FAB6: The Sixth International Fab Lab Forum
and Symposium on Digital Fabrication

This event will gather both field practitioners and laboratory researchers for a week of hands-on workshops and a one day symposium on the principles and applications of digital fabrication. It is being hosted in Amsterdam from August 15-20, 2010, by a team including The Waag Society, the Dutch Fab Foundation, The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Amsterdam Innovation Motor, and CBA. FAB6 follows earlier events in India, the US, South Africa, and Norway; there's background on fab labs and digital fabrication here.

Just as communications and computation have made the transition from analog to digital, laboratory research is leading to the development of fundamentally digital fabrication processes in which programs don't just describe things, they are things. Like those earlier digital revolutions, the digitization of fabrication enables its personalization, allowing anyone to make (almost) anything, anywhere. Fab labs began as an outreach project from CBA, to provide access to prototype tools for personal fabrication. They've since grown into a global network, with the number of labs doubling roughly every 1.5 years (here is the current lab list). To keep up with this growth, a non-profit Fab Foundation, for-profit Fab Fund, and educational Fab Academy are being established.

The FAB6 workshops will bring together fab-labbers from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia for tutorials, hands-on projects, program discussions, and research planning in areas including field fabrication and application of analytical instrumentation for healthcare and the environment, communications infrastructure, energy, housing, and rapid-prototyping of rapid-prototyping machines. These workshops are limited by available space to 100 participants, admitted by application here, with support available to assist unfunded participants.

The symposium on August 19th will survey the science behind digital fabrication, and explore its social, economic, and educational implications. It will feature presentations from academic, government, and industry leaders, as well as grass-roots inventors and organizations. Registration is also here, again with assistance available for unfunded participants.

The agenda is:

Sunday, August 15

Monday, August 16

Tuesday, August 17

Wednesday, August 18

Thursday, August 19

Friday, August 20