Fab City vs Open Village
Here we're looking at the differences that exist between a Fab City and Open Village. Neither one is better or worse, and we certainly expect the concept of Open Village to evolve, perhaps to the point where it becomes very similar to Fab City.
This is the obvious one. Cities are big, villages are small. This means less infrastructure, smaller population, lower visibility on the world stage.
In making a city "Fab," you have to take into account existing infrastructure and society and build around it. We're looking at building villages that are open source from day one, and building that into the foundation of the village.
Rolling out Fab Labs or sustainable IoT energy grids through a whole city is expensive, time consuming, and potentially risky (since these are often new concepts that are still being tested at scale.)
The Open Village provides a smaller scale testing ground for technologies and ways of living. Larger than a household, smaller than a city. Big enough to provide useful results, but not big enough that you're risking major investment.