[Advisors] Growth of Fab Labs in Canada

[Garth Graham]

On Jan 10, 2016, at 12:11 AM, Brian Beaton <brian.beaton at knet.ca> wrote:
> …... about the development of Fab Labs. I do have some questions and concerns about TC taking on supporting these types of "developments".
> 
> …... values and impacts already established by CAP sites”  …... It never finished serving all the small, remote and rural communities because there was never enough money to take care of all the urban sites…..
> 
> ……. But I also think everyone needs to take a second look and hopefully a very cautious look at what TC is really supporting with these types of "developments" that add to the multitude of access options available to the folks in over-resourced public urban environments. 
> 
> …….. . Is TC willing to abandon its position as an advocate for the underserved and unserved communities across Canada that struggling to access affordable and equitable connectivity? Should TC be lobbying on behalf of urban environments that can already support these types of facilities?


TC does not need "to abandon its position as an advocate for the underserved and unserved communities across Canada” to consider working with Fab Labs, Makerspaces, etc

1. TC is about sharing the practices of community development online generally, not community access specifically.  Access is merely one dimension of the uses of ICTs for community development.

2. The questions of “community” and digital inclusion are focuses at right angles to the divisive issue of urban/rural.  Unserved and underserved communities and marginal and oppressed individuals exist across the whole society.  Community building is a radical practice of autonomous self-definition that opposes the assumptions driving public policy in representative democracy. Community is DIY.

3. .  Victoria Free-Net wants to work with Makespace to increase the network of volunteer hackers, DIY coders, and systems analysts available to bootstrap our own services and to apply those services to broader community development ends.  We want to increase local capacity to act in the context of DIY, collaboration and crowd sourcing in resolving local problems.  Changes in hands-on practices can illustrate what our communities can do to increase effective and self-determined development capacity in a digital economy.  We want to accelerate our mutual learning about how we arrange to fit our services to the community we serve.

If we are successful in utilizing local resources to horizontally integrate and improve social services delivery to the underserved at lower cost (i.e. to smarten up our local development capacity) doesn’t that free up provincial and national resources to address systemic failures elsewhere?