What if global designed products could change the way we work, consume and produce? There are several examples from across the globe that show how we can improve our production and consumption of goods by using digital resources such as knowledge, design and software.
Imagine a prosthetic arm designed collaboratively by scientists, designers, and enthusiasts from geographically diverse communities. The hand software and all its knowledge are available globally via Digital Commons.
With the assistance of an expert and people from around the world connected online who have access to local manufacturing equipment (from 3D printers and CNC machines to low-tech tools and crafts), they can manufacture a custom hand. The OpenBionics Project, which creates designs for robotics and bionic devices, is a good example.
No patent fees are required. Since a large part of manufacturing is done locally, less transportation is needed. Maintenance is easier, and products are designed to be as durable as possible.
OpenBionics’ first prosthetic and robotic hand. OpenBionics – www.openbionics.org
Another example: In France, small-scale farmers need agricultural machinery to help them with their work. Large companies seldom produce machines for small-scale farming. If they do, maintenance costs will be high, and farmers may have to adapt their farming methods to the logic of machines. After all, technology is not neutral.
The farmers then decide to design their agricultural machines. The machines are produced to meet their own needs, not for sale on the market. As a global commons, they share their designs. The needs of small-scale farmers in the US are similar to those of their French counterparts. They also do the same. After a time, the two communities begin to communicate and form synergies.
This is the story of the nonprofit network FarmHack in the US and the co-operative L’Atelier Paysan in France, both of which produce open-source designs for agricultural machinery.
With our colleagues, we explored the contours and emerging modes of production based on the convergence of digital commons, knowledge, software, and design with local manufacturing technology.
This model is called “Design Global, Manufacture Local,” and we argue that it can lead to inclusive and sustainable forms of production. This logic follows that knowledge and design (which are light) become global, while manufacturing (which is heavy) is local.
Knowledge sharing tends to reduce the amount of material that is transported, and it encourages people to collaborate for a variety of reasons. Profit motives are not completely absent, but they are peripheral.
Open, decentralized resources can be used to design a variety of products, including medicines, furniture, and prosthetic devices. They can also be used for farm tools, machinery, and other items. The Wikihouse projects create house designs, while the Reprap group produces 3D designs. These projects don’t necessarily require a physical base, as the members are spread out all over.
Finding sustainability
How are these projects financed? Commons-oriented projects experiment with different business models, from receiving state funding (a grant for research) and individual donations to forming alliances with established institutions and firms.
The design is created as a digital commons on a global scale, while the manufacturing happens locally, usually through shared infrastructures. Vasilis Kostakis, Nikos Exarchopoulos
The open, local design communities that are globally connected do not practice planned obsolescence. These communities can adapt these artifacts for local contexts and benefit from mutual learning.
In this scenario, mountain people in Ecuador can connect with mountain farmers in Nepal to share their knowledge and stop any collaboration, which would make them solely dependent on proprietary information controlled by multinational corporations.
Towards ‘cosmolocalism’
This idea is based in part on the cosmopolitanism discourse, which states that we all have equal moral standing even though nations treat us differently. The dominant economic system treats physical resources like they are infinite and locks up intellectual resources like they are finite. The reality is quite different. We live in a world with limited material resources. Non-material resources, however, are digitally replicable and can, therefore, be shared for a low cost.
Transporting electrons has a lower ecological footprint than coal, iron, or plastic. Locally, the challenge is developing economic systems that draw on local supply chains.
Imagine an acute water shortage in a large city. Within a year, the city could be completely dry. In a cosmological approach, global networks will be involved in solving the problem. A water filtration prototype is being developed in one part of the globe. The system itself is based on a free digital design that can be 3D-printed.