The development also opens up the European market for creators around the world. Items can now be produced in the EU and shipped locally, reducing the cost – and environmental impact – of long-distance shipping to the EU.

Ponoko CEO David ten Have says the Berlin hub is a departure from the existing making hubs in San Francisco, California and Wellington, New Zealand which are owned and operated by Ponoko.

Formulor has 12 years’ laser cutting experience, with support from leading material supplier Modulor. The Modulor name is well known in Germany – creative professionals have been using them to source materials for more than 20 years.

“It provides a glimpse into what we see as the future of Ponoko,” he says. “Over time we see our role expanding to be about connecting creators, digital fabricators, materials suppliers and buyers of goods rather than simply providing manufacturing services ourselves.”

“So just like eBay provides the marketplace for buyers and sellers to engage, Ponoko provides the world’s first marketplace for buyers and sellers of product designs – and now digital making services.”

The benefit of Ponoko’s online making system for fabricators like Formulor extends beyond accessing pre-paid making jobs from Ponoko’s 25,000 users. “Our automated online quoting system puts an end to manual quoting on a job by job basis,” says Ponoko strategist Derek Elley. “It also means standardized design file formats and automated job status alerts resulting in a much more streamlined and profitable making and customer service process.”

Ponoko says it is working with other digital making service providers to add more making hubs around the world.

Company principal Robert Fischer says: “With this service we are in a niche between the photographic and the 3D business.  In comparison to other 3D manufacturers, we create a 3D mesh from the customer’s photos (a 3D-scan is not necessary) and then the bust will be manufactured with a 3D printer. ”

“We started our business in July 2009.  Initially, EGO3D had offered this unique service only in Germany, but it is now available Europe-wide.”

The process begins with the customer placing the order and uploading three head and shoulders photographs – one taken from the front and one from each side.

EGO3D then optimize the photos for creating a 3D-model.  Then, a threee dimensional mesh is generated.  For this purpose, EGO3D use specialized software which is also used for special effects in the film industry.

Creating the 3d mesh

However, the software, good as it is, does require some manual rework 0f the 3D mesh to complete the detail work before the next stage.

The blank of the bust is then created in a 3D printing machine layer by layer.  The 3D printing system used by EGO3D uses a mineral powder, similar to that used for prototype work in the automotive industry for a number of years.

Forming the bust in the 3D printer

Unlike clay or stoneware, busts created by EGO3D are not baked.  Instead, they are imbued with a hardening liquid so that they become hard as chinaware but not as fragile.

Applying the hardening agent

Delivery time is around a week, and the current price is €69.90.

EGO3D is an interesting, if slightly unusual use of 3D printing technologies for a consumer product.  The website is in German with a translation to English.

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)  behind CloudFab is that a vast reservoir of spare capacity exists in digital manufacturing resources, waiting to be tapped by latent demand.   Similarly, many people have ideas, and design skills for individualised parts and products, but lack the means to produce them.  Therefore the CloudFab platform has been developed to enable those with the fabrication equipment to share their machines with the greater public.

The founders of CloudFab are Nick Pinkston and Steve Klabnik.  I asked Nick to tell me the story of the founders backgrounds and how CloudFab came into existence.  This is his response:

“My background is  more in making physical things. I started out with Lego, moved to rocketry and when I last had free time I loved developing / tuning automotive turbocharger systems.  My car hobby showed me how difficult / expensive it was to access the equipment that I needed to complete my projects.

Steve has been programming for the vast majority of his life.  He’s used to building digital products as both the current maintainer for the Hackety Hack project and director of the open source operating system XoMB.  When I told him about the digital fabrication scene, he was blown away by the future that the movement was ushering in.  He’s excited to be able to use his computer skills to facilitate “physical compiling” “.

On the origins of CloudFab:

“We started out trying to build something like TechShop in Pittsburgh, but we quickly found that the numbers don’t work very well.  That’s why we started HackPittsburgh – Pittsburgh’s hackerspace – so that we could get a shared workspace up and running locally.  We wanted to tackle the problem on a broader scale though, so we looked into how we could better utilize existing equipment to make it more accessible for the rest of us – the idea was born.

We received some financing from a State program funding technology to give us money to develop the original concept and later were accepted into the AlphaLab program, Pittsburgh’s version of Y-Combinator.”

Now, it’s fair to say that the easiest part of an online venture to match buyers and sellers is the design of the website.  It’s the business of convincing enough of each to register that is the difficult part.  The founders of CloudFab haven’t simply built a website in the hope that business will come.

Beyond the website, they’ve started by forming a local microcosm of the market by signing up all the local fabrication shops and design firms in their local area of Pittsburgh USA, as well as talking to local hobbyists and artists.  Nick Pinkston says:

“In the beginning, we’re focusing on 3D printing processes, and will soon be moving into laser cutting, CNC, etc.   Also, we’ve been building a lot of relationships with others in the industry and maker community.

Now that we’re going into private beta, we’re opening it up for both sides.  We’re excited to hear back from people and interate from there.  Also, there will be some new features and services coming in the following months.”

CloudFab, like any other marketplace matching buyers and sellers, earns income from trade through the website.  It’s current advertised rates are determined by total gross transaction cost, following this schedule:

• $0 – $100: No commission charge.
• $101 – $300: 6% of cost
• $301 – $1,000: 5% of cost
• $1,001 – $3,000: 4% of cost
• $3,000+: Flat rate of $90.

It’s remarkable that two separate services have appeared within a few weeks of each other, linking buyers of digital fabrication services with providers of those services.  Whereas the 100kGarages.com joint venture between Ponoko and ShopBot (see previous post) initially links buyers with providers of CNC routing services, CloudFab’s current focus on 3D printing services means that the two will not be going head-to-head in direct competition for the present.

So, the new age of online trade continues to gather pace.  It could be argued that the inclusion of Microsoft Internet Explorer with the Windows 95 operating system was the tipping point for the explosive growth in the World Wide Web that occurred from the mid-1990′s.  The big question is, what will be the tipping point for digital manufacturing?  It may be the growth of online marketplaces like CloudFab, but no-one really knows.  That’s the thing about tipping points, they only become obvious after they happen.

David ten Have, Ponoko’s CEO, is quoted as saying: “By partnering with ShopBot we bring together more than 20,000 creators and over 6,000 fabricators to use a powerful online service to design, make and deliver goods locally”.  (These figures appear to relate to the overall number of users of Ponoko, and fabricators who are users of Shop Bot equipment.)

Users of the 100kGarages website can get their ideas made locally by owners of ShopBot equipment, and delivered within a few days.  It is powered by Ponoko’s online ‘click to make’ system and users of ShopBot digital fabricators.  While there are users of ShopBot equipment in 54 countries around the world, the 100kGarages website currently shows a list of registered fabricators that have signed up to participate.  These are located mostly in the U.S., but also include fabricators in Canada, Mexico, Australia, United Kingdom and Sweden.

To use the 100kGarages service, users can search a map for a local garage workshop, or alternatively submit a request and then choose from bids placed by a range of ShopBot owners to make almost anything.  The service is free for everyone to search and submit requests, and for fabricators to post profiles and bids.  Interestingly, the user (or ‘maker’ in the terminology of the venture) does not have to upload an actual design file;  they can enter a description of the job, including their ideal purchase price and the delivery deadline.   The maker is advised to describe the project in detail so that fabbers can make an informed bid.  The request can also include links to relevant images, for example a sketches of your idea.

Examples of the wide range of products being created includes things such as tables, chairs, cabinets, car parts, signage, boats, musical instruments, gaskets, sheds, housing.  Materials include wood, plastic, metal and composite materials.

The press release announcing the new service quotes ShopBot President Ted Hall as saying:  “Ponoko’s making system gives our ShopBot owners the ability to receive a new stream of work from a wide range of customers.  Our partnership also means everyone now has easy access to their own local 3D fabricator.”

At the moment, the 100kGarages  system is confined to work involving CNC routers (tools that create by cutting away or subtracting material).  Over time, the partners hope to incorporate more types of tools into the 100Kgarage network.  (Ponoko itself already provides laser-cutting services).

The new service is a significant step for Ponoko, which has produced over 30,000 DIY, hard to find and consumer goods.  Until now, Ponoko’s existing manufacturing resources have been centralised in New Zealand and San Francisco, which can mean expensive shipping charges for buyers not located close to either of the manufacturing locations.  The 100kGarages project will add the ability to transfer the manufacturing of custom-made products far closer to the end customer, reducing transport costs, delivery times, and the carbon costs associated with delivery of the finished product.

The phrase ‘democratisation of manufacturing’ generally refers in various ways to the transfer of manufacturing away from centralised industry to a more distributed model where design data can be easily transferred between the customer and a local supplier who will turn the design into a finished product.  The spread of democratised manufacturing reflects the fact that, for some products, advances in affordable manufacturing technology have cancelled out the financial advantage which had been associated with centralised manufacturing for the last 100 years or more.

Democratised manufacturing capacity is measured not in terms of the size of one factory, but the number of local producers who are networked together and the extent of geographic territory covered by this network.

With 1ookGarages.com, Ponoko and ShopBot are taking a step towards the realisation of democratised manufacturing on a very large scale.

Of course, the flexible systems that enable democratised manufacturing are also associated with another concept that is an closely linked to mass customization – it’s called ‘Economies of Scope’ – where manufacturing systems are flexible enough that it is financially viable for the manufacturer to make every item to the customer’s requirements, with no two alike.

First off, Objet Geometries launched the Alaris30 Desktop 3D Printer, which can create smooth surfaces, complex geometries, small moving elements, fine details, stand-out text and whatever else the design demands.

The Alaris30 is based on Objet’s Photopolymer Jetting Technology, and the company says that the strong model material and highly accurate printing enable thin walls and small moving parts.

The Alaris30 3D printer by Objet Technologies (picture via Manufacturers Monthly (Australia))

The Alaris30 operates as a network printer, allowing multiple designers in the office to send their files to be printed. The 300 x 200 x 150 mm (11.81 x 7.87 x 5.9in)  build tray enables large models or many small parts to be built simultaneously. As can be seen in the picture, the Alaris30 is (relatively speaking when compared with some 3D printers) small and lightweight enough to fit in any office, on a desk or with the stand Objet offers with the printer. It uses sealed 1kg cartridges of resins and the printed models are fully cured on the build tray.

In January, The Dimension 3D Printing Group, a business unit of Stratasys, Inc. launched the uPrint Personal 3D Printer (priced at $14,900 USD).

Like the Alaris30 described above, the uPrint is designed for the desktop,  requiring only a 25 x 26 in. footprin, and features an 8 x 6 x 6 in. build envelope.

The Dimension Printing uPrint

Stratasys developed the rapid prototyping process known as fused deposition modeling (FDM).  The process creates functional models and end-use parts directly from any 3D CAD program using ABS plastic, polycarbonate, PPSF, and blends. Using FDM, uPrint builds models with Stratasys ABSplus — a material on average 40 percent stronger than the company’s standard ABS material, making it ideally suited for testing the form, fit and function of models and prototypes.  uPrint also features a soluble support removal system, allowing for hands-free removal of the model support material.

uPrint is being targeted as an alternative to using external prototyping services – the company says it makes 3D printing “immediate and convenient through every design iteration, with no waiting in queue for a shared printer and no waiting for models to arrive from an outside service”.

In an article on the uPrint in MCADCafe, editor Jeffrey Rowe asked

“Does the announcement of the uPrint Personal 3D Printer finally usher in the era of 3D printing for everybody? At $15,000 it’s still a bit out of the price range of casual users, but might be the start of the 3D printing revolution that has been promised for a several years now by some vendors and industry pundits.”

He goes on to describe some of the other projects aimed at developing low-cost 3D printers, including RepRap, Fab@Home, and the somewhat troubled Desktop Factory (of which more later).  It is clear that 3D printer with a price of €15,000 will never be a consumer product, but it continues a general downward trend in hardware prices.  It is this trend, rather than the current generation of 3D printers themselves, which fuels the belief that commercially produced 3D printing hardware will eventually become accessible to consumers.

The RepRap and Fab@Home projects are, of course, already accessible to individuals in terms of cost, but the requirement that the customer assemble their 3D printer is likely to be an obstacle to their mass-market adoption.

Meanwhile, Desktop Factory has encountered difficulties with its technology and financing.  In March, Desktop Factory CEO Cathy Lewis issued a statement that the company was “forced to reduce our spending and focus on just the most vital activities to preserve our cash”.  This followed a period from October 2007, during which the company had to deal with major technical issues.  Assessments of this issue pointed to the need for a redesign of the company’s imaging sub-system.  Work on this continued during 2008, and the re-design was ready for customer acceptance testing in February 2009.

The Desktop Factory 3D printer

The statement went on to describe issues with  investor financing:

“From a macro view we have done well with $2M raised and another $1 million needed to finalize the round. However, we had not planned for the extreme deterioration of the financial markets and need to comply with an important ‘contingency’ from the venture capital firm. The contingency stipulates that no monies go into the round until all monies are available, which is the crux of the problem. We still need $1M and sufficient time to find the third investor in this difficult economy.

While we continue to aggressively work this issue we have judiciously delayed the customer beta. We need to make certain we have the right resources available to meet with our investors and that we are able to fully support our customers during a rigorous beta process.”

The Desktop Factory 3D printer, which has a list price of $4,995, uses an inexpensive halogen light source and drum printing technology to build robust parts layer by layer from composite plastic powder.  Notwithstanding its current difficulties, it appears to be lowest-priced commercially produced 3D printer to date.  The outcome of these current difficulties may have a bearing on the future direction of the 3D printing hardware sector as a whole.  If Desktop Factory does manage to get a 3D printer to market at the price indicated, it would be a significant step towards consumer accessible commercially produced 3D printing hardware.

The development of more affordable 3D printing hardware continues to gather pace, and the 3D printing concept is being expanded to materials beyond metal and plastics.

A perfect example of this latter trend is Mcor Technologies.  This Irish-based company, founded in 2004 by brothers Dr Conor MacCormack and Fintan MacCormack, has developed 3D printing technology called the Mcor Matrix, that uses ordinary paper as the raw material for the creation of three dimensional objects.  This company has received a wave of media attention in Ireland and elsewhere.  The Irish Independent newspaper reported in December how:

The Mcor Matrix prints physical 3D models from digital data using A4 paper, water based adhesive and a tungsten carbide blade. Models have the appearance of a wood-carving and are “tough, durable and eco-friendly”. The final models can be treated to give them a smooth, shiny finish and make them more durable. The Mcor Matrix is currently installed in several universities in Ireland and the UK, and the company has received sales enquiries from Dyson, Nintendo, IBM, Stanford and Cambridge.

The Mcor Matrix’ consumables consist of ordinary A4 paper, adhesive and blade.  It uses a special commercially available water based PVA adhesive, and the blade is made from cemented tungsten carbide.  In an attempt to reduce the capital cost of the machine, it was decided at the conceptual stage to use blade technology instead of lasers.

The Mcor Matrix 3D paper printer (image via Fabbaloo.com)

The Mcor Matrix has a patented adhesive dispensing system that deposits very small dots of adhesive onto the paper substrate.  It applies the adhesive selectively, depositing higher density on the part cross sections and lower on the waste. This enables easy weeding (separating off) of waste material.  It then uses the blade to cut out the part profile.

The finished parts have similar tactile characteristics to a wood carving – perhaps not surprising given that paper is derived from wood.  Media reports state that the price of a Mcor Matrix about USD25,000.  However, the running costs of the machine are extremely low, at €0.01 per cubic centimetre of production – said to one fortieth of other leading 3D printing solutions.

2.  RPI, a provider of automated, mass-customized manufacturing and fulfillment for the consumer print-on-demand market, recently announced that it has set an industry record through the production of more than 1.3 million photo books in 2008.  This brings its overall production tally to three million photo books since the product’s launch, representing a 60 percent year-over-year growth.

3.  Tim O’Reilly, founder of the O’Reilly Publishing company that specialises in programming and other IT topics, gives an interview to The Inquirer, in which he notes:

“The deeper idea we’ve been exploring throughout all aspects of the company is the idea that a lot of times the most interesting technology can be discovered by what people do with it for fun.”

He gives a number of examples to support this idea, including the following:

“Open-source hardware is telling us something about the future of manufacturing – playing with mass customisation in various ways.”  This trend began with sites like Threadless, in which communities collaborate and vote on T-shirt designs; now there are all sorts of start-ups enabling people to design items for manufacturing.  “That’s open-source hardware.  People are realising there’s no real advantage in owning the design.  The cost may come down if more people use and manufacture the parts.”

4.  The AsiaOne website contains a reproduction of an article from Singapore newspaper The Business Times, in which Sivam Krish, CEO and founder of Genometri, describes the possibilities for user-generated content, and user-generated products.  He tells how:

“I was a former assistant professor in industrial design lecturer in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for about three years.  During my classes, I found that the younger generation was able to create designs using a fundamentally different approach.I found them spending a lot of time in front of computers modifying computer-aided design models, and I felt that this could be automated.

……..

With the support of the university’s Industry Liaisons Office, I patented this technology that I felt could completely change the way products are designed.

Together with four friends, I set up a company called Genometri, to develop this core design technology and with a deep breath I took the leap from being an academic to an entrepreneur. NUS has a good support structure for funding. But as with all start-ups, there were its difficulties too.  Mine was in convincing designers to use the software I created.

After attending a conference in the US on mass customisation, I realised that the greater opportunity is in letting customers design and that most companies were trying to let their customers do this.

So we swung our B2B model to a B2C model, focusing on the consumer.  We launched a portal (www.jujups.com) as a design platform that would allow consumers to create personalised keepsakes, including mugs, t-shirts and 3D-printed photo frames, by using drag-and-drop functions.”

I hope to write a longer post on the current state of the 3D printing sector soon.

More links later!

According to Delcam’s CAD Product Marketing Manager, Chris Lawrie, “Tribrid Modelling offers a better way of working for all companies developing new variants from existing designs, especially those making products that need to be personalised for a particular customer. The combination of solid modelling, surface modelling and triangle modelling provides a unique design system for these companies. Having all the different modelling techniques in a single package reduces the need to transfer data between multiple programs and so streamlines the whole product development process.”

Delcam has developed this approach through the integration of its PowerSHAPE surface and solid modelling functionality with the reverse engineering and triangle modelling options that were in earlier versions of CopyCAD. This means that designers can move data captured with reverse engineering into the design environment more easily and so incorporate additional features into any reverse-engineered design more quickly. The new combination software also incorporates a wide range of enhancements to many of the key operations.

Delcam has developed this unique design approach through the integration of its PowerSHAPE surface and solid modelling functionality with the reverse engineering and triangle modelling options that were in earlier versions of CopyCAD. This means that designers can move data captured with reverse engineering into the design environment more easily and so incorporate additional features into any reverse-engineered design more quickly. However, the new combination is not just a simple bolting together of existing functionality. It incorporates a wide range of enhancements to many of the key operations.

For example, major improvements have been made to the sculpting and model repair tools previously available in CopyCAD to edit triangle files. These tools allow high-quality models to be produced from poor quality reverse engineering data, or from damaged or defective physical components. For example, uneven surfaces can be smoothed out, gaps in the data can be filled and extra points can be added in areas where only sparse data has been collected.

Also, the availability of functionality from PowerSHAPE in CopyCAD Pro has enabled easier, faster and more accurate creation of CAD surfaces from triangle data. The user still retains total control over the way the complete data set is divided into the component features and surfaces. However, each area can now be converted into CAD data by generating a network of curves and then projecting it onto the mesh of triangles. A single surface is generated within the complete set of curves using the Smart Surfacing functionality from PowerSHAPE. This automatically analyses the curves and determines to most appropriate way to create the surface.

Analysis tools are available in Copy CAD Pro to display the differences between the triangle mesh and the resulting surface. This might show, for example, that a closer spacing between the curves would be needed in some areas of the model to keep the surfaces within the required tolerance.

Delcam says that the other key benefit of the integration into CopyCAD Pro of modelling options from PowerSHAPE is the ability to create “perfect” geometry, in areas where any reverse engineering system would give only approximate results. For example, the design might include one extruded surface, which could only be described by a series of individual surfaces in traditional reverse-engineering software. With the added modelling tools, it is easy in CopyCAD Pro to reproduce the original design intent, by replacing the required area with a single surface. Similarly, a reverse-engineered fillet area can be replaced with a consistent, smooth fillet, rather than existing as a set of complex, free-form patches that may have varying radii.

Tribrid Modelling also allows Boolean operations to be carried out between triangle models and either surfaces or solids. For many years, PowerSHAPE has been one of very few CAD systems able to perform Boolean operations between solids and surfaces. The ability to perform similar addition, subtraction and merge operations with triangles as well will make CopyCAD Pro even more flexible.

There are many examples where a combination of different techniques is needed to create a complete design. A typical example would be in the plastics industry, where initial hand-modelled prototypes are often produced in solid material. Reverse engineering from such models will only produce the external surfaces of the component. However, by using CopyCAD Pro, these surfaces can be offset by the material thickness to generate the internal surfaces. Extra geometric features, such as reinforcing ribs and bosses for fixing, can then be added with the extra solid modelling tools from PowerSHAPE to complete the design. The finished model can then be subtracted from a solid block to give the core and cavity shapes needed to mould the product.

Delcam claims that its introduction of Tribrid Modelling provides the optimum software solution for the mass customisation of designs. It notes that consumers are increasingly moving away from mass-produced products. This can be either because they want designs that are more individual or because they want an element of bespoke design, for example, for medical reasons or for increased comfort. This can only be achieved by incorporating reverse engineering alongside computer-based design methods.

Tribrid Modelling in CopyCAD Pro allows users to build up CAD models quickly and easily with data from different sources. It makes it easy to design the main outline of a product with CAD but to use hand models for complex details or decoration, or to capture specific data from a customer or patient. The extra data required can then be collected with a scanning device and combined with the main CAD model in the computer.

A similar approach can be taken when developing “new” parts that are, in fact, variations on existing components that were developed without CAD data. It is often quicker to digitise the existing part and limit the CAD work to the desired modifications, instead of completely recreating the whole part with CAD. This approach is particularly useful for companies, for example those in the ceramics industry, which update historic designs into modern reproductions.

Meanwhile, Geomagic, which provides software for digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP), has received an $8 million investment from Valhalla Partners. The funds will be used to develop innovative products and software platforms in engineering and medical markets, accelerate growth rates, and build a scalable business infrastructure.

Since its inception in 1996, Geomagic, based in North Carolina, has developed a range of award-winning products for DSSP, which describes the process of digitally capturing physical objects and automatically creating accurate 3D models for downstream design, analysis and inspection. Current Geomagic products include:

Version 10 of Geomagic Studio (for digital reconstruction of complex physical objects) and Geomagic Qualify (which enables fast, 3D graphical comparisons between CAD models and as-built parts for first-article inspection, inline or shop-floor inspection, trend analysis, and in-depth assessment), released earlier this year, were the most successful new product launches in the company’s history, coming at a time when DSSP is being acknowledged as a key to greater productivity and cost savings. Geomagic quotes a recent study by the Aberdeen Group stated that best-in-class companies are 2.7 times more likely to use DSSP in design and inspection than are less-successful companies.

Other software products in the Geomagic range include Geomagic Fashion for quickly extracting design intent of physical objects and creating CAD-ready surfaces for mechanical design; Geomagic Blade, the first inspection tool based on unique requirements from leading turbine-machinery companies for automatic dimensioning of turbine blades; Geomagic Review, free software for inspection analysis and collaboration; and Geomagic Piano, a dental CAD/CAM software platform that can be customized for dental equipment manufacturers.

“The support of Valhalla Partners is another validation of our technology and the growing acceptance of the DSSP market category,” said Ping Fu, Geomagic president and CEO. “We think the time is right to use our dominance in the early adopter market as a springboard into broader professional markets.”

“Imagine nanoscale particles that work together, that adhere to one another or don’t adhere to one another under software control.  They can move and change shape.”

The process is contrasted with three dimensional printing (also called digital fabrication).  Whereas digital printing creates a static object with no intelligence, “with dynamic physical rendering  one can imagine this blob sitting on the table that responds to wireless commands, configures itself into different shapes, is capable of locomotion and can draw power from ambient energy.”

What this means is that an object could actually change it’s own shape in real time – science fiction made real.  PC Plus suggest that it will be at least a decade before this research becomes a product.

It almost seems that every month there is some new announcement or development that shrinks the gap between the physical world and the software world.  Now it seems that our most basic assumptions about physical products may need to be re-built from scratch.

The book opens by telling the story of Goldcorp Inc., a mining company that was on a downward slope due to strikes, lingering debts, and an exceedingly high cost of production. The company’s fifty year old mine in Ontario was presumed to be nearly exhausted. Goldcorp CEO Rob McEwen, a newcomer to the mining sector, approved $10M of investment in additional exploration. Results were positive, with test drilling suggesting large new deposits of gold, but pinpointing the exact locations of the gold was proving to be an insurmountable challenge for Goldcorp’s employees. By coincidence, McEwen attended a conference where the subject of Linux, the open source computer operating system, came up for discussion. McEwen had an epiphany – why not adopt the open source model for Goldcorp’s mining activities? This is exactly what he did. In March 2000, the “Goldcorp Challenge” was launched with $575,000 in prize money. All of Goldcorp’s geological data was published on the company website, with an invitation for anyone to contribute their knowledge on how the gold might be located within the 55,000 acre property.

By the time the process was completed, entries arrived from geologists, graduate students, consultants, mathematicians and military officers. The contestants had identified 110 possible targets on the property, of which over 80% proved correct. Since the challenge was inititated, eight million ounces of new gold deposits have been found, and Goldcorp has moved from being a $100M company to being a $9Bn company.

Goldcorp is perhaps one of the best examples of how a business can benefit from breaking down the walls which exist between it and the outside world. The traditional thinking has always been that research is secret, and only trusted employees should be involved. However, the success of community-based activity for non-commercial projects like Linux and Mozilla has presented new possibilities and a new outlook for many companies, who are re-thinking their traditional viewpoints on how they interact with customers, competitors, and the world at large.

Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, the authors of Wikinomics, build a convincing case for the benefits of breaking down barriers between business and potential outside sources of competitive advantage. They highlight the growth of new movements that are both a cause and a reflection of this new thinking. Firstly, the Peer Pioneers, most typically associated with free software projects such as Linux, but who have applied open source principles to create a multitude of products made of bits – in other words, information products. These include the many millions of contributors to open encyclopedia Wikipedia, and collaborative projects in many different areas of software development and scientific research.

Another development gathering pace is the ‘Ideagora’ – a marketplace for ideas, where questions can find solutions and solutions can find questions. Williams and Tapscott suggest that it is comparable to a classifieds site like craigslist.com, except rather than job ads and personals it posts a list of ideas and inventions that are ‘for sale’ or ‘wanted’. Examples of ideagoras are Yet2.com (which was new to me) and Fellowforce.com (featured on this site here recently (and again).

The next trend highlighted in Wikinomics is the growth of ‘Prosumers’. This term will be familiar to anyone who has studied mass customization. Originally the term was coined by Alvin Toffler in his book ‘The First Wave’, and referred to the ‘producer and consumer acting in concert’. It was sometimes used to label those customers who sought out mass customized products. However, Williams and Tapscott use the term differently, to describe the growing number of customers who are prepared to ‘hack’ products and adapt them in ways never envisaged by the producers. Wikinomics notes that the idea of amateur innovation goes back many years.  A perfect example is the story of how hot-rodding of cars developed in the late 1940′s and 1950′s.  Today’s amateur innovators have the advantage of the web where, instead of just sharing an idea with their neighbour, they can share it with thousands of fellow product hackers through online communities.

Examples of prosumerism today include communities that have grown around platforms such as Lego Mindstorms, the Apple iPod, and the Toyota Prius.  In many cases, after initial reluctance, the producer has engaged with these communities and involved them in the official innovation process.

Next up in this gallery of trends are a group of people called ‘The New Alexandrians’.  The original Great Library of Alexandria is reputed to have contained volumes on all the scientific knowledge then known.  Now, in the period of the fastest and broadest accumulation of human knowledge ever known, there is a new generation of Alexandrians who are again collating all the knowledge that exists.  These Alexandrians range from Google to librarians at institutions such as Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, who are scanning thousands of books and turning them into bits.  Along with media of all varieties, these digitized books will be sewn together into a universal library of knowledge and human culture.

This Alexandrian culture is also giving rise to a new age of collaborative science.  As Tapscott and Williams state:

“The emergence of open-access publishing and new Web services will place infinite reams of knowledge in the hands of individuals and help weave globally distributed communities of peers.  The rise of large-scale collaborations in domains such as earth sciences and biology, meanwhile, will help scientific communities launch an uprecedented attack on problems such as global warming and HIV/AIDS.  All considered, leading scientific observers expect more change in the next fifty years of science than in the last four hundred years of enquiry.”

Many different examples of scientific collaboration projects are described in the book.  Projects like the Human Genome Project, and Bioinformatics.org all use collaborative open source techniques to advance biological and medical research.  In  documenting this trend for a wider audience, Tapscott and Williams are providing a very effective rebuttal to those who have suggested that participants in open source initiatives are only interested in electronic gadgets.

Wikinomics also examines the ‘Platforms for Participation’ – the technical environments that have been developed to facilitate user innovation and interaction.  In many cases, these are application programming interfaces (API’s), developed by the likes of Google, Amazon and eBay, that enable small businesses and individuals to build innovative applications never envisaged by the companies themselves.  Such platforms do not just exist in the commercial sector.  Many not-for-profit organisations have built systems that examine publicly available data (in the U.S. at least) on pollution, crime and social cohesion.

The book also looks at what the authors call ‘The Global Plant Floor’.  This examines the possibilities for digital fabrication.  It also examines the possibilities for open architectures (i.e. an open basic design to which components of various kinds can be added, such as that used in personal computers) to be used in many other industries.  The book profiles the Lifan motorcycle company, that uses an open basic architecture on its motorcycles, which means that components from many different sources can be used without changing the basic design.  Tapscott and Williams use the example of Lifan to dismiss the idea that peer production is only suited to creating information-based goods.  They note that if physical products are designed to be modular, then, theoretically at least, large numbers of lightly co-ordinated supplies can engage in designing and building components for the product, much like the thousands of Wikipedians add to and modify Wikipedia’s entries.

The book rounds off with an examination of the ‘Wiki Workplace’.  This, as you can imagine, is a working environment which places far greater levels of reliance on staff to contribute towards organisational development and innovation in business process.  It is very hard to argue with the ideas put forward, especially when one reads the the account of how Geek Squad, an IT home-assistance service, has applied them to its business.

Personally, I have found books that deal with the trend towards peer production and open collaboration models to be interesting, but sometimes lacking in flow and not always easy to read.  Wikinomics is both informative and entertaining – it’s actually enjoyable to read.  I must admit that I got a little bit of satisfaction from the account of Lifan’s use of open architectures on motorcycles, as I had suggested something similar for the auto industry a few months ago.  Of course, few would believe me when I say I hadn’t read the book first.

Business books tend to go out of date quickly.  However, I expect that Wikinomics will be read for generations to come as a chronicle of how many of the existing assumptions about business fell away to be replaced by a new, distributed and collaborative approach  in the early 21st Century.
The authors and publishers of Wikinomics have adopted the open collaborative strategy themselves:  An addition to the book, called the Wikinomics Playbook, has been compiled using peer production techniques and is expected to be published shortly.

I enquired with Chris Norman, President and CEO of Digital Reality Corp. as to the status of this development. He informed me that the company is currently focused on patent prosecution globally, and that the online marketplace project is at a very early stage. The company has filed non-publication requests for their patent applications until such time as they are granted. The marketplace project is likely to be progressed further by the last quarter of 2007 or the first quarter of 2008.

It appears that Digital Reality intends to position itself as a technology provider for enterprises wishing to enter the digital manufacturing sector in the future. The demo page referred to above would be shown to potential clients to show what they could do with Digital Factory (TM), their core product currently under development. It is based on a patent pending process called Made-To-Order Rapid Manufacturing Enterprise. MTO-RME integrates web 2.0- based internet, CAD/CAM, Enterprise Resource Planning & Rapid Prototyping hardware to create an online design, sales and manufacturing system using Direct Digital Manufacturing.

Edit 11/08/2007: These pictures show a motorcycle headlight and that has been “personalized” using what is commonly referred to as a 3D displacement map. If you look at the first picture, you will see that the headlight bowl is smooth. The second picture shows the headlight bowl embossed with ‘flames’. Chris Norman explains: “Basically, it (the 3D displacement map) allows someone to use an image to create a terrain mesh which is effectively a 3D mesh on a surface. Using this technique, it is possible for the general public to do all sorts of things to objects without messing with the underlying design intent of the product. This is one powerful tool Digital Reality is developing and coupling with our WYSIWYG 3D-based product system we like to call Made-To-Order Digital Manufacturing Enterprise. We use 3D CAD files as the actual products and print them directly from the CAD files using 3D printing technology (commonly called Rapid Prototyping). What’s special is that we are going to allow designers to publish designs in our system and allow consumers to “tweak them”, letting them see in near real time the modifications and how they affect to the product in 3D. The 3D object that the customer sees is in effect the digital representation of their physical manifestation, a complicated way of saying that what they see is virtually what they get. In this case, a Cast Aluminum & polished motorcycle headlight.”

To create this representation, a mesh was wrapped on the surface through a tool that Digital Reality has developed. This tool will form part of the customer-facing functionality. When a customer uses it, they make their own product and it gets printed via 3D RP with the customer driving the sale and production.

According to Chris, one of the implications of this is that Digital Reality can establish connections with bureaus around the world and send the 3D files across borders without any of the costs associated with manufactured goods.

However, this does not mean that its effect on market based enterprises is neutral. A newly effective form of social behaviour, coupled with a cultural shift in tastes as well as the development of new technological and social solutions spaces to problems that were once solved through market-based firms, exercises a significant force on the shape and conditions of market action. The Wealth of Nations is an in-depth examination of the forces that are bringing about this change, and the efforts of existing industrial media providers, particularly in the United States, to restrict this change by lobbying for stricter laws in relation to copyright and patents.

Benkler cites many examples of social production that have come about through the web, such as Wikipedia, Linux and Folding@Home (which utilises un-used computing cycles to carry out protein research). He views the new collaborative models as something to be encouraged and assisted, on the basis that the pursuit of knowledge, unfettered by excessive restrictions of intellectual property, benefits individual freedom and the common good. The book shows how the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people create and express themselves.

In truth, it is quite difficult to summarise this book. It is 473 pages of incredibly in-depth research and analysis on the development of social production and the challenges which it faces from the ‘industrial media’ sector. You will not read this on one train journey or one transcontinenatal flight. It is important reading for anyone with an interest in the future of the internet and the social co-operation that it has enabled in many diverse areas of research, artistic expression and knowledge sharing.

If you happen to have read Lawrence Lessig’s ‘The Future of Ideas’, you will see a certain amount of overlap with the arguments put forward by Benkler in The Wealth of Nations. This is not to criticise either book or writer; they have both contributed greatly to our understanding of the battle between those who would enable the spread of new ideas and those who would restrict them out of self-interest. However, both books cover similar ground in relation to copyright laws.
In 1776, Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, which is viewed by some as the blueprint for the capitalist system. The Wealth of Networks, in its title, implies that it contains a blueprint for a new economic system. This is not strictly correct – the networked economy which Benkler sees emerging generates wealth largely in a social sense rather than in a monetary sense. But it is inaccurate to label the book as anti-capitalist – to put it simply, Benkler argues for a reasoned and balanced approach between the commercial and the social aspects of the internet.

Surprisingly, The Wealth of Networks focuses almost entirely on social production of digital products – software, media and scientific data. It does not refer to how social production might impact manufacturing or durable goods. The reader can, however, take the arguments put forward and envision how they might apply to the developing field of digital manufacturing. Could present day extensions to copyright laws inhibit the future development of a digital manufacturing economy? Time will tell.

Benkler, Yochai; The Wealth of Networks; Yale University Press 2006. ISBN 0-300-11056-1.

It is an excellent and comprehensive article detailing the nature of desktop manufacturing and how it could bring about a new industrial revolution will enable people to live where they like and produce what they need locally.

Mr. Rhoades concludes his article with a prediction for the new economy to come:

“Even if products are designed remotely, however, production will be done locally. Physical objects will be produced “at home” or “in the neighborhood” from locally recycled materials. Thus, cities will lose their economic advantage, and urban populations will be dispersed.

Although the revolution promised by these technologies could have great benefits for consumers in developing countries, the economic advantages of manufacturing in areas with comparatively cheap labor will be ultimately unsustainable, and workers in poor countries are likely to suffer. Consequently, our energy and creativity must also be focused on finding other paths to economic parity in the value of equivalent human labor to hundreds of millions of low-wage workers throughout the world.”

Sadly, Mr. Rhoades died on April 21st last.  Even though he will not see the Tranformation of Manufacturing realised, his article lights the way for those who will follow, and highlights the responsibilities that go with the pursuit of progress.

The most interesting aspect of Desktop Factory’s technology is that it uses a somewhat different approach to creating 3D objects to that employed by existing commercial 3D printing systems. Instead of selective laser sintering (SLS) or similar methods, Desktop Factory’s system uses $5 halogen bulb. A nylon based powder (the same type as is used in face makeup) is heated and etched, and each resulting layer is then stacked to form the three dimensional object.

Desktop Factory is a product of Bill Gross’s Idealab. Gross has recruited a former Xerox executive, Cathy Lewis, to be CEO of the company, which plans to begin selling its 3D printers later this year for around US$5000. However, the company is confident that, as sales increase, the price can be reduced to under $1000 over the next few years, bringing it within range of consumer buyers.  The Desktop Factory 3D printer is about the same size as early laser printers with the initial product measuring about 25 x 20 x 20 inches and weighing less than 90 lbs.

This is certainly a different approach to 3D printing compared to existing commercial and non-commercial projects. No doubt there are many factors that will determine if this startup company and its technology becomes a success. It will certainly be worth following the progress of the company over the next couple of years.

While the New Disruptors video is available at the link above, Erick Schonfeld has helpfully also included a transcript of it on The Next Net blog.

Ponoko is the brainchild of software entrepreneurs Dave ten Have and Derek Elley. The business was founded on ‘the disappointing experience people face when making (individualized) products’, citing complexity and high financial and environmental costs.

Encouraged by the rise of what they call the Internet connected ‘creative-class’, along with smarter, faster, smaller and cheaper digital manufacturing hardware (laser cutters, CNC routers and 3D printers that connect to your everyday PC), they formed Ponoko, to make real the idea of mass-individualized products created by the Web community and made on a globally distributed network of manufacturing hardware, controlled from any PC.

Users create product designs which they upload to the Ponoko site, and select the materials to be used in manufacturing. Ponoko then makes and delivers the product, or the product parts. This making process can be used to perfect the design.

The next step is to make the final design available for sale through Ponoko, by posting it in the Ponoko showroom for people to view and buy. Ponoko can make the product and deliver it to the customer or, alternatively, deliver the parts to the user for final assembly and delivery to the customer. Ponoko handles the payments between customers and the user whose design is purchased.

The other possibility is that customers could buy a design and make it themselves, using desktop manufacturing systems (laser cutters, CNC routers and 3D printers). While 3D printing systems are currently very expensive and impractical for home use, a number of separate projects are currently underway on 3D printers that would be affordable for home users.

Ponoko’s founders take the view that today’s product making and distribution model is financially and environmentally unsustainable. It is also under pressure to digitize like the music and video industries. The hold the view that because today’s 100-year old product making and distribution system is so ingrained into our every day lives and delivers so much benefit, problems are not so obvious. However, they make a number of points in relation to industrialised manufacturing:

1) Making and delivering (individualized) products is a time consuming, complex and expensive process. This pain does not fit well in a world that increasingly demands instant satisfaction from mass personalized and customized products at low cost.

2) Product making and distribution is cost prohibitive for new entrants without relatively deep financial reserves. This is stifling mass creativity of real products and the progress of humanity on unimaginable fronts.

3) Low cost mass production and global distribution relies upon using lots of cheap energy and labour. But these two resources are running out.

4) Product making and distribution is a major contributor to the global warming problem (according to the WRI, perhaps 20% of the problem). Being environmentally unsustainable, the increasing ‘carbon currency’ costs also make the current model financially unsustainable.

5) Finding individualized products is very difficult and buying such products is a time consuming, relatively complex and expensive burden.

Many of these are very valid points. For existing businesses that use mass customization model, there is already a saving of working capital in not carrying finished goods inventory. However, working capital must continue to be used for raw materials or components.

Ponoko proposes to eventually use a business model where product design data is sold digitally, and downloaded by customers for manufacture at home. If a business (or individual) can move to a situation where it can sell designs as data, it immediately becomes a seller of digital information rather than a manufacturer. All of the expenses related to manufacturing can be eliminated completely, as the company moves towards a purely digital trading model. Ponoko is attempting to position itself as a broker that joins digital design vendors with customers who will become ‘end-manufacturers’ as well as ‘end-users’.

However, it does not automatically follow that a distributed model will provide large reductions in carbon emissions. The energy expended in moving finished goods around the world might simply be replaced by energy expended in distributing raw materials more widely in a distributed manufacturing model. However, this does not take away from the potential of the Ponoko business model to actually bring about the ‘post-industrial revolution’.

A distributed model significantly lowers the barriers to entry for new product creators, and reduces the financial risk. With Ponoko, creators can ship digital product designs with the click of a mouse, rather than physical products requiring costly handling and delivery. And because product designs can be sold to a large global audience from day one, pay back periods can be shortened.

In addition, Ponoko’s proposed distributed manufacturing model means that the marginal cost of selling each additional example of a design is practically zero. (Once the design is completed and on the market, it costs almost nothing extra to the creator to sell one extra copy. There is no requirement to use up materials or components, only the need to transmit the design data to each new customer.)

Because no physical product exists until purchase, product design collaboration makes it possible for everyone to co-create and personalize ‘almost anything’ they need and want. Ponoko says that, as adoption increases, prices for their design-to-order and made-to-order commodity type products will become unrecognisably low.

Ponoko is currently in the beta testing phase. The first manufactured product made by Ponoko from a user’s design was recently unveiled on the Ponoko blog.

While Ponoko is positioning itself as a broker of digital designs in the longer term, if it is successful in the medium term, it implies that significant investment in manufacturing capacity will be required by the company to fulfill orders for finished goods placed through the site. Ironically, if Ponoko is to be successful it may need to become a big manufacturer before it can become the ‘iTunes of design’.