A Fab Lab can give its users around the world the ability to locally conceptualize, design, develop, fabricate and test almost anything---for example a Fab Lab puts communication technologies within reach of almost anyone, anywhere. Currently Fab Lab partners are working on creating mesh wireless, ad hoc networks in the Lyngen Alps of Norway to allow shepherds to keep track of their flocks from afar, and to allow fishermen to keep track of their boats at sea. At the Ghana Fab Lab, situated at the Takoradi Technical Institute, students are working on low-cost designs for mobile refrigeration and TV antennas. In Pabal, India Fab Lab users are making replacement gears for out-of-date copying machines, reliable tools for testing milk content and for diagnostics on human blood. At the Costa Rica Fab Lab young people are learning basic electronics and fabrication - by making functional objects with an array of sensors and actuators. In Boston Fab Lab users make jewelry, toys and crafts using recycled materials from the community. The projects are picked by the community based on urgency of needs and/or group interests. All the labs have the same equipment and capabilities so it is possible to share digital designs and fabricated solutions between labs, Forming a network of intellectual property and idea exchange.

Fab Labs have been highly acclaimed by the international press, with articles appearing in The Economist, Forbes Magazine, Wired Magazine, and NewsWeek International to name a few. Additionally the Fab Lab initiative was a high profile topic of discussion on the agenda of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. More on fab labs in the press.

Go to our contacts for more information about Fab Labs and how you can get involved.