Erik's Blog: Discussing open source innovation, personal fabrication and a ...

In March 2010 I gave a talk at the MIT Sloan School of Management on RepRap and the democratization of Fabrication Technology and emergence of open hardware communities, entrepreneurial spin-offs, etc. Bre Pettis and Zach "Hoeken" Smith took the stage right after me and they really rocked with their Makerbot and Thingiverse story (due to form and substance)!

The Innovation Lab meeting was organized by Professor Eric von Hippel at MIT and author of Democratizing Innovation (available under Creative Commons license).

I finally took the time to upload the slides.


Source: OpenOffice

Feel free to ask questions or provide suggestions (other than about the formatting, which Slideshare messed up a little).

A while ago I put on my RepRap ambassador hat again which resulted in a newspaper entry in a Dutch newspaper. Since it's slightly old news now and I'm allowed to cite works that I'm mentioned in I believe it's okay to share it now:

From RepRap Misc

For those who don't read any Dutch, here are some highlights that the article mentions:

• What the RepRap is
• How much cheaper it is compared to conventional commercial machines
• That it can replicate itself, and has indeed done so
  
• Non printed parts are from the hardware store.
• That it can print a working whistle with the pea inside
• In the near future, losing a piece of the game Settlers of Catan is not a disaster anymore, you'll just print a new one!
• The power of the concept lies not in the technology as much as it lies in the community that collaborates in a Wikipedia-like fashion. Sharing results and experimentation outcomes and voluntarily
• contributing their improvements.
• A large collection of printable designs is generated by the community, for the community.
• The example of printing shoes for a child and later recycling the old plastics, adding some and printing a larger size.
• We still have to make a good recycling system, but the concept has been proven.
• I'm doing my Masters thesis on the economic impact of RepRap.
• The non-exclusive nature of the community project.
• Increasing the printing speed.

What I really like about the Thingiverse physical object repository is that people are not just adding awesome, innovative [1, 2] and useful [1, 2] new content. They also innovate in how they publish content and how to use the content, exploring and sharing new and innovative ways of (applying) digitally assisted making. They explore and share what works and doesn't work for them. They get other people excited to try their ideas and techniques and improve upon them. And... they find very original ways of packaging objects:

There is an interesting phenomena on Thingiverse lately: Surprise Boxes! It looks like an ordinary box right? But the secret is that there will be something 3D printed inside the box! What will it be? You won’t know until you make it become a reality on your MakerBot or other 3D printer!

The way it works is that it is a box with something special inside, but to find out what it is, you have to make it… and even then only you will know what’s inside because the surprise gets sealed in! What a awesome idea!

This is so cool. What an innovative idea by Conrad2468 and it’s already been repeated by Owenscenic!

From: Makerbot Blog

The important message is that this digitally assisted making around RepRap and the many derivatives is a social phenomenon as much as it is a technological one. Both are critical enablers. Thingiverse every day proves itself to be a sustainable source of creative ideas and value produced by a community. At the same time it endorses and is a showcase example of open source development beyond software. This makes it different from the platform products that most for-profit 3D printer vendors or service bureaus would set up, who have a more closed and organization-centric mindset. Of such platforms, not just the level of participation is different, also the degree of commitment and the motivations that drive the individuals are different. The more traditional for-profit companies have little awareness of communities and the value created around community-centric "products". Though there are some notable exceptions...