Designed to increase belonging, expand (inclusive, urgent, enivro-social-econ-cultural-etc) impact, and create community

Does your fab community match with the make-up of your whole community, all neighbors feeling welcome, showing up, leading, funded, visible,..?

  • If yes, please join us and come share your work and methods along with others
  • If not, come join us – and hear different ways others have been solving for inclusive Fab communities! You can do this!
  • Either way or not exactly applicable?…come join us!

Apply here

This interactive set of five sessions builds skills, knowledge, and capability around social systems needed to co-evolve with digital fabrication technologies.

“We call it “Fab All-In” to signal that both “all topics” and “all people” could experience welcome in the journey to positive social, economic, environmental creative impact, personal self-expression, leadership/leader-shop, and community self-sufficiency.”

We begin by sharing some innovations already happening in this way. Our goal is to share stories of existing exceptional work and learn together. Each session will also feature application activities, such as sharing more details about challenges with solutions people iteratively came up with or conducting an “All-In” collaborative examination of a Fab Lab, followed by info on initiatives already scaling that are inclusive to those who have been under-represented in the Fab network.

The final session will be a solutionspalooze to hear more details about the many more solutions and emerging initiatives we discover along the way.

Learning Objectives

  • Become aware that others have already solved hard inclusion challenges (topics & people). Gain comfort in how to approach and solve inclusion faster, together
  • Learn how to lead community change initiatives
  • Foster inclusivity by gender, race, economic status, geography, caste, and other forms of identity, as well as fostering inclusion by topics or subjects of the work
  • Empower more natural and cultural context for digital fabrication by engaging broader talent inclusion
  • Promote economic vitality and community self-sufficiency
  • Appreciate and consider how to see, address, and counter tech bias
  • Share what you have innovated and learn with others
  • Join this cool emergent community of practice

Curriculum Overview

This series of five community-led sessions are from 9:00-11:00am US ET and will include practical support (and your own projects) centered on building inclusive communities around digital fabrication. Here is a preliminary listing of topics and presenters from the community:

Session 1: All-In

  • Welcome from Around the World: Sherry Lassiter, Beno Juarez, Pradnya P Shindekar, Rico Kanthatham, Nuria Robles
  • Tech/Learning Bias + Solution Making Through Inclusion: Megan Smith, shift7, United States
  • Fab Cities: Tomas Diez, Barcelona, Spain
  • Fab Academany Overview: Neil Gershenfeld, United States
  • Project Guidance: Observe patterns of interaction in a fab lab; Select an achievable change objective; Identify relevant indicators (Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld and Beno Juarez)

Session 2: Systemic All-in Impact

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Stories:

  • Gender Inclusion: Nuria Robles, Fab Lab León, Spain
  • Neighborhood Outreach: Dan Meyer, Chicago MSI, United States
  • Rural Sustainability: Pradnya P Shindekar, Pioneer edu tech pvt ltd, India
  • Intentional Inclusion: Felicity Mecha, Kenya

Project Guidance: Test out a “positive nudge” in the patterns of interaction

Session 3: The Natural/Cultural Context

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Stories:

  • Amazon Wardens: Beno Juarez, Amazon, Peru
  • Intergenerational Learning: LeeAnn Garrick, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Anchorage, United States
  • Self-Sufficient Community and Culture: Blair Evans, Incite-Focus, Detroit, United States
  • Circular Economy with Natural Materials: Alysia Garmulewicz and Pilar Bolumburu, Santiago, Chile

Project Guidance: Document early indicator results; Assess underlying forces and factors; Adapt and adjust

Session 4: Economic Vitality

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Stories:

  • Economic Independence: Rico Kanthatham, Kamakura, Japan
  • Italy COVID response: Martina Ferracane, Sicily, Italy
  • Digital Fabrication in Refugee Camps: Andrew Lamb, London, England
  • Worker Ownership/Self-sufficiency: Danny Beesley, Austin, United States
  • Fabricademy, Textile & Technology Academy: Nuria Robles, Fab Lab León, Spain

Project Guidance: Document continued indicator results; Develop sustainability plan

Session 5: Solutionspolooza

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Participant project and already-existing-work stories (All presenters encouraged to come)