FabLab Global Survey dataset
Description
FabLabs are digital fabrication laboratories with a strong social and educational implication. They were created in the 2000s at MIT by Professor Neil Gershenfeld in his subject "How to make (almost) anything", where students acquire the skills to design and produce their models from the digital to the physical level. FabLabs have seen a spectacular growth from 45 labs in 2010 to more than 2000 by 2022. The democratisation of digital fabrication technologies such as CNC machines, 3D printers and laser cutters has given rise to a resurgence of the maker spirit that takes advantage of the knowledge and characteristics of Open Software and Open Hardware to design and create new solutions. Despite its growing interest in the scientific literature, little data is available on the diversity of spaces that make up the FabLab network. This publication shows the raw data obtained from the FabLab Global Survey questionnaire (2016). The questionnaire, constructed and validated using Delphi techniques, was distributed electronically in three languages: English, French and Spanish. It contains 41 questions of various types structured in three large differentiated blocks: Block I: Description of the FabLab Block II: Description of the business model Block III: Innovation model and documentation, SWOT The list of FabLabs registered on FabLabs.io in December 2015, with a total of 516 registered laboratories, was used for distribution. Contact information was obtained from a total of 473 emails, to which 9 additional laboratories were added whose references were obtained from different social networks. Once the invalid references were discarded, the effective population was reduced to 445 Digital Fabrication Labs contacted from which 124 responses were obtained. For the study, under scientific quality criteria, those participations that reached more than 50% of effective responses in the questionnaire were considered valid, limiting the number of responses to 95, which establishes a response rate of 21.34% of the size of the population considered. With a universe defined as that of this study, a minimum sample size of 80 effective responses was determined based on a confidence interval of 95%, setting a margin of error of 10%, considering a conservative proportion equal to 50%. In the publication of the information obtained through the questionnaire, following requests from several participants, the anonymity of the answers was guaranteed. The information obtained from the implementation and application of this questionnaire has been fundamental for different publications mentioned in description. Datafiles includes: Raw data Screenshots of the questionnaire Description and coding of variables