Lucas Lemos
Title: Commons-based Technology in the Digital Era: the Case of ESTCube
Supervisors: Christina Privaolou, MA; Andris Slavinskis, PhD
Opponent: Vasilis Niaros, PhD
Defense: 7 June 2019
Abstract: With the rise of digital manufacturing, Commons-based peer production (CBPP) practices are moving from distributed production of digital information into the realm of material production. ESTCube, a CubeSat Estonian grassroots initiative, represents an emergent case of Design Global Manufacture Local (DGML), which is a new productive model that merges CBPP with digital manufacturing, proposing a blueprint for CBPP practices in physical manufacturing. Three points support our conclusion: ESTCube represents an in-progress extreme case of Open Source Hardware (OSH) innovation practice; a critical case of CBPP in digital manufacturing, presenting the main features of hackerspaces/makerspaces; moreover, ESTCube's global organization also resembles CBPP ecosystems in the realm of digital manufacturing.
Keywords: CubeSat, Makerspace, Digital Manufacturing, Commons-Based Peer Production (CBPP), Design Global Manufacture Local (DGML), Open Source Hardware (OSH)
