Mr. Harmon Returns from One Place to Another
Fab Lab Sets Its Sights on Haiti
March 04, 2010
Also published on the TechSoup Blog and AshokaTech.
I wrote a blog post a few months ago about Fab Lab, a network of community-operated workshops springing up all over the world. I was excited about Fab-Fi, Fab Lab's name for the simple directional antennas they're using to build a mesh wireless network all over Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
Of course, to get the full effect of what's cool about Fab Lab, it's useful to take a step back. Fab Lab isn't about free wi-fi; it's about providing people with tools to produce whatever they want, tools that were inaccessible to consumers only a few years ago. Afghans are using the same set of tools to bring the Internet to Jalalabad that this young man in south Boston used to build an electric violin:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KupjpoMZ2s?wmode=transparent]
By equipping citizens with the tools of production, I think that Fab Lab and projects like it have the potential to completely transform the process of infrastructure building. I was thrilled, then, to find out that Fab Lab is now working toward a presence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
According to lab organizer Amy Sun, the first step is to host Haitian students at labs worldwide. This serves two purposes: training people to build and staff the lab, and providing temporary housing for displaced students. The next (simultaneous) step is to raise money to build a lab and find the right Haitian partner organization.
Why invest in a Haitian Fab Lab? As Haiti faces so many dire needs, is this really the best kind of aid? It's a complicated question. From Fab Lab:
Fablabs aren’t going to solve any of Haiti's immediate problems. They can't help with distributing food or administering medicine. But Fablabs are more than just a bunch of machines sitting in a room. We've installed Fablabs in places as diverse as an agricultural school in rural India, community centers in innercity Boston, shantytowns in South Africa, the northernmost towns in Norway, and Jalalabad, Afghanistan. No two Fablabs end up being alike.
Fablabs help people learn how to make things as much as they help people make things. Once a Fablab gets through their initial training phase, it is up to them to start working on what they want. Fablabs make things as diverse as tractors, directional wi-fi antennas, hand-powered flashlights, and chocolate boxes.
A Fablab in Haiti is more than a production facility for communication devices or prosthetics. It is a place where Haitians can start taking control of their education and what they want to learn. It is our way of helping Haiti rebuild Haiti.
That line "helping Haiti rebuild Haiti" is important. Last month, I was fortunate enough to attend the Tech4Society conference in Hyderabad, India, a production of Ashoka and The Lemelson Foundation. The innovators and ideas that Ashoka celebrates reflect its motto, "Everyone a Changemaker," the idea that change doesn't work on a top-down model: the best ideas are those that empower everybody to make a change.
Photo: Port-au-Prince residents use a Linksys router to build a makeshift Internet cafe.
