Officially, the team is composed of 3 people : Dr. Freddy Naranjo Pérez, Fab manager and Dean of the engineering department in charge of the strategic, political and financial activities, Nelson Alvarez, technical operator in charge of the use and maintenance of the machines and Carolina es Sanchez, a student in mechanical engineering and assistant of Nelson. The fablab is also part of the Innovation department managed by Juan Manuel Lopez. With Freddy, they coordinate courses/workshops creation or interdisciplinary projects achievement, Freddy for the engineering part and Juan for the innovation.

They have 5 main activities :

• Develop academic courses and practical workshops to train students, teachers and external users to industrial design, innovation and digital fabrication.
• Assist users in the use of softwares and machines : Nelson and Carolina check the digital model made by users and make it with the machines if they are not trained
• Support users in investigation lines such as fabrication of low-cost machines or adaptation of software for design and manufacture
• Promote the maker spirit trough communication, events and meetings
• Guide local organizations in the creation of their lab

In practice, to assume the variable workload, the team is supported all the year by dizains of students and teachers, either volunteers or working on a project. If relying on volunteers could be difficult for many organisations, here it’s not an issue. The key of this success : they open new workshops or launch new projects only if they find volunteers first. Thus, each team is responsable of the workshop or project selected. It’s also a way of challenging the utility of their actions: volunteers will only be motivated if the challenge offered by the project is useful for them (working with a company, learning new skills) and for the end users (answering to a real issue). One of the most involved teacher, Oscar Campo, recently won the international prize “Make a difference” for his project “Touch & learn” designed for blind kids.

The absence of financial pressure or indicators set up an ideal framework to achieve their mission of empowering people. However, to obtain more results, their next challenge will be the communication by documenting and sharing the workshops content and projects to foster the emerging community.

When you think about the Fablab Cali community you should imagine 2 levels of users : the community using the machines of the space within the University UAO and the community of makers in Cali whose heart is beating inside the wall of the fablab.

The first community is essentially made by students (80%) and teachers of the University (10%) using the place for their course and academic projects. By designing the space such as a pedagogic tool to make students work on real projects while learning new competencies (personal development, skills from other fields), Dr. Freddy Naranjo Pérez, succeeded to make the Fablab being a vital and interdisciplinary place for all the academic corpus. The place had the chance to be created by the dean of the engineering department him self to benefit from his decision power and political influence.

The remaining 10% users are external : students from other universities, kids, artists or entrepreneurs coming to enjoy free workshops. This small percentage and the absence of external users coming to work on projects is explained by the localisation, remote from other city districts. Faithful to the original mission of the place which was to empower everyone and to create a broaden community, Dr. Freddy Naranjo Pérez made an alliance with the red of public library and convinced 2 of them to build a makerlab. That started the Cali community of makers animated by Fablab Cali. By answering every month to external solicitations (visits of other schools, company projects, talks, …) and by creating initiatives such as “La Magia de la Impresión 3D “ which supports entrepreneurs, the community expands. Their next challenge will be to foster the exchange and communication among the different nodes.

To understand the Fablab Cali business model, you should first know the University model. Created in 1969 by 11 students and teachers, this school has been designed to provide night courses of engineering and economy to people willing to develop more practical and professional skills. Since the beginning, its model is community-based and non-profit : the students and teachers vote for the decisions and the benefits are invested in the structure. This first autonomous school of the city, independent from religious or governmental organisations, is funded with donations of personal or company sponsors and with scholar fees (13 000$ per student per year).

Fully integrated in the school as a pedagogic tool in the service of the community, the space and the machines are payed by the university. The salary of Nelson, in charge of the use and maintenance, is paid by the fablab itself with the innovation department budget. The work of Carolina, the assistant, is done in exchange of the scholar fees of her studies. The remaining ressources (students, teachers) are either working as part of their job (to create new courses content, achieve project or investigation) or volunteers (courses opened to external, support to the creation of new makerlabs in the city, …). The material used for the courses and investigation of teachers is paid with the Innovation department budget. The students should bring their own materiel for the projects.

For external users, the logic is unique : they don’t pay for the machine but use them in exchange of knowledge and experience sharing. They request the fabmanager or chief of Innovation department who deal with them the use of machine in exchange of a talk or a workshop so that the community can benefit from their skills. By putting knowledge sharing at the heart of the model, the community is living and the maker spirit of sharing is spreading. Through this non-profit model, the University also benefit from the fablab with an innovative and attractive reputation either for students, teachers, governments, entrepreneurs or company.