The Maker movement is spreading the idea that hardware creation, product prototyping and innovation is not limited to well equipped R+D branches of big companies but widely accessible. Open Source maker products like Arduino are popularizing the concept that complex solutions can be developed by grassroots innovators. Such technologies can play a powerful role in enabling economic development and the spread of a different concept of empowerment through technology - in particular when it comes to creating Open Source alternatives to corporate driven Internet of Things solutions.

This potential grass-roots industrial revolution bears many questions. Many makers would opt to purchase a cheaper no name product than the perhaps more sustainably produced original because of resource constraints. If all components for maker products come from cheap labour, mass production sites, are we really breaking classic production paradigms? What is the better strategy to enable access to technologies – cheap products  or industry partnerships?

Federico Musto, CEO of Arduino Srl, will be sharing his ideas on how maker approaches contribute to democratizing technology by linking the maker movement and industrial production.