Commons People: Additive Manufacturing Enabled Collaborative Commons Production

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead In a post industrial age of production the incumbent model of mass manufacture characterized by integrated organizations and economies of scale could be showing signs of giving some way to a new production paradigm. Due to technology advances especially in the field of additive manufacturing (AM) small scale de-centralized production is again a possibility. Where once the tools to produce goods were seen as large capital investment beyond the means of most small enterprises, it is now possible for individuals to access tools that are capable of producing consumer goods. This shift had led to the emergence of a social phenomenon that until now was bound to the digital world. Networks of individuals are coming together to collectively design, develop, manufacture and distribute goods through a network under the banner of an open hardware movement. This paper presents a case study of one such network designing and distributing open source prosthetics using a collaborative commons enabled by AM technology.