Think of a globally distributed, single day event that brings together all types of Fab spaces: Hackerspaces, FabLabs, designlabs, makerspaces from all around the world for an intense, action-packed, creative workshop, or fabsprint. That's the FabJam in a nutshell. This year's FabJam will take place on June the 14th, just about a month after its launch at OuiShare Fest 2014.
The official launch of the FabJam 2014 took place on the last day of OuiShare Fest 2014, where the space dedicated to makers and digital fabrication, the OuiShare Factory, had further been set up to bring people from the maker sphere together to discuss, get inspired and to solve problems together. The idea behind launching the FabJam at OuiShare Fest was to raise a collaborative mindset that has brought about hacker spaces and FabLabs and to bring it to a new, international scale. Now the journey continues, and the FabJam day is approaching with rapid speed.
"The idea is to raise the collaborative mindset that has brought about hacker spaces and FabLabs, to a new international scale".
In practical terms, on June the 14th people in different locations around the world will connect and design, conceive, create projects, based on one common topic given. This years FabJammers will be working on the topic of Mobility, but with a special twist that will be revealed just before the Jam (that is part of the game). This will be a unique chance to come together with other makers, hackers, coders, tinkerers, crafters, and thinkers from all over the world who wish to participate because they believe they can provide solutions to real-word problems but also to play. And inquire. And discover.
To get a flavour of what the FabJam can be like, check out this short video from last year.
Sounds and looks like fun? To host your own FabJam day is actually not that difficult. If you are interested in organising a FabJam day on the 14th, here is what you need:
- A physical space for the duration of the jam to comfortably welcome participants (you can choose how many people can participate in your space)
- Reliable Internet access (either wired or wireless) for all participants
- Access to common hand and digital fabrication tools
- Local IT support in case of problems with computers or internet connectivity
- At least one local coordinator to coordinate the event (The organizer will be in charge of all correspondence with the FabJam organising team)
- At least one person to facilitate the workshop (animate). He can be the same as the local coordinator
- Access to all space and computing resources around the clock over the FabJam day
- Coffee and beverages & easy access to food
If you feel like joining as a participants, find your closest Fab space and register. The event will kick off in Taiwan and work its way across the time zones to Canada. What's also important to know is that the projects created during the FabJam on June 14th will be presented during FAB10 - the 10th international conference of the FabLab network in Barcelona as a part of the Global Fab Awards Exhibition. By allowing projects to be presented in this forum, the crew behind FabJam hopes to bring a new dimension to the world of “making”, of “making collaboratively”, and above all to the world of play. In addition to being an fabulous and fun event, FabJam is also part of a bigger picture: that of raising awareness and interest is subjects like Peer Production, Makers movement, distributed manufacturing, open design. In the face of a new industrial revolution, with manufacturing being democratized by digital fabrication tools, local production facilities and the sharing of open source hardware designs; it is also interesting to think of how we as people can create new modes of interaction around these tools.