Digital Do-It-Yourself (DiDIY) is a set of DIY activities and mindsets made possible by the availability of low cost software, digital communication networks and digital fabrication devices. Today, the most popular examples of DiDIY are 3D printing and the “Makers Movement”. DiDIY, however, is a much bigger phenomenon, with potentially huge effects on the economy and the environment. So far, the interaction between advocates of degrowth and communities like the one of Makers has been very limited and not void of reciprocal suspicion, if not hostility. Practitioners of DiDIY seem to propose even more consumption of resources, that is the opposite of degrowth; in fact, it is hard to deny that many current examples of DiDIY only solve “first world problems”, producing even more hardly recyclable waste. DiDIY also needs, by definition, products and infrastructures, from microelectronics components to the Internet itself, that have a very big environmental footprint. In spite of this, DiDIY can, if not become an deliberate “ally” of degrowth, give a strong contribution to mitigate some phenomenons, from waste to overconsumption, that degrowth rightly sees as serious problems. We argue that this should happen, and that much more mutual knowledge and support between the two communities are needed. In our talk we first summarize the characteristics of DiDIY, highlighting those that seem an obstacle to degrowth. Next we present some key issues on which the degrowth and DiDIY movements may cooperate to achieve a critical mass. Finally, we mention some actions that should be implemented, at the regulatory and advocacy levels, to reach that critical mass.

1. Digital DIY: challenge or
opportunity for degrowth?
International Degrowth Conference 2016
September 1st, 2016
by Marco Fioretti

2. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY and ABC:
a SOCIAL, not technical phenomenon
● Digital DIY: DIY design and manufacturing only possible thanks to
– digital product design processes
– digital networks that let people directly share, and co-develop, those
digital designs
– "Atoms and Bits Convergence" (ABC): the possibility to transform
(digital) designs, without manual work, directly into physical products,
thanks to..
– personal manufacturing tools digitally controlled, that is directly
operated, not by humans, but by software in their own computers
● much cheaper and simpler to use today than even a few
years ago

3. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
The DiDIY Project
(www.didiy.eu,@digital_diy)
● EU H2020 research project, ending in June 2017, carried on
by international consortium
● studies and models present and future DiDIY social,
economical, cultural, ethical... scenarios, and their long term
implications for European society
● will produce (also) guidelines, for EU educators and policy
makers, about how to deal with DiDIY and maximize its
positive impacts on society

4. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Characteristics of Digital DIY
● Really ubiquitous and flexible. Just like software
● Applicable with EVERY MATERIAL: including
services and low-tech products
● gives more people more opportunities to
● do what they could have never done
otherwise, like "sculpting" by controlling a 3D
printer
● do it together online, by freely exchanging
designs and know-how through open
communities

5. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
The «dark sides» of Digital DIY
«3D-print your gadgets straight from your smartphone»...

6. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
The dark sides of Digital DIY (2)
● solution in search of (first world) problems
● extra consumption, waste, futility
● “non-limitable” (“flexible like software...”)
● depends on huge polluting global
infrastructures (Internet, microelectronics
industry...)
● challenges responsibilities, guarantees,
definition of good and bad

7. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY may stimulate...
● new roles and relations among individuals, organizations, and society
● more Digital (or digitally-based) Commons, and Commons-based
peer production and sharing
– typically under free licenses
– of ALL kinds of resources, from single products or tools (tool
libraries) to community services (car sharing, internet access,
healthcare)
● transition to an overall lower environmental footprint

8. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY can be everywhere

9. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY can repair many things

10. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY can last a long time

11. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY can last a long time (2)
«a washing machine
designed to last
FIFTY YEARS...»
Digital DIY can last a long time (2)

12. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY may contribute to make..
● WITHOUT ANY NEED for «a 3D printer in every home»
● small scale production/ mass customization economically viable
– local, bottom-up solutions and production
– also for services (OpenCare, local online markets)
● planned obsolescence avoidable:
– bottom-up, collaborative design for reuse, modularity and repair
– spare parts for everything, forever
● recycling and repair much easier, and convenient

13. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Yesterday’s
Fantasy...

14. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
DIY, digitally designed and/or controlled farming drones, milking
machines, greenhouses, micro-watering systems, pest mapping...
Today’s
Possibilities...

15. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Repeat for furniture,
homes, clothing...

16. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
The real issues:
legal, economical and cultural
barriers
● a world with almost no intermediate steps/levels conceived between
● (globalized), industrial mass production
● or full time single artisan, overwhelmed by bureaucracy
– and totally passive consumers
● lack of effective legal/regulatory SUPPORT (IPR, liability..) for
– really on demand, distributed manufacturing
– design for durability, fair reuse, right to repair
– open digital standards (all too often, the only problem is in software)

17. CC BY-SA
Marco Fioretti
marco@freeknowledge.eu
Digital DIY and Degrowth:
working together?
● make Digital DIY known in degrowth circles:
– visits makers, enter fablabs, to get help/co-develop common
solutions
● coordinate lobbying with makers, to favour pollution-reducing and
energy-saving applications of Digital DIY
● support the research of the DiDIY project by sharing proposals, case
studies, questions...
– See you online!
● Www.didiy.eu
● Twitter: @digital_diy