Digital Infrastructure

Fab City OS

The Fab City Operating System (Fab City OS), an open source platform developed within the INTERFACER project, supports Fab labs, Cities and Regions to set up and run a decentralised local value creation system by matching local demand for physical artefacts with local production capacities and other services. Fab City OS Core is a central component of the digital infrastructure of a Fab City, nation or region and can be easily installed and used by users as part of the Fab City Software Kit. It enables the efficient production and marketing of Open Source Hardware at all levels of the value chain of distributed production.

Want to know more?

The following video gives you an overview to Fab City OS

The video was produced within the INTERFACER project. Full video credits can be read here.

ABOUT

Part of the INTERFACER project is developing Fab City OS Core, the innovative federated open source INTERFACER platform to share and collaborate on Open Source Hardware projects.

Fab City OS Core provides innovative tools to support the complexity of a distributed accounting system for flexible collaboration processes. It leverages crypto technology to empower participants with privacy, transparency and data ownership and can be adopted to implement fair and equitable compensation mechanisms.

The technological basis is Reflow OS majorly developed by dyne.org in a EU-funded project which enables modeling of economic exchanges to promote trustworthy circularity at a generic level. We focus this featureset on workflows related to Open Source Hardware and production workflows. Part of this backbone is also a digital product passport (DPP) with two dimensions, namely to track and trace material and design flows. Fab City OS will allow designers to exchange and contribute to each other’s designs and bring manufacturing and design closer together with a set of suitable user interfaces. The software development will also be accompanied by a policy and user research process resulting in an economic framework.

THE INTERFACER PLATFORM

Fab City OS aka the INTERFACER platform consists of the Digital Product Passport, W3C DID and Creative Flows.

DIGITAL PRODUCT PASSPORT

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a structured product related information, including data on sustainability to facilitate circular value retention and extraction activities such as reuse, remanufacturing and repairing. Stored into a distributed ledger, it will guarantee reliable and authentic information, helping to reduce production costs and bureaucracy. DPP will also record design flows and development data to promote global collaboration, providing stronger motivations and opportunities to new contributors. The DPP will add valuable data for recycling, disassembly and repair to improve sustainability and green practices. A QR code on a product will be just one way to access DPP data directly.

The Digital Product Passport is available in the Fab City OS Core along with W3C DID and Creative Flows, developed by dyne.org Foundation. Read more about DPP here or download a summary with the main information about the DPP.

DPP Info-Presentation

W3C-DID

The W3C DID standard defines a way to create and manage decentralised identifiers (DIDs) for entities such as people, organisations, devices, etc. on a blockchain or other decentralised systems. It empowers digital sovereignty and federated cooperation. Full information can be read here via dyne.org Foundation.

CREATIVE FLOWS

Fab City OS core presents a revolutionary economic model, called Creative Flows, supporting the sharing, tracking, and tracing of open hardware in a standardised form. This enhances collaboration and promotes fair agreements directly between users in a secure network. Globally connected productive communities are empowered to discover, remix, and improve designs and technologies like never before. Creative Flows, utilising blockchain technology, facilitates fair revenue distribution based on contributions and agreements. Fab City OS will transform the traditional economic model, offering a decentralised and equitable solution. Details can be read here.