 And now, without further ado, we'll start with Repair for Future. How we can still repair together in pandemic times. So Andreas Frisch will talk about that, or also called Fratinas, I'm sorry I didn't quite get that. Since 2014 he's active in the repair scene and he has a lot to tell you. So have fun. Yeah, thanks Jin for this nice announcement. I'm happy to see him stream and happy Easter of course. So let me begin with a small intro and I'll explain what is a repair café anyway. And then I'll tell you what we did during the pandemic to just pass the time. And we'll tell you a little bit about the current political climate. So I'm Andreas Frisch. Ah, my nickname is RepairFox. I'm an electronic technician and of course a software developer with cloud stuff and video. In 2014 I founded a repair café in the city of Aschaffenburg. And since 2016 I am in the classical linear TV where I tell old people how to repair things. And I want to start with a quote. Somewhere everyone is a hacker. Everyone has their own tricks how to handle technology in the everyday life. And a great person named Vah Holland said that 1984 in an interview he is one of the founders of the CCC. And he already made clear that hacking as he pronounced it is more than just pounding on your keyboard. But even things like being able to repair things that belongs in there. And that also means for me at least that there is quite an overlap and synergy between hackers scene and the repair movement. So maybe some people in the stream already were wondering what is a repair café because they never heard of it. So here a little bit about the history. In 2009 in the Netherlands, Martina Postma founded this as an organized movement because of all of the trash that she encountered. So she wanted to prolong the life of our devices. And so she started helping or bringing together people who like repairing things and people who need things repaired. And brought them to the table and so it started as a people working for free just for fun. And the goal was to avoid trash. And yeah it had definitely a social component to it and that's why it's called a café. By now in Germany there are on the page Reparatur Initiative meaning repairing initiative. There's more than 800 listings and some of them might not be active anymore or maybe just did it once. But quite a lot. By meeting regularly, I mean maybe once a month, maybe once a week or maybe even daily. And at least until the pandemic started and they were repairing things together. There is this complex logo from the foundation repair café. We were using that in the beginning but now we were using what you can see now and we're just a bit more independent. And I really like it because it also includes all the different kinds of repairing that we include. So there's sewing in there, there is electronics, there is woodwork, bicycles, everything that's in there. So maybe a few photos in the background and I'll explain how is it working. So people come in with their defect device and then they will sign out a small form declaring we are not responsible for any additional damages. And they'll also include information what might be broken in their opinion. And then they put it on a pinboard and the helpers can then go through it in sequence and check out what they might be able to help with. Of course not everyone could help with a high voltage radio. And me, I could not help repairing trousers or pants, just clothing in general. So everyone does what they can. So the repairing people usually bring their own tools, their measuring devices, their sewing machines. That's because our repair cafe also is kind of a troubling circus. So we have a new location every time. So that could be a church, something communal, some community center, something like that. Or even a maker space. And the repair cafe itself just has a very small... Yeah, a small amount of material that we will bring. And the name cafe already indicates that there usually is coffee, cake. Sometimes we have warm food, mostly oriental food. And people really like that while they're waiting they can eat something. Here the ADFC, it's a German bicycle club was suggesting or was helping with bike repairs. But furniture makers were also also offering help. Here something is being sold. Yeah, some sewing. Usually people, sometimes people come with their own sewing machine and they had been using it before but weren't sure anymore. And so they were just being showed how to use it. And here is one event where some people work at the same time. There's me and there's some sewing happening. There's a very nice picture with a lot going on that sadly we can't even imagine right now. I hope it'll return soon. So I'd say 90% of the cases are very simple cases. Usually you already know what's wrong before you even open it. The wire burned through or just something got unhooked and has to be rehooked. That's really most of the repairs. But people really know very quickly what is wrong and how to fix it. And people can be sent home with a working product or device really soon. Sometimes it's more complex like digital technology, DVD players, stuff like that. And if you start and try to follow digital signals with an oscilloscope then that's already too much for this. So we only do it from 12 to 7 p.m. And we just don't have that much time. What could we do during pandemic? Some year ago we were really surprised by this and we did not have a plan. So most initiatives were just dropping the first date in March last year. But we were quickly starting a remote solution and in April already we could offer the first date offering. And we are producing these flyers at the beginning of the year. And for 2020 we already had these flyers printed. And of course we didn't want to just drop that. And so of course we were using the same dates and just invited people to our digital repair cafe. If the situation was allowing it. So for example in June, July or maybe September we also had some offerings in person. But of course with people announcing them beforehand. Normally you can just drop in unannounced and you just wait with some talking and some coffee. So we even have returning customers who just were looking for some device for an excuse to drop by. Because they were there for the social component. That wasn't possible of course. So you had to announce yourself and you had a time slot. One visitor per hour, per repair person. And that worked quite well of course with distancing, with disinfecting, with a mask. The usual. But of course, come fall, this wasn't possible anymore. So here is a small list with repair cafes that I found after a very short search. Most of them are obviously on our website as well. So they are linked to. And many of them actually they just have their normal timetable. They continue that online. With RC Gota, it's that they make individual appointments with people. So that's also a very nice thing. And in the back, there are links. So if you are on the website that's linked in the father and the schedule, you can just have a look at this directly. But I really like. And where we have the crossover in the mindset and the mindset between hackers and repairing is that many people don't only want free solutions for the video conferencing. Not only for free, but also open and open source. Many use a big blue button, BBB. Many use jitzy. So for example, the repair cafe. They do that every week. And they really use jitzy from Chaos Computer Club Hamburg. Some people have their own jitzy. So basically some use the official jitzy server. And a few initiatives, of course, use Zoom or Microsoft Teams. So how can you work? How can it work that you repair online remote repairing? So this is a screenshot from the first online repair. And Annie came with a broken projector. And that was really fun and was really motivating for the next date. Because Annie really without hesitation was accessing this and she had a few basic tools already. And after a long time, it really took time. It was very complex. Of course, usually the most difficult task is to just open the device without destroying anything. And then we found the broken part that has to be exchanged. Obviously the target group for this online repair cafe is a different one than in the classic repair cafe. In the classic repair cafe, you mostly have people who are past their working time and older people. They really don't want to throw away things. So that was before we were just buy and throw away. And online we have people who have more affinity for technology. So they have less problems getting into it. Which is nice, of course, as well. So to talk to different target groups. So here we see how Annie was filming with her phone into her projector. And we could just see that this voltage regulator is missing a part. This is obviously broken. We could just order it. And because we still read what kind of part it was. And we will have to just repair that for her when we can meet in person again. What we can see is that the video quality is not always perfect. You can't really see it well. And that's, of course, in the web RTC not ideal. It's a kind of gambling, mostly of the time, how well the video works. But in general, it's possible to do HD, but not always. Different kinds of issues can cause problems there. Like weak hardware or bad internet connection. And some initiatives, they also try to do it in an asynchronous way. They use WhatsApp messages, so photos, high-res photos, or via email. So the repairing person can have a better image. What's very nice online is that just at the same time you can have repair manuals from dubious sources. So you can check how to open it without breaking anything. Or if you are debugging software problems and just download drivers directly for a notebook. You can use TeamView or some other remote software to just do it. Apart from the local initiatives, there's also an online repair cafe by the network. So it's like an overarching umbrella initiative. And that started in February. So start of February, every evening they were having this. And after that they did it monthly. So the next will be in two weeks on Thursday, again 19... So 7pm to 9pm. And help us from all over Germany take part in this. Not only all over Germany, but including Austria and Switzerland. So everywhere where they speak German. So it's more a language thing. They use the big blue button of the binary kitchen, which is one of our hacker spaces. And you have to say that this is sort of also for their own purpose. Because among the helpers there are a lot of people that have an urge to do this. That misrepairing things, that really want to repair things. And so this is at least a small pathway to let that urge loose. So there are actually some waiting lists for the next couple of appointments. And they usually go away very quickly. There are some still left for May right now. So for every appointment, every meeting that we do, the helpers are usually more than the helpers. And it was over 20 the last time we did it. In March and it was like 10 repairs. And then a lot of people also were just visiting because they were more the kinds of people that were repairing them. Anything else. For example, the classic things that one can do there are things like maintenance work. For example, like, hey, this vacuum may have a HEPA filter that might get dirted up and should be replaced. Or things like if the ejector tray of the DVD player isn't working anymore, then you can replace the little rubber band that pulls it. Lots of things that can be done without any soldering iron or multimeter. For the older participants, there's also a possibility to dial in using phone. If they maybe can't use big blue button on the web, they can actually just get their phone and dial a number and also get to people that can help them. And yeah, then here's the link again to our online repair cafe. Which, as I said, is monthly. Alright, so now our repair cafe is only one little drop in a big sea. And the big problem is electric waste. So I found this last week. Maybe you remember this ever given ship that stranded in the Suez Canal with its 200,000 tons of payload. And now imagine that 60 of these ships and everything they have loaded is just the electronic waste of just Europe in one year. That's 20 kilograms of waste per person, which doesn't sound like much, but the many, many millions of people that all produce 20 kilograms. That is beyond any imagination. And maybe we can't really make a big dent in that, but we can maybe start to get people thinking about this and make people realize that something about the system needs to be changed there. And then of course pass that on to politics and industry. The European Union has an ecological design guideline since a couple of years. And that gave us, for example, energy saving labels on appliances and the wattage descriptions on vacuums and LED light bulbs. But then again, the industry, of course, often takes that into the absurd and into the negative. And then there's another thing that will be started this year, which is for appliances like displays and washing machines and such that should strengthen the right for repair for these things, which is they have to enable a destruction free opening with common tools for these devices. They demand that they have to have a list of replacement parts and offer replacement parts for at least 10 years and also to publish repair instructions for professional repair people. Which is a start, but only a small start because it is only applies to these very small groups of products. And the biggest part of waste is, for example, small household devices and IT devices like notebooks and phones. And all of those are not included in this legislation. And we hope that they will be in there at some point. Then of course, who are professional repair people? Well, nobody really knows. There's no official definition for this and no list or no register for companies for that. So we don't know whether those are people that do this to actually finance their entire being or if that also is a person that maybe helps out in a repair cafe. The delivery times should be at most 15 days for replacement parts, but a family that has to wait for two weeks for a replacement part is also very difficult when the washing machine doesn't work. Software has to be made available, for example, diagnostic software, but it doesn't have to be kept up to date. So that brings up the problem that maybe the licensing could be used to keep versions away there. France, our neighboring country, has gone a step ahead there and introduced a repairability index, a numerical one. And that is a number between 1 and 10 that the manufacturer has to calculate from a bunch of criteria. And then across this year, they will have to be required to apply this and listed for phones and washing machines and also lawn mowers. And I like that explicitly smartphones and laptops are in this and it should probably be expanded to all other devices of the electronic ability. And they also demand that repair manuals have to be offered up for at least nine years. So if they do that for nine years, then they will get a higher score in this index. Then how difficult the disassembly is, like how many work steps have to be done, what kinds of tools are required. So if your device is like your smartphone is entirely glued up where you can't change your battery will probably not get any points there. A faffone where everything can be repaired with a small phillips head screwdriver would get full marks. And the availability of these parts of replacement parts also factors into that. For example, the smallest part of and the total price and also some other say the price of the parts also factors into that and the properties of the product itself, small other things. So I haven't actually seen this index used. I looked at the French Amazon and it doesn't listed at all yet. But starting from 2022, they will have to and will get fines otherwise. So I assume that will happen sometimes within this year that those will appear somewhere in the payment and in the stores. So what would be my perfect wish as a repair activist and environment protectionist? This is of course something that the industry is furiously defending itself against because the system isn't really working the way we want it to yet. But the most important thing to me more important than like a repair index would be a requirement for listing the expected life expectancy of the device and also requiring them to offer warranty for that period. For example, these LED lights that are supposed to last for 30,000 hours, but don't even last for 10% of that. And maybe fail shortly after the end of their warranty. That should be a thing that the people that have the choice between a product that might cost double the price but will last for 10 times as long. And that decision should be easy to make. So if one washing machine maybe costs a thousand bucks but will last 15 years and has an assured life expectancy with maybe the required repairs for things that of course need to be replaced. But the other one costs 300 bucks but only has four months life expectancy. Then it's not hard to think about which one is probably the better choice. Very important also would be a return system for things that are still working or easy to repair. Because currently everything that one brings to the recycling yard is basically waste. A lot of people will exchange things that are still working or maybe easy to repair are being thrown away. And those usually will be shredded and only be recycled for the materials. Like maybe a bit of resources are coming from that. With a lot of energy and resources, those will be recycled. That just can't be a good thing. Belgium has a system for this. And basically they're large goods, large trash collection agency that will actually collect these devices and try to bring them to places that can repair them and then bring them back into the stores to be bought. And then, for example, other things like repair for future or he alter other project that we heard about in the last couple of days, which is collecting computers from companies that still work perfectly but would have gone to the trash. And that of course is a catastrophe that really can't be. These things have to be returned to extend the lifetime. And then, of course, supporting repair with state with government money. For example, in Vienna, if people repair their own device or have them repaired, they often get a bonus of about 100 euros. Then in other countries, there are some other bonuses for repairing things. But here in Germany, it's usually if, for example, the piano repairs man and some other ones come to your home, you usually get 20% off. But that should also be applicable to bringing your device to a repair person. And then also actually taking into regard the environmental and ecological implications of producing a device. And actually thinking about the supply chains of these things and that should be included in the way people buy things. There is a law which is a lot of bureaucracy for manufacturers currently. And one could actually do wonderful things with that. For example, required return programs and a lot of this is counted on waste. But waste isn't really what we should think about. We should just build devices that last longer and can be used for longer. And of course here a few links and sources. The path is linked in the schedule, of course. And yeah, I'm looking forward to your questions and thank you for your attention. Yeah, great. How is sitting here the whole time and want to just ask questions? Yeah, I really think this is a very, very great. And it's great to just see this. How many people want to repair things? And I still like how the list of helpers is even longer than the list of people who want help. Yeah, maybe it's a bad PR work. Oh, maybe. Yeah, but we also have a very long list of questions. So if you have further questions, check out the schedule and the detailed view of the talk. You will find the link to the question pad. And of course it slides with all the links. Yeah, very, very great. So let's just... How well are people provided with tools? And how do you find solutions? Well, that's quite a range. There's like one billion home depots or hardware shops. So people have a lot of tools, but how to use them? That's the trouble. Where do I have to screw? Where do I have to measure? And this works quite well because you can just show them online how to use the tools. Some things are difficult because most cases are clipped in and you need a lot of sensitivity in your fingertips. And of course you need to have done it. It helps to have done it before. And repairing a phone. If you see sets like this with these very small screwdrivers and Apple really just likes inventing new screw heads for the next iPhone generation. If it's not glued all together. That's something that's not as widely distributed already. Yeah, I already have some experiences with cars make school where a student was asking, how do I open this? So yeah. One very fascinating question. But that might be more bureaucratic. What about Dean? So there are laws for repairing devices when you are doing something to a microwave who is responsible of something bad happens basically. So the network repair initiative says, well, we are not repairing anything that has mains voltage. So this is basically it. And classical repair cafes, they decided on a case by case basis basically. So these laws, these directives, they mostly are only applicable for professionals. So in the moment where I do it professionally, when I do it as a company or if I take money for it. And we are mostly neighbors who help each other. And so we say, well, we do not need these tests that are required by law for professionals. But it also has to be said that these tests are sometimes really useless. And sometimes they are really, really important. So a matter of life and death. So it really depends. The laws are very inflexible, but definitely no repairman will give out something where they are not certain that it's safe. So they will be safe that it's safe for the guests to use and when in doubt, we will throw it out. How effective are the repairs? How effective are the people who are filtering in the trash heaps already? So the communities are already filtering out trash sometimes. Do we maybe cooperate to maybe inherit replacement parts? Yeah, that's very different. Well, it's very different from place to place, because all the communities are very different from each other. In Jena, for example, they have a contract with a place that collects the trash. So they are allowed to just get things out. And in the Schaffenburg, for example, no chance. They have excuses without end, because it's dangerous or who will go to jail. But they also have these quotas they have to fill. So the electronics law, there are defined return quotas. So a certain quota, a certain part of sold items on devices has to be collected because this trash has to happen. And of course, that's not nearly enough because some people are just collecting trash or they are throwing it out in the normal trash. And so they really do not want to hand it out again. And I already heard from a trash heap 2.0 or more recycling place. So it's a project where a repair café and institutions like schools should be connected to such a collection place for electronic waste. And yeah, the next question. Where does the calculation of the collection of these quotas, where is it happening at the moment? Is there maybe a central place or how does it work? Yeah, so there are certified places for collection. So those places where the communal collection places hand over and in bigger cities, those are institutions of their own. And yeah, but it's mostly just places that just collect and shred the devices and just take out the metals, for example. And I think, so I'm not well informed with the bureaucratic stuff, but as far as I know, they are not really collecting much data. So yeah, there is many annotations and notes and ticks and trips from viewers. And I really like that. So for example, look at eBay and others. So check for old products. This stuff lasts forever. And that's kind of sad as well. But also it's great. But yeah, sadly when you lose relatives and you are just inheriting all the devices, they will last for another 20 years. Yeah, there's a very famous, famous mixer from the GDR. So it's very old, but it will last forever. And it's famous for that. Or of course devices without power, without electricity. You might not believe it, but they will last for another 100 years. So are there maybe further questions? If not, or if you think of a question later, feel free to visit the online repair cafe. Next one will be, let's have a look. I think the 15th, yes, the 15th of April, Thursday evening. And in Cologne, people are looking forward, are happy about repairing people. So if you are close to that, just drop by. At the latest, when the pandemic is over, people will have a lot of need. I'm telling you now, people have collected broken devices and that will go full steam ahead. Yeah, so everything is renovated and you cleaned out your house and you found a lot of broken devices. Yeah, so thank you very, very much. It was a very nice talk. And I'll look for something to repair. Yes, thank you very much. And yeah, it was great. Yeah, thank you for me as well.