prospects and challenges of establishing an academic makerspace which would need careful consideration have been briefly discussed

Viability of Distributed Manufacturing of Bicycle Components with 3-D Printing: CEN Standardized Polylactic Acid Pedal Testing

International audienc

Collaborative learning and individual work performance in coworking spaces

Coworking spaces are becoming increasingly popular. Throughout literature, coworking spaces are commonly known as collaborative environments. Yet, there is a lack of research on the mechanisms of the collaborative practices within coworking spaces. This research identifies collaborative learning as a major collaborative practice within coworking spaces, and develops a conceptual framework including two other variables: individual motivation to learn and individual work performance. Exploratory factor analysis to establish the reliability and validity of this framework. Next, a survey study was conducted of 169 coworking space members and PLS-SEM was used to do a factor analysis and evaluate the structural model created. It is found that individual motivation to learn positively impacts collaborative learning, collaborative learning positively impacts individual work performance, and that collaborative learning acts as a full mediator between individual motivation to learn and individual work performance. These findings demonstrate how collaborative learning can be key in improving individual work performance in coworking spaces. Furthermore, these findings position collaborative learning as a theory that deserves further attention in coworking space research. These findings also suggest that coworking space operators may want to further encourage collaboration and incentivize learning in their space. First published online 14 December 202

Design studios associated with hackerspaces / Estúdios de design associados ao hackerspaces

This paper presents experiments of association between a hackerspace and a design studio at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. In two different semesters, students designed and constructed proposals for ephemeral and interactive small-scale spatial interventions using physical computing. The Tarrafa Hacker Clube members shared their collaborative environment with the students and tutors throughout these academic experiments. The dynamic infrastructure of the hackerspace introduced relevant methods and ethics for this collaborative and transdisciplinary work. This hybrid approach suggests meaningful possibilities for the future of architecture education and practice. 

Tracing controversies in hacker communities: ethical considerations for internet research

This paper reflects on the ethics of internet research on community controversies. Specifically, it focuses on controversies concerning gendered, social interaction in hacking communities. It addresses the question how internet researchers should treat and represent content that individuals controversially discussed online. While many internet sources are likewise technically public, they may yet suggest distinct privacy expectations on the part of involved individuals. In internet research, ethical decision-making regarding which online primary sources may be, e.g., referenced and quoted or require anonymisation is still ambiguous and contested. Instead of generalisable rules, the context dependence of internet research ethics has been frequently stressed. Given this ambiguity, the paper elaborates on ethical decisions and their implications by exploring the case of a controversial hackerspaces.org mailing list debate. In tracing data across different platforms, it analyses the emerging ethico-methodological challenges

Early Stages of the Fablab Movement: A New Path for an Open Innovation Model

FabLabs, also known as digital fabrication laboratories, are a groundbreaking phenomenon that is contributing to the democratization of innovation and technology. Despite their potential influence, this emerging area has received little attention in the literature. This paper examines the initial stages of the FabLab movement using a mixed-sequential exploratory methodology. Qualitative methodologies were employed to identify relevant dimensions and establish research hypotheses, while quantitative methodologies were used to evaluate and validate these hypotheses and generate a predictive model for the innovation process through binary logistic regression. The information obtained through the participation of 124 laboratories in the online FabLab Global Survey was used. The results indicate that collaborations with large companies and a majority focus on research in FabLab projects promote the development of innovative projects compared to those laboratories affiliated with educational institutions or primarily used by students

Movimento hackerspace: um estudo sobre a experiência brasileira

Hackerspaces are part of a phenomenon emerging all over the world of building alternative spaces and infrastructure for research, experimenting and learning. They differ from other institutionally established spaces in their principles of autonomy: they are financed and managed by their own members and, as a result, they enjoy greater freedom in the definition of their themes and issues. In this article, we present the results of a research project carried out in 2017 about Brazilian hackerspaces. In the analysis, we resorted to the structure proposed by Smith and others (2017) in their study about grassroots innovation movements, organized into four complementary aspects as follows: context, framings, spaces and strategies, and pathways. Thus, we contemplate the history of the movement in Brazil; meanings and narratives shared by participants; spaces and strategies employed in their structure and organization; and, finally, case studies selected because they can be articulated with the local community issues. The survey identified 21 active hackerspaces in the country in 2017, distributed in the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and South. Sixteen of them answered a questionnaire that revealed the diversity of their activities and proximity to the university community, among other characteristics. The case studies have shown that, besides contributing to the broader circulation of technological knowledge, hackerspaces are also spaces for the development of practices and technologies that seek to answer social and environmental issues, such as sustainability in the disposal of electronic waste and citizen monitoring of the environment.Os hackerspaces fazem parte de fenômeno emergente em todo o mundo de construção de espaços e infraestruturas alternativos de pesquisa, experimentação e aprendizado. Diferenciam-se de outros espaços institucionalmente estabelecidos por seus princípios de autonomia: são financiados e geridos por seus próprios membros e, logo, têm maior liberdade para definirem seus temas e questões. Neste artigo, apresentamos os resultados de pesquisa realizada, em 2017, sobre os hackerspaces brasileiros. Na análise, recorremos à estrutura proposta por Smith et al. (2017) em seu estudo sobre movimentos de inovação de base, organizada em quatro aspectos que se complementam, quais sejam: contexto, enquadramento, espaços e estratégias, e caminhos. Assim, abordamos a história do movimento no Brasil; sentidos e narrativas compartilhados pelos participantes; espaços e estratégias utilizados em sua estrutura e organização; e, finalmente, os estudos de casos selecionados por se articularem com questões da comunidade local. A pesquisa identificou 21 hackerspaces ativos no país em 2017, distribuídos pelas regiões Centro-Oeste, Nordeste, Sudeste e Sul. Destes, 16 responderam a um questionário que revelou a diversidade das atividades desenvolvidas e a proximidade dessas iniciativas com a comunidade universitária, dentre outras características. Já os estudos de caso evidenciaram que, além de contribuírem para a mais ampla circulação do conhecimento tecnológico, os hackerspaces também são espaços para o desenvolvimento de práticas e tecnologias que buscam responder a questões sociais e ambientais, como a sustentabilidade no descarte do lixo eletrônico e o monitoramento cidadão do meio ambiente

Towards an ‘alternative’ geography of innovation:Alternative milieu, socio-cognitive protection and sustainability experimentation

This paper highlights the hitherto unrecognised role of ‘alternative’ places in protecting different forms of sustainability innovation. The paper uses the concept of an alternative milieu to illustrate how a geographically localised concentration of countercultural practices, institutions and networks can create socio-cognitive ‘niche’ protection for sustainability experiments. An alternative milieu creates protection for the emergence of novelties by (i) creating ontological and epistemological multiplicity; (ii) sustain- ing productive spatial imaginaries; and (iii) supporting ontological security. These different dimensions of protection are explored with reference to an in-depth, empirical case study of Totnes in the United Kingdom. The paper concludes with some reflections on the theoretical implications of this research for the theorising of niche protection and for the geographies of innovation more generally, along with some recommendations for future areas of enquiry

Through entrepreneurs’ eyes: the Fab-spaces constellation

Fab-spaces provide individuals with access to numerous manufacturing equipment (including additive manufacturing), to carry out different types of projects. Although scholars are starting to speculate about the importance of these new organizational forms and their potential for future distributed innovation and production ecologies, this phenomenon is still largely unexplored. Building on existing multidisciplinary research, this paper offers the first empirical analysis of existing fab-spaces as providers of knowledge and production competencies. Amongst all the possible perspectives to derive a framework, we choose that of fab-spaces users who have an entrepreneurial intention. After deriving an analytical framework to position fab-spaces in the current academic discourse, the paper develops a classification, which considers the competences available to entrepreneurs, via fab-spaces, in conjunction with how these competences are provided. The resulting map reveals the complementarities amongst the different fab-spaces. It also shows that the current portfolio of fab-spaces supports mainly the distribution of innovation across locations and social groups. Several types of fab-spaces are currently well placed to support the transition from innovation to manufacturing, but their geographical distribution and range of manufacturing capabilities is not yet enough to provide a fully distributed manufacturing model. This study has practical consequences for entrepreneurs, in the better identification of the appropriate fab-spaces for their needs, and for policy makers, to help position the different types of fab-spaces as elements for national systems of innovation and production.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant ID: EP/K039598/1)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2016.119850