Excerpted from Marc Chataigner in Medium:
via p2p foundation
More here...the characteristic that turns these machines into an extraordinary piece of technology is the fact that, in fablabs or makerspaces, they are now reachable. They have been ‘freed’ from the assembly line and the factory, freed from a proprietary stand and from performing the same task for million of pieces. Now they can be programmed by anyone, to perform a single task each time.
image of Woelab via Silicon Africa
Moreover, the ‘makers’ are distinct form ‘workers’ by the fact that they don’t have to come to the machine and be at its service, machine-operators, but they now come to a machine that is at their service, creators.
Once out of the assembly line, these machines, like all other sorts of technology, in the hands of creators may become more than they ever were discovered for. They get dismantled, hacked, hardware and software, they produce little plastic craps or an affordable chair made out of recycled plastic bottles. And as it goes, new machines get freed and hacked every single day : knitting, cooking, making chairs...
via p2p foundation