Self-organized Communication And Group Culture Research Of Beijing Makers

The maker movement swept the world,and also set off a huge wave in China.This research chooses the Beijing makers as the object to study the group's organizational structure,communication mechanism and culture.This paper defines the "maker" as the group of the open source hardware enthusiast or entrepreneurs and the group of DIY enthusiast or entrepreneurs who has the makers' spirit.Using the research methods of literature analysis,participant observation and in-depth interviews to analyze the makers.The result shows that makers can be divided into interest oriented makers and business oriented makers.According to the theory of self-organization,the development process of maker group can be divided into four stages:the start-up stage,the development stage,the mature stage and the decline stage.this research has studied the organizational structure and communication mechanism of different stages.Through the analysis,some characteristics appear:First of all,both of the creation and development of the maker groups are self organized.Secondly,the groups are always maintain the openness of the system.Thirdly,the groups are more democratic than the traditional groups.Fourthly,the makers pay more attention to the self-control.Fifthly,the makers tend to emotional motivation rather than institutional constraints.At last,the relationship of cooperation and competition are both exist inside and outside the team.On the basis of the research of self-organization and self-organization communication mechanism,this paper also summarizes the group culture of Beijing makers.First of all,The behavior of makers reflect the phenomenon of networked individualism and collaborative innovation:the makers realize the networked connection between individual and individual,using the digital tools for Individual manufacturing and sharing the results through the network,the makers are not isolated individuals but they rely on each other,the products participate in global markets.Secondly,with the development of modern industrial technology,the manufacturing tools are smaller,and the price of the tools is lower,but it is more powerful and the operation is simpler.What is more,whether the interest oriented groups or the business oriented groups,tend to use the form of group decision-making to solve the contradictions in the process of creating a product,but the leader of the project or the person with professional background will play the role of opinion leadership in the discussion.Therefore,the "centralization"and "decentration" are both exist at the same time.In the creation process,they adhere to the principle of "practice comes first,and speak with facts".But the noun of maker has been widely used in China,the spirit of makers is gradually weakening,and even be deconstructed.creating the style of maker subculture has been redefined in favor of the ruling class,which shows that the subculture of makers is being incorporated.