This week’s Plan C Live program looks at how more people are fixing things themselves or with help from others. The pandemic (and accompanying recession) has increased the need to be able to repair household items and replace components or upgrade devices. The Internet, of course, has a wealth of how-to information on how to make repairs but that doesn’t mean people think it is worth their time and trouble. But consumer behavior may be changing. We’ll be talking with some people who are helping make that change happen.
Date recorded: June 11 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET
iFixit.com has made it easier to fix things, providing clear documentation and replacement parts. Fixit Clinics have been drop-in events providing an opportunity to ask experts how you to repair a broken appliance, device or other household items. These clinics are now being held virtually around the world. Vector Space in Lynchburg, VA offers weekly Virtual Repair Cafes.
Repair as a local service also becomes important as many communities have lost their repair shops. How do you even know they exist? Repair.org is building a directory of repair businesses in the US.
Getting consumers to repair instead of replace their things is not only empowering. It is good for the environment, reducing consumption and producing less waste. Trouble is, even for the well intentioned, they cannot fix certain devices that lock-out consumers or any effort to repair them necessarily voids the warranty.
There is increasing pressure on manufacturers to create devices that can be repaired and to design products that have longer lifecycle because key components like batteries can be replaced. We’ll talk about progress on Right-to-Repair legislation.
Join host Dale Dougherty of Make: Community along with the following panelists.
The Panel
Peter Mui, Fixit Clinic
Peter Mui is the founder of Fixit Clinic (www.fixitclinic.org) which hosts community repair events around the U.S. and now, globally via Zoom. Over 550 Fixit Clinic events have been hosted at elementary, secondary and high schools, colleges and universities, libraries and through teleconferencing software. “Education, entertainment, empowerment, elucidation, and, ultimately, enlightenment through all-ages do-it-together hands-on fix-n-learn community-sponsored and community-led discovery, disassembly, troubleshooting and repair.” Link: https://fixitclinic.blogspot.com/
Kyle Wiens, iFixit.com and Repair.org
Kyle Wiens is the CEO of iFixit and Chairman of the board of Repair.org. iFixit.com is a wiki-based repair community sharing technical knowledge about how to fix things. The Repair Association,Repair.org, is a directory of businesses that provide repair services. Kyle has been active as a leading advocate for repair.
Elise and Adam Spontarelli, Virtual Repair Cafe
Elise and Adam Spontarelli are founders of Vector Space in Lynchburg Virginia. Elise is the Executive Director and Adam is the Education Director. They have been organizing Virtual Repair Cafes (link) with a fix-it focus on household items and electronics. Link: https://vector-space.org/blog/repair-cafe
Topics
- Are more people fixing things themselves? Is there more interest in repair because of COVID-19? Is it more necessary?
- How do you train more people to fix things themselves?
- What happens in a virtual Fixit Clinic?
- What do experts know that most people don’t?
- Communities need local production, and local repair services are needed as well. How can we support them?
- How repair is part of envisioning the circular economy
- What about repairs in a makerspace or other shared spaces? Who takes responsibility for shared tools and devices?
- What is Right to Repair legislation and what is its status?
See Make: Magazine coverage of Repair.
Images: from Fixit Clinic
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