2
The Emergence of the New Production System of Personal Fabrication

The author of the reference book for Fab Labs and three-dimensional (3D) printing, Chris Anderson, has noted the two elements that determine the transgressive - or revolutionary - character of this innovation:

1. - the use of all types of materials: the 3D printer: "the only real difference between [the two-dimensional laser printer] is that it projects a different liquid (molten plastic and not ink);"
2. - the introduction of the third dimension for achieving the output of the digital creation process: "and has an additional engine running in the direction of the height" [AND 12, pp. 72-73].

A third element must also be taken into account, as a facilitator of exchanges between the different stakeholders: the increasing ubiquity, as can be observed on B2B marketplaces: "Businesses across the entire supply chain of industry now use the same file formats, from CAD to electronics. The transaction costs of contracts fell because we are no longer lost between translations. Everyone speaks the same language, that of digital manufacturing" [AND 12, p. 259].

The "do-it-yourself" movement, which is now well under way, has its roots in technological transformations from the middle of the previous century, mainly around the discovery of the possibilities of electronics, thus creating an alternative to the industrial revolution of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries (section 2.1).

Supposing that this is the case, the content of this new economic model and, in particular, the characteristics of the breakthrough in the previous model (section 2.2) are to be defined. We will continue the search by trying to highlight the components of the innovation model that make up (section 2.3). It goes without saying that as with any breakthrough innovation, friction appear when the "old does not wish to die" (section 2.4).

2.1. A new time for digital revolution

As stated by Sherry Lassiter1, "we are now in the third stage of the digital revolution" [WAL 13, p. 250]. After the computer in 1950-1960s, personal computing2, mobile phones and networks such as the Internet 30 years later, the time has now come for the individual production of objects, which were previously manufactured in specialized places - factories - that centralized the various factors needed for production: machines, workers, supervision, management, consultants, marketing, etc. Ancient authors, witnesses of the first applications of electronics in machinery, would see a confirmation of their theses, then so futuristic: The Social Function of Science [BER 39] and automation [DIE 57, NAV 58, RIC 67, VIN 58], without neglecting theorists like von Neumann and Morgenstern [VON 53] on game theory or Norbert Wiener [WIE 48] on cybernetics or even Daniel Bell who opened the field of post-industrial society [BEL 73].

As an industry professional, Carl Bass indicated the magnitude of changes involved: "The boom in manufacturing led by computers is a transformative change of the same order as the beginning of mass production. 3D printing is not only likely to change the traditional way of manufacturing goods, it can also work at scales as small as those in biology or as large as those of bridges and houses" [AND 12, p. 106]3.

The new paradigm that is currently spreading serves as an intersection of two fundamental trends: a new way, on the one hand, to transform matter (industrial vs. digital), and, on the other hand, the passage of a place of collective industrial manufacturing, to a (potentially) mastered productive universe through a single person (who may - freely - join a community of users-producers): "one could say that the third industrial revolution is the addition of digital fabrication and personal manufacturing" [AND 12, p. 51].

Following the model set by Adolf Lowe [LOW 76], we can characterize this innovation as effectively "revolutionary" in that it has, in itself, a generic potential, an ability to create other innovations in other areas of application: "Local Motors has created more than a car: it has created an innovation platform. Similarly, the Apple iPhone is a platform from which independent developers build businesses by creating applications for it. Not only is the Local Motors community able to produce new better, faster and more economical models than traditional small teams locked in an office, but also, as its models are free and available online, members can create their own projects and their own businesses around them" [AND 12, p. 167].

Here we find the Schumpeterian sense of the decisive role of innovation in the structural changes of the economy: "Sometimes, change comes from management techniques, but the really powerful changes come from new tools. And there is no more powerful tool than the computer itself. It is no longer content with driving the modern factory: it is becoming the very model . That - not just the development of an advanced technology but also its democratization - is the true revolution" [AND 12, p. 178].

2.1.1. From the 19th Century revolution of the invention

Throughout history, from Neolithic times to the engineers of the Republic of Siena, from the Cistercian monks to the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert, from Henry Ford to Sputnik, man has sought to change his technical environment to increase the available resources and reduce the effort applied in obtaining them4. This trend is permanent and intrinsic to the human species; it is marked by crucial moments when paradigms change and breakthroughs occur. The present moment is a proliferation of such failures; inventions are numerous, affecting all areas of life; they proliferate exponentially. Among them, the appearance of the opportunity to individually make things is undoubtedly one of the most significant.

This major innovation is rooted in the development of technology based on electronics, of which one of the main features is to allow users the objectification of mental functions during work. This movement is not new; if we follow the historian William Rosen, we would find its origins in the English revolution of the 17th Century: "Before the eighteenth century, inventions were either created by those wealthy enough to do so as a leisure activity (or to patronize artisans to do so on their behalf), or they were kept secret for as long as possible. In England, a unique combination of law and circumstance gave artisans the incentive to invent, and in return obliged them to share the knowledge of their inventions . Human character (or at least behavior) was changed, and changed forever, by seventeenth-century Britain's insistence that ideas were a kind of property. This notion is as consequential as any idea in history. For while the laws of nature place severe limits on the total amount of gold, or land, or any other traditional form of property, there are (as it turned out) no constraints at all on the number of potentially valuable ideas. The result was that an entire nation's unpropertied populace was given an incentive to produce them, and to acquire the right to exploit them" [ROS 10, p. xxiii].

The Industrial Revolution was the product of this breakthrough. The appearance of machines, new sources of energy and scientific organization of management increased the human capacity to produce goods tenfold, generating profound changes in lifestyles; simultaneously, equally profound disturbances in human relations, relations to nature, space management, etc., were created. Benefits aside, the suffering of others and the price to pay to leverage the former may appear excessive if we measure the negative effects of the latter. Political economy, which has become an "economic science", has tried to explain these paradoxes, without absolutely convincing success, or by providing acceptable diagnoses but not matching therapies able to achieve a positive balance.

It is possible to explain this relative paralysis of thought by a binding phenomenon that marked the whole of human history, namely the fight against scarcity (except perhaps history's first period of hunting and gathering, described by Marshall Sahlins' "economy of underproduction" [SAH 72]). We can easily understand that this glass ceiling stood as an insurmountable obstacle for people looking for their freedom. A form of unconscious frustration could be born from this limit imposed on men; especially as the English man of the 17th century was driven by the will of the infinite capacity of the mind (according to William Rosen's analysis).

Today, this existential gap is being resolved: recent scientific and technical discoveries, and uses that are deducted by those who make concrete achievements, open up a new field, that of abundance5.

2.1.2.to the 21st Century inventor-entrepreneur

The technological revolution helped objectify brain power and the mental abilities of individuals at work (or work in any kind of creative activity). The limit of scarcity was thus able to be crossed, at least with regards to work that does not involve physical goods. Today, it is well known that the use of information does not destroy it, but may instead help enrich it. The digital6 opens up a new era in human history.

The movement launched in the aftermath of World War II primarily involved...