In his 2005 book Fab, Neil Gershenfeld predicted a shift from personal computing to personal fabrication and how manufacturing could be decentralized through networks. The Fab Lab Network is an experiment in bringing Gershenfeld's vision to reality. Today, with the crisis of COVID-19, fab labs and makerspaces around the world are sharing designs that can be replicated in each community because the tools for digital fabrication are widely distributed.
Make: Community hosted an online meetup with Neil Gershenfeld, founder of Fab Academy, for which Waag's Fablab is one of the nodes. The meetup saw Sherry Lassiter of FabFoundation and many other makers joining too. In it, the makers discussed the way Neil's vision plays a powerful role in shaping the civic response to COVID-19 and might possibly provide the basis for the road to recovery.
Watch the meetup here: 'Plan C: with Dr. Neil Gershenfeld and Sherry Lassiter'.
