Just how big is the market for photo personalized goods?  A few years ago, it was very unusual to see products that had been personalized with photographs.  Now, it is commonplace with a large selection of online suppliers and also offline stores in shopping districts having the equipment to put photo images on a variety [...]

Kerry and Bryce Moore. Designers and owners of Context Furniture in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA, have written a guest article in Metromode, an online magazine based in Michigan.  In the article (written as a series of posts over a week in February), they explain how their company has utilised mass customization and manufacture on demand [...]

A few developments have taken place in the Nordic countries recently that seem to suggest a more advanced enthusiasm for and understanding of user-centred innovation. Previously, I wrote about how the Danish government has become the first in the world to establish as a national priority, in the words of a government policy statement, “strengthening [...]

Two articles have recently been published that provide an interesting comparison between current car manufacturer’s approach to personalization, and the prsonalization ideas put forward by up-and-coming auto design students. In the manufacturer’s corner is Skoda (part of the Volkswagen Group), which was reported in UK magazine Auto Express as planning to offer a service to [...]

I am a little late in writing about this, but it is worthwhile: Last month The Guardian, a UK newspaper, described how Moshe Einat is developing new inkjet technology that uses thousands of ink drops rather than a small number of nozzles. Einat is a lecturer and researcher at the College of Judea and Samaria [...]

Here are a couple of quick links that may be of use to students or others researching crowdsourcing: This article on BNet explains and analyses the idea of Crowdsourcing ; and this post by Michel Bauwens on the Peer Producers blog explains the difference between Crowdsourcing and Peer Production.

Business Week has written about Dell’s new IdeaStorm initiative, suggesting that feels a lot like Digg.com, the popular tech news aggregator.  The similarities are strong:  users of IdeaStorm post suggestions and the community votes, so that the most popular ideas rise to the top. The writers of the Business Week Article are Don Tapscott and [...]

Materialise NV, which develops software for the rapid prototyping and manufacturing (RP&M) industry, and Dimension, a business unit of Stratasys, Inc., have teamed up to develop ‘Dimension Magics’, a customised version of Materialise’ Magics software specially tuned to the specific requirements of production on Dimension 3D printers. Dimension desktop 3D printers – which include the [...]

TDCI and Infor have finalized an OEM agreement whereby Infor will provide TDCI‘s BuyDesign Configurator as an integrated component of Infor ERP SyteLine, Infor ERP Sxe and Infor eStorefront. Infor will offer the integrated component through the company’s direct sales force and partner network. TDCI will also sell extended BuyDesign applications to the Infor customer [...]

Auto Express, a British car magazine, reports in a short news item that BMW are: “…working on a design for a super-efficient factory that can make bespoke cars in five days, instead of the current wait of up to six weeks. But there’s one hitch – it could be eight years before the “fully flexible” [...]