Location

MIT Media Lab, Room TBA

Description

Over the last few decades, digital technologies have profoundly reshaped the ways we work and live. Now, democratizing technologies are moving from the computer screen and into the physical world: online marketplaces such as Etsy and Ponoko make it easy to design, sell, and buy custom-made goods; laser cutters, 3-D printers, and computer-controlled knitting machines allow for “mass customization”—the quick design and construction of personalized devices; and tools like Innocentive allow businesses to crowd-source complex scientific and engineering tasks. In addition, ever-growing communities use sites such as Instructables to share advice on how to make everything from dresses to rockets, and open-source hardware communities are growing around tools like Openmoko and Arduino. This workshop will examine these new movements, exploring how researchers and companies can profit from empowering end users to design, engineer, and produce goods.

Additional Featured Research By

(Unpublished) High-Low Tech