In recent months, technology magazine Wired in collaboration with NewAssignment.Net has embarked on unique project – to launch a reporting project that would focus on a particular trend or area of interest, and then open up its reporting process to outsiders, who would work with the Wired editorial staff to carry out interviews with key [...]

Via the P2P Foundation blog, I recently read an article entitled The Tranformation of Manufacturing in the 21st Century, written by Lawerence J. Rhoades of Ex One, a developer and supplier of innovative manufacturing technology and equipment in Pennsylvania, USA. It is an excellent and comprehensive article detailing the nature of desktop manufacturing and how [...]

Frank Piller has posted an announcement regarding the 2007 World Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization. Keynote speakers include B. Joseph Pine (who wrote the book ‘Mass Customization – The New Frontier in Business Competition’ in 1993, which can be said to have kick started the whole area of mass customization), Eric Von Hippel of [...]

In a post titled ‘3D Printer Brings Vision to the Poor‘, Mark Proffitt looks at how digital manufacturing technology is being used to provide eyeglasses to people in low-income countries, where the conventional optician service would be far too expensive for those that need it. Mark Proffitt notes that: There are two obstacles to providing [...]

Webpronews.com staff writer Mike Sachoff reports on customized music provider Orpheus, which allows media producers to create customized music that will fit the specific needs of their projects. It uses a web-based software engine that allows the user to create custom music cues tailored their specific needs. According to the article: “Users can control the [...]

The Harvard Business Review has published its list of ‘Breakthrough Ideas for 2007‘. Included on the list is ‘An Emerging Hotbed of User-Centered Innovation’, which is described by Eric Von Hippel, who first described the ‘Lead User’ concept twenty years ago. Von Hippel notes that: “In an array of industries, producer-centered innovation is being eclipsed [...]

A number of product configuration system suppliers will be exhibiting at the SolidWorks World 2007 Conference, being held from February 4 through February 7, 2007 in New Orleans, USA. The ninth annual SolidWorks World Conference brings together designers, engineers, managers, and partners to discuss ideas, trends, and the technology shaping the future of mechanical design. [...]

The New Scientist magazine website carries a feature on the Fab@Home project being developed by Cornell University.  The Fab@Home project involves the creation of a cheap self-assembly device capable of fabricating 3D objects.  The researchers, Hod Lipson and PhD student Evan Malone, hope the machine could kick start a revolution in home fabrication – by [...]

A number of interesting conferences dealing with mass customization and related topics will take place in 2007, and I thought it might be a good idea to summarise what is happening during the year ahead. The first event of interest is a German language-only event MC2007 Salzburg (Mass Customization Tagung für Deutschland, Österreich und die [...]

+ Dash Navigation Inc. has made a deal with search engine Yahoo! that allows Dash Express users to search Yahoo! Local for nearby products, services or businesses from their cars. Dash Navigation is located Mountain View, Calif. and is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Sequoia Capital, and Skymoon Ventures. The company says that [...]

The IEEE has begun work on a standard to create a comprehensive personalized health informatics system.  The working group creating this standard will hold a workshop in London, UK, on 24 and 25 January 2007 to form an action plan for developing the standard. The meeting, the IEEE 2407 Personalized Health Informatics Workshop, will be [...]

Business and innovation website Springwise has compiled ‘Top 10 Business Ideas in 2006′ under various categories. These lists are an interesting review of the best and most innovative business ideas of the year, but some are of particular interest to this website due to their association with mass customization, outside innovation, crowdsourcing and so on. [...]

As the worlds of television and the Internet converge, writers and television producers are developing new forms of interactive and personalised television. On 27 December, the world’s first ‘ShapeShifted’ romantic comedy was broadcast, as “Accidental Lovers” (page in Finnish language) was shown on Finnish national television station, YLE TV1 (page in Finnish language). Using original [...]

Andrew Kantor, a columnist for USA Today, notes that the falling price of technology has allowed mass customization and personalization to become established across a wide variety of industries. Kantor notes that the lowering of technology costs has made personalized everyday products far more affordable that would have been the case a few years ago. [...]

In the last few weeks, a couple of interesting articles have been posted which focus on efforts in the development of digital manufacturing. The first, by Erick Schonfeld, editor-at-large for Business 2.0 magazine, concerns startup digital manufacturing company EoPlex in ‘The Next Net’ blog. The article describes how EoPlex “has figured out a way to [...]