Underlying Data: Self-Directed Learning in the Age of Open Source, Open Hardware and 3D Printing

This is the underlying data supporting a study titled "Self-Directed Learning in the Age of Open Source, Open Hardware and 3D Printing" (https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-6292-4.ch007).Data was collected on 13th February 2018 about some of the most popular online knowledge communities associated with coding, programming and 3D printing, including Thingiverse, GitHub, Arduino, RepRap, 3D Hubs, MIT App Inventor and Scratch. Comparative data was also collected about the number of articles on Wikipedia and Encarta Encyclopedia (before it closed).Further ongoing data from Thingiverse can be found in a study titled "500 Days of Thingiverse: A Longitudinal Study of 30 Popular Things" (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12319985.v1)