The worldwide FabLab community is based on the idea of networking, cooperation and open source. The availability of high-tech prototyping machines for "everyone" is a cornerstone of FabLab. Since 2003 this vision has created meeting places for specialists and enthusiasts to engage with technology bottom-up. The 250 FabLabs provide access to digital tools and have the ambition to share digital fabrication blueprints as well as operating instructions for using the machines in the worldwide

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... ty. However, insights from Open Software Communities suggest that it is notoriously difficult to activate collective action and knowledge sharing in virtual communities because this depends on members' willingness to voluntarily share experiences and insights (see Spaeth et al., 2008; Rangachari, 2009). This raises the question to what extend this is also true for knowledge sharing within the FabLab Community. To answer this question, we interviewed 16 people active in the worldwide FabLab Community. In these interviews we encountered 17 projects that we could define as knowledge sharing case studies. The case studies investigated how knowledge was shared, and what supportive and restraining conditions were. The paper particularly looks at four aspects: motivation, social interaction, technology and legal framework. Through this analysis we developed a model that explains whether and how knowledge is indeed shared globally in this community, and how the challenges in the above mentioned dimensions are experienced and dealt with. The article will proceed as follows: After a literature review, the methods section will present the sample as well as methods for data gathering and data analysis. The subsequent findings section will provide a descriptive overview on the thematic areas that respondents talked about in the interviews. The next section analyses the findings through discussing them in terms of how the FabLab community deals with challenges in the four aspects and by developing a conceptual framework of open knowledge exchange in the FabLabs. The final section will conclude on the insights from this paper.