Following the crash of Zano, crowdfunding in the «bad buzz» era

Crash of the Zano mini-drone. © DR

Can the fiascos of participative funding obstruct the success of crowdfunding? In November 2015 the mini-drone Zano burnt its wings despite 3 million euros raised on Kickstarter. Enquiry.

 

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Yao Dodzi Dogbo, palm grove programmer

Palm nut plans. © Makery

Both director of a model palm grove and developer of software made in Africa, Yao Dodzi Dogbo from Côte d'Ivoire is a fervent supporter of using new technologies for agriculture.
 

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The more the MAKERY…

Will 2016 be the year of all labs? The season is auspicious for all sorts of wishes and forecasts. Makery took the risk last year by asking makers, fabmanagers and other movers of the DIY revolution what they saw in their “crystal ball”. Of course, it’s always a bit easy (and cruel) to look back on predictions. Nonetheless, most of these prophecies were fulfilled in 2015. The lab movement proved that "it isn’t a bubble” (Adrien Bracq). While all companies haven’t necessarily adopted the “new standard” of “fablab type” methods (Mickaël Desmoulins), industry and makers have taken many collaborative initiatives. Similarly, the growing number of university labs has given students “the taste and the time for sensitive experiences, in reassuring collectives” (Sophie Pène). On the other hand, the doubled number of labs (according to Moore’s law, as applied to fablabs by Neil Gershenfeld) is a bit exaggerated: we added 151 new digital fabrication spaces on Makery's map of labs in 2015, bringing the number of makerspaces, hackerspaces, fablabs, biohacklabs to 645 worldwide. MIT’s fablabs.io website lists 593 at the beginning of 2016 (vs. 547 in 2015), while hackerspace.org lists 1224 active hackerspaces in 2016 (vs. 1145 in 2015). In short, the maker movement not only didn’t lose any steam in 2015, it continues to grow around the world… which gives us plenty of motivation to pursue our adventure as the media for all labs. And to wish you a happy new year full of labs, fabrication, prototypes, lines of code, melted tin, cutting lasers, 3D prints...