There’s a new Industrial Revolution afoot.  Murray Moss calls it Industrial Revolution 2.0, which I encountered in an exhibition curated by Murray at the London Design Festival at the V&A last week.

So I have made this page, for myself and friends, as a sort of Beginner’s Guide to IR 2.0.

The page has many links to click, to save you having to Google stuff.  There’s a LOAD of stuff here–I suggest you just read a bit, think a bit, discuss between you … and see what ideas come up.  Click on all the links; there’s lots of interesting stuff.  And let me have feedback on what worked for you, and what didn’t.

And don’t be overwhelmed; just take this stuff and use it as you have time for it.

1.  Learn about Arduino by downloading, printing out, and reading Jody Culkin’s comic strip.

Think about if you know anyone who could produce similar stuff for us to use, especially to get across the ideas of Fab Lab.

2. Get an Arduino starter kit.  Here are three companies that sell them:

Oomlout, Proto-Pic, Coolcomponents on balance I think I would recommend the Oomlout kit.  I’ll be interested to hear what you think of their step-by-step guide.

Thinking about “being a mum”; what does Ben get out of you Lynn learning to electronic stuff?  Well, one of the BIG areas where people Make stuff, is robotics.  And boys (of any age) love robots.  So maybe, at some stage, you (that could be Lynn, JP, or both) could get a kit like this, to make with Ben.

3.  Learn about Fab Labs, Hackerspaces, Makerspaces.

Here are some websites of existing ones of those:

Fab Lab Manchester.  I think we have a LOT to learn from them, and there’s a lot to copy, but I think they missed a trick by getting SO much money donated, and just buying all their kit, rather than making it themselves.  But I especially like their DIWO (Do It With Others) evenings.

Here’s a video about FabLab Manchester:

[youtubeV youtubeurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5obKQHA3Hg" width "350" height="300" show="yes"]

Fab Lab Utrecht, ProtoSpace.  I’ll know more about them when I have been there.

Hackerspace London.  I am meeting one of their founders at the V&A, this Saturday. There’s a LOT of great information on their Wiki.

4.  Get a bit of a feel for the 3D printing world.  Here are some links just to browse around:

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page (especially watch the video top right)

http://blog.ultimaker.com/

http://www.etsy.com/

 

http://www.thingiverse.com/

And this is the machine I’ve actually ordered, the Orca.

5.  Start learning how to draw things in 3D, using free software.

Google Sketchup

Autodesk 123D

… and here are my first two 123D “How to” videos that I made:

[youtubeV youtubeurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sCFft_NJiA" width "350" height="300" show="yes"]

[youtubeV youtubeurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukz2VwGlrRU" width "350" height="300" show="yes"]

6.  Think about how to get local people interested:

• Local government and local MPs to support
• How can we get grant money?  Sign up for Grant Alerts.
• Involve schools, colleges, university
• Involve different sections of the community: Young, old, rich, poor, mums, students, businesses, volunteers.

7.  How to get local people involved:

Run a series of talks/workshops, that are, at least in part, hands on

(Sugru, Electro Dough) (You just have to explore the Sugru website, and watch the video)

[youtubeV youtubeurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJsH5WL9IE" width "350" height="300" show="yes"]

Then we move them on to further workshops: build Rep Rap printers, working with other “Make” stuff, like Contraptor and Makerbeam. Contraptor is a bit like Meccano, although I’m old-fashioned enough to think that, nowadays, Meccano isn’t like Meccano (not what it was like when I was a lad!)

Makerbeam is mini T-slot aluminium extrusion.  Here’s Valuframe: what a “grown up” version would look like.

This gives an idea of what it’s like to work with Contraptor, and this, what one of our simple kits might do.

8.  Money. Crowd Funding is so exciting! Check out Kickstarter.  Here are some examples.

• This project succeeded (it really FLEW!)  Pulse Sensor.  They wanted $3000 and they got $18,000!  (I was one of the backers!)
• Here’s another, Makerslide, that’s connected to 3D printers and “Cartesian Robots”. He wanted $5900 and got $26,268.  But here’s one that didn’t work (FurnLab).  They got half-way there … see why you think they didn’t make it.  Here’s another failure (boring, and it’s already been done!), and here’s one that hasn’t got to the date yet, but I don’t think he’s going to make it, and I think I know why (watching his video isn’t as exciting as watching paint dry!)

There are also UK Crowd-funding sites:

• Crowdfunder
• Please Fund Us
• SoLoCo

LASTLY (for now) here are two of the “commercial” outlets for 3D printing:

• Ponoko
• Shapeways

And REALLY REALLY REALLY last, you ought to know about Instructables.com and Make.com.