CloudFab.com is  a new distributed fabrication service that connects buyers who need digital fabrication (3D printing, laser cutting/etching, etc.) to the sellers who have the capacity.  The goal of the project is to provide a central marketplace to connect buyers and sellers in the digital fabrication sector. The ethos (if that is the right word)  [...]

Paul Greenberg, a writer and thought leader in the area of customer relationship management (CRM) has, over the last few months, published extracts on his blog from the fourth edition of his book CRM at the Speed of Light. The most interesting extract from my viewpoint is from Chapter 6, which describes ‘characteristics of the [...]

The ranks of online marketplaces for user-designed apparel has been swelled by the arrival of Yerzies. This new company allows anyone to create, purchase or sell their own customized tee shirts, hoodies and other apparel items. In addition to the ability to upload images for printing on a t-shirt or other item of clothing, Yerzies [...]

Wikinomics, or to use its full title “Wikinomics – How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything” is a chronicle of how traditional collaboration – in a meeting room, a conference call, even a convention centre – has been superceeded by collaborations on an astronomical scale. The book opens by telling the story of Goldcorp Inc., a mining [...]

Back in November 2006, I speculated as to the type of businesses which might emerge using a hybrid of mass customization, crowdsourcing, micro manufacturing and online factory business models. One such hybrid has emerged recently in New Zealand. Ponoko describes itself as the world’s first personal manufacturing platform where anyone can click to make, buy [...]

In July, 2001 Gale International negotiated a joint venture agreement with POSCO E&C (Korea’s largest engineering and construction company) and the City of Incheon, South Korea, for the planned development of a completely new city, called Songdo City. Located at the site of General MacArthur’s 1950 landing, Songdo will be the first “new” city in [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

As we draw towards the end of 2006, It is reasonable to say that the idea of empowering customers with a higher degree of control over their relationship with business has gained widespread acceptance. This basic idea has been researched in great depth over the last twenty years or so. Various terms and acronyms, such [...]