Interview with Massimo Moretti, Founder of WASP

From Open Source to Maker Economy and Collective Welfare

“Collective intelligence gives a return when ideas circulate freely, nobody seize them and everybody help to develope them. In that way the passage from open source to maker economy and so to collective welfare can be realized.”
Massimo Moretti, WASP’s founder, has no doubt: he chose the way of shared knowledge a long time ago. “Ideas that circulate – continues Moretti – are several, they’re often magnificent, thrilling. The real frontier is to transform ideas in a shared project which is useful for everybody.”

(Maurizio Andreoli) Is this what has happened to the new arm braces, for example?
(Massimo Moretti) Exactly. The first design can be downloaded by everyone from Thingiverse and it was made by a young American designer, Andreas Bastian. He developed the concept of thermoforming PLA after having printed it planely.

Then, what happened?
Bastian’s project has been discovered by +Lab, a research center of Politecnico Milan. +Lab were the first to have the intuition and ability of grasping the potential of this project. And it properly emphasized it.

What was the role of WASP in the partnership with Rizzoli?
When the project arrived in our studio, some researchers from Rizzoli were present. They saw it and found it interesting. Then they gave their contribution, transforming it further, depending on the characteristics they needed in the First Aid center.

What was WASP’s contribution?
We provided the Rizzoli researchers with the information they needed to produce the arm braces in a fast and accurate way. We started a research for a bigger extruder and a greater amount of deposited filament: a dedicated printer for arm braces, which will allow to realize them in less time and with a lower budget.

We can say that the development in this project had many partners involved.
Yes, it is exactly as you said and everybody must be quoted, because each one is a link in the chain from idea to solution. Nobody is the owner of the project, nobody can claim the intellectual property, but each one has his authorship.

Rizzoli’s willingness to participate in a procedure like this wasn’t so obvious.
An institution which is a medical center of excellence has the humilty of making full use of the shared knowledge that can be found on the net, and this is very important. It is of equal importance that these informations can be completed with the experience that only institutes like the Rizzoli dispose of.

What will be the next step regarding the arm braces?
Rizzoli’s researchers said that they will share their work in open source, respecting all the parameters which are necessary for a collective evolution. We thank their researchers for the willingness to walk this path. When their work will be published on Thingiverse, another hospital, maybe on the other side of the world, can contribute and make another step towards sharing knowledge.

You always insist on this word: sharing.
The kind of knowledge which generates welfare can’t be private.
Too many companies with a great economic power develop technologies which they patent and, in that way, they make it inaccessible for most of the people. When advanced knowledge will connect with shared knowledge it will be a spontaneous blooming of accessible practices, which will evolve through the collectivity in several ways so it will be impossible to patent it or anticipate it. A common benefit which can generate not only an healty society but also jobs, starting with common people.

Some time ago these systems were watertight.
It’s true. The world of “conventional research” couldn’t get in contact with the open source world due to an image problem. These patterns are breaking. Right now other things matter: true things, working and functional things.

What’s the new approach which guides the technological evolution?
The concept is making things, specifically. Making with what you have, with the shared knowledge, the evolution which grows from the below. The maximum return with the minimum cost.

Does the time for patents come to an end?
The concept that is important to spread is, that nobody is the owner of this knowledge, nobody can claim the property. Sharing is the way to avoid patents and appropriations. Nobody can patent these informations because they have been shared, but everybody can use them.

What are the prospects?
This new approach gives us wishes for a better world, where everybody works for a collective purpose. Everybody will have the opportunity to access technologies that improve the quality of life, even without great financial possibilities.