Using open resources, encouraging everyone to roll up their sleeves and participate in the small-manufacturing movement

China is now popular with "small manufacturing", using open resources to encourage everyone to roll up their sleeves to participate in the "small manufacturing" of the manufacturer movement (Maker Movement). Can "Shanzhai China" be transformed by the emergence of these new manufacturers?

Maker Movement, also known as the "Creation movement", is taking root in mainland China and stimulating China's innovative capabilities, the report said.

What is "making a home sport"? Using open resources to encourage everyone to roll up their sleeves to participate in "small manufacturing" is the main feature. Dale Dougherty, founder of Make magazine, one of the campaign sponsors, has defined whether clothing, tech parts, or anything else is the goal of makers creation or transformation. By opening up the original code hardware platform (such as Arduinos), 3D printer, and through the public fund-raising platform for financing, the use of small costs, can be small manufacturing.

Another feature of home culture is the emphasis on knowledge sharing and physical interaction. The inventors of the past were often alone in the garage experimenting. But now, manufacturers will gather in open space to collaborate and learn from each other. At present, there are more than hundreds of open working spaces around the world, such as Taiwan's FabLab Taipei, Hackerspace Taipei and other organizations, while the mainland also has more than 10 similar organizations.

For example, the "New Workshop" ("Workshop"), which was established in Shanghai in 2010, is an example of a culture of Chinese-made homes. Once you have paid for membership every month, you can design and manufacture it using all the machines, 3D printers, or other tools in the workshop. The birth of the new workshop does not want to bring together a group of Geek, but rather to reduce the "do-it-yourself" threshold so that everyone is interested in making something, Li Davi, a Taiwanese founder, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

As for Seeed Studio in Shenzhen, it is another business model under the trend. They specialize in small-scale mass production, convert small designs of manufacturers into product prototypes (prototype) or samples (sample), and help sell to global sales networks. In their latest recruitment ad, they used a picture of Grava, a South American revolutionary fighter, calling on people to challenge industrialized production.

It seems that the manufacturing culture is driven by small inventions, small manufacturing, but in which the breakthrough technology may be found. Ku Kenyu, an associate professor of industrial engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the industrial model of the last century was designed by others and made in China, but now China has to upgrade its industries and move to another mode of production.

So, in addition to private investment, the Chinese government is also very interested in creating a culture of the family. Shortly after the opening of the new workshop, Shanghai officials announced that it would build 100 officially supported innovation houses.

Despite official and civil movements, the Wall Street Journal argues that creating space alone does not necessarily transform China into a global innovation hub. At present, China is still emphasizing repeated recitation under the rigid college entrance examination system, but cramming education is difficult to arouse students ' innovative ability.

In addition, the new entrepreneurial movement seems to remain limited to some ethnic groups. Li Davi observation, in his new workshop, the powerful "manufacturing house" are "rich second generation", they do not worry about the daily necessities of life, but can concentrate on, bold experiment innovative products.

Could the new manufacturers be able to blossom and change "made in China" in China? New manufacturing model, can drive new industrial chain? These changes may take time to observe.