mAkE Sharing and Embedding Strategy

This document describes the sharing and embedding of resources and information for the mAkE project and the communities of makers and hubs in Africa and Europe.

Access to technology has brought a new era of global connectedness where the concept of borders is virtually removed. Gaining access to open source and shared information, resources and like-minded individuals championing change across the globe is the pathway driving innovation and change today. The term ‘mAkErverse’ is a mAkE project umbrella term uniting different maker ecosystems in Africa, Europe and beyond. The mAkErverse is our ‘global village’ of connected makers, innovators, and their broader orbiting communities according to the seven circles within the spectrum outlined in the Community Activation and Engagement Strategy.

Alongside the concept of the ‘global village’ or mAkErverse, is the concept of glocal; globally connected and locally rooted. These two concepts delineate the mAkE sharing and embedding strategy as sharing will be done across global networks and embed accessibility to key resources that give rise to the opportunity to realise local  production of demand-driven global goods and services. The mAkE project aims to reach at least five hundred (500) businesses engaged in mAkE activities (makerspaces, founders, early-stage investors, corporates, NGOs etc), develop one hundred (100) open resources and provide access to seven hundred (700) additional open resources for DIHs across the project including blueprints, toolkits, and open-source business models. Through building communities and providing resources in a central repository shared across consortium member platforms, mAkE will catalyse a spill-over or ripple effect to the wider community because of borderless accessibility. The identified strategy to be implemented is that of the Ripple Effect. A ‘ripple effect’ can be defined as activities where information can be disseminated and passed from community to community to broaden its impact ultimately, amplifying and multiplying all efforts. As an abstract metaphor, it describes how our actions reverberate throughout the physical and social world and the impact that every person has within the ‘global village’. The embedding and sharing of community activities, information, knowledge and open access to resources in cohesiveness with the REF will impact the growth of the maker community and be an integral proponent for the rise of more local, supported, recognised, self-sustaining and educated maker communities that are globally interconnected and visible across the greater network of community networks or mAkErverse.