The Maker Movement, Open Innovation and Innovation Network in the UK

In August 2017 on my summer vacation, I travelled to Japan to attend the biggest Maker Faire in Asia, the Tokyo Maker Faire. It is a family-friendly festival of inventions, creativity and a celebration of the Maker Movement that is still related to global Maker Faire. This event is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, tinkerers, engineers, students, and commercial exhibitors.

Held in 45 countries there has been a total of 221 faires that have occurred from 2006 to 2017. The Maker Movement that was initiated by Dale Dougherty in 2005 successfully brought makers’ culture reach a bigger audience. Makers (a title for people who are involved in the Maker Movement) have been widely recognised as conducive to innovation and growth. In fact, one of the main implications for the Maker Movement is that they are advancing innovation in several fields through a novel and open approach.

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Technology Development in Maker Movement

The public commonly associates Maker Movement with ‘Open Source’ software and operating systems, microcontrollers, laser-cut, 3D printers and other technological projects. Chris Anderson, the former editor-in-chief of Wired, describes how open-source design and 3D printing “bring manufacturing to the desktop”. However, Maker Movement is more than that. It involves technology development that encourages knowledge collaboration and openness in innovation, that produces sustained innovation networks.

When we talk about technology development that requires many aspects such as cumulative and path-dependent, cluster, knowledge recombination and the needs of communal inventors, Maker Movement has all of these aspects. To some physical extends, it is closely associated with a totally new entrepreneurial ecosystem made of hackerspaces, fab labs, makerspaces, tech-shops, co-working spaces, crowdfunding platforms, local and international associations, clubs and institutions. Thus, the ecosystem resembles in the form of temporary (Maker events) or stable clusters (e.g. Central Florida makers community) with related and supporting industries and institutions, where knowledge is co-constructed and shared, through joint problem-solving.

The increase in digitalisation and a decrease in the costs of communication have led to the exponential growth of user innovation platforms. Therefore the existence of internet-based platformssuch as internet-based sharing (e.g. Instructables and Makerspace.com), marketing, distribution, and crowdfunding (such as platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and FundedByMe) facilitates the ideology of promoting cooperation and sharing. It also gives access to resources that is unavailable through traditional physical platforms.

Framework of Makerspace Use

Source: Eric Joseph Van Holm, 2015

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Open Innovation in Makerspaces

Collaboration and sharing are so essential to the Makers Movement, hence merging collaborative play and interactions which is often used for the sake of shared curiosity. Makerspaces provide a flexible, creative environment to aid knowledge recombination and open innovation to transform products from an idea to reality.

The creative environment and open innovation in Makerspaces deliver a great number of impacts to the makers as well as the society. First, it drives user innovation whereas often a major source of product improvements and a totally new product in established industries. In the making process, makers design by either replicating or innovating, referring to any type of creating, tinkering, hacking or effort to produce a meaningful new form. Secondly, the availability of tools that makers can use anytime as an exchange of membership fee, enable users to work consistently and cheaply to reach the result they want. The presence of experts who can lead them to use the tools properly also plays a big role in knowledge exchange. Makers are not alone in this environment, they are also surrounded by openness, peering and sharing that are integral parts of the Maker Movement. Inter-organisational networking for innovation is a distinctive trait of any community of makers. Thus, this distinguishes the Maker Movement from other forms of open innovation.

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Maker Movement Innovation Networks in the UK

The Maker Movement in the UK showed up a few years after the US and can be traced back to the invention of Raspberry Pi, a low-cost single board computer that enables people of all ages to explore computing and programming language. Similar to the US Maker Movement, user-led design products encourage people to innovate and open collaboration for better innovation. It then leads the Raspberry Pi Foundation to build a maker community called Raspberry Jam with their physical and virtual appearance in maker events, forums, magazines, and starter kit product.

In the UK, the innovation networks of Maker Movement can be learned from the makerspace existence including its type, features they provide, tools and services. There are six types of makerspace that are existing in the UK which are:

• Hackerspace - It has a tendency towards ‘pay what you can', but pay a monthly membership fee or none at all. It relies on goodwill, sponsorship and income generated through hosting events and training. There are two types of hackerspace which are Hackerspace Clubhouse and Grassroots Hackerspace.

• Fab labs - This is the most consistent makerspace types because it is part of a standardised and franchised global network.

• Makespace - Makespaces are similar to the grassroot hackerspaces but are not affiliated with the wider hackerspace community.

• Machine shops - Although the UK is yet to have a TechShop, there is a recent cohort of makerspaces that are staffed, offer pay-as-you-go machine use, and focus on prototyping and small scale production.

• Civic workspaces - These types of spaces do not tend to charge membership fees to people who fit their target audience and charitable intent.

• Cluster model - This type of makerspace combines the resources of a fab lab or machine shop with desk space or coworking.

Innovation Networks in the UK's Maker Movement based on the physical appearance and the organisational connection.

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The Current Condition of Maker Movement in the UK

One of the big players in the UK Maker Movement, UK Maker Faire, unfortunately, decided to discontinue their yearly event in Newcastle. There was no conference press since their website is not available anymore. The last Newcastle Maker Faire was held on April 2018 showed that the concept of Maker Faire that is more in digital maker movement not suitable for the local communities who are more interested in traditional DIY activities such as crafting. The discontinuation of this event made local digital makers disappointed because they do not have space to share and show their inventions to the public.

Unlike Mitch Altman of Noisebridge, a makerspace in San Francisco California that has developed the Makerspace Passport to help stimulate and encourage collaboration between individuals in different cities and spaces, the makerspaces in the UK is more centralised within their organisation. There is no wider access for the member to get benefits from other makerspaces by taking part in the UK Maker Movement. UK Maker ovement can implement this strategy to increase the hype of the Maker Movement and extend the innovation networks.

A marketing platform might be needed for those makers who want to sell their products to the market. This platform can be built by bigger organisations that accommodate smaller makerspaces to have a better business model and sustained business in the future.

After all, the aforementioned advice will be beneficial for the makers, makerspaces, society, related companies, universities, and other parties that can benefit it from the open innovation and knowledge sharing in the Maker Movement.

This article is also published in my Medium