The name may sound off-putting, but it actually derives from 2 words: Fab - Lab (Fabrication Laboratory). Laboratoires de fabrication in French. These are shared workshops where the public can use computer-assisted tools and machines previously reserved for professionals.
In addition, a Fablab is a place where high-performance machines are made available to enable users to bring their projects to life. These include 3D printers and high-precision cutting tools.
For history buffs, Wikipedia reports that the concept was conceived by American physicist and computer scientist Neil Gershenfeld in the late 1990s. This was based on his observations of hackerspaces transforming into makerspaces to meet the needs of the communities they created. The physicist was inspired to design what he called FabLab, the first makerspace, where MIT students could get together to tinker and create something through digital fabrication. This concept then migrated to other continents, including Africa.
With this clarification in mind, it's important to know how African entrepreneurs can benefit.
What makes FabLabs so successful is their complementary nature. The young talents who come together in a common space are able to share the same values, knowledge and equipment, among other things. Each project depends to a greater or lesser extent on the support of the other members of the lab. The success of one is the success of the whole, for the sustainability of the ecosystem.
The first fablabs saw the light of day in West Africa in 2010, inspired by French innovation labs such as Artilect and ElectroLab. Entrepreneurs like Gildas Guiella, Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou and Médard Agbayazon discovered the model and began setting up fablabs in Burkina Faso and Togo. They are particularly popular with young people. Here, furniture, mobile applications and various connected objects are created. And little by little, these places are transformed into spaces for exchange, knowledge transmission, training in new technologies and innovation.
In Cameroon, for example, we have Ongola FabLab, a digital manufacturing laboratory to support young people in initiating innovative projects by moving quickly from idea to working prototype. In 2019, the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and the Orange Foundation also inaugurated - on May 23, 2019 - the first mobile digital fabrication laboratory in Cameroon.
It's a truck equipped with three computer-controlled 3D printers, a digital embroidery machine, a laser cutter and a vinyl cutter.
Main targets: disadvantaged young people, young unemployed graduates, schoolchildren, students, teacher-researchers, digital start-ups and craftsmen, companies and decentralized local authorities.
Because, as Cécile Fonrouge points out in "FabLabs and the emergence of alternative figures of the entrepreneur, 2018", "FabLabs enable the democratisation of material innovation and thus the physical (re)appropriation of digital technology". They could therefore be at the heart of the digital challenge for the African continent.
Fablabs depend on their social context to establish themselves. Indeed, in most cases, their immediate environment determines the direction of their activities. This is because these centers aim to provide immediate answers to the problems that surround them. Above all, they aim to meet a very specific need in a given environment. For "they are located precisely at the crossroads between the social need to innovate 'differently' in response to local issues, and a culture of collaboration and open innovation stemming from Web 2.0", argues the conversation site. Notably, in fields such as digital (developing applications and websites), education (running training courses), and the manufacture of everyday tools... all based on the ingenuity of the protagonists.
Ultimately, for the continent's young entrepreneurs and innovators, this is an opportunity. And so much the better, because Fablabs are becoming more democratic. They can be found just about everywhere in Africa. Several governments and NGOs are supporting these initiatives, which are making it easier for young idea-makers to do business. Professionals predict a bright future for these platforms.
Contributor: Daniel E.
