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Makers
The New Industrial Revolution By Chris Anderson
When Star Trek’s Captain Picard wants his favorite drink aboard the starship Enterprise, he simply walks up to a “replicator” and says: “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”…and it appears! Although still science fiction today, the idea behind it is not. 3D printers have been around for years. And although we can’t make tea with one yet, we can make a cup, saucer, and spoon. Most people don’t have a 3D printer but a growing number of entrepreneurs have started to innovate with them. These people call themselves “Makers.”
New Role for Small Business Entrepreneurship usually meant setting up a modest local business. Starting a major enterprise (the realm of the internet excluded) meant you needed lots of smarts and money…but not anymore.
The Maker Movement Until very recently, most of the small-batch manufacturing was done at home – from cupcakes to jewelry – and it was never distributed far beyond our immediate circle. Today, anyone with an invention or good design can have that product made, or make it themselves with increasingly powerful 3-D printers. Entrepreneurs and inventors are no longer at the mercy of large companies to manufacture their ideas. “Maker-spaces” (or shared production facilities) are growing at an astounding rate and distribution channels for “homemade” goods are expanding rapidly.
The Power of Open Innovation In the past, if you came up with something new, you filed a patent or got a copyright. The Maker Movement promotes sharing innovations publicly. They’d rather get help and feedback than protection, which in turn spawns unique new products.
The Future is Already Here When we find an entrepreneur leveraging a “crowdfunding” site like Kickstarter to access financing; working from her basement with a state-of-the-art 3D printer manufacturing high-value, niche products; and then using an online distribution channel like Etsy to reach a global market, it’s not very hard to imagine the shape of the twenty-first-century economy. Get ready for it – this really is the New Industrial Revolution.
TheBusinessSource.com
All Rights Reserved
The New Industrial Revolution By Chris Anderson
When Star Trek’s Captain Picard wants his favorite drink aboard the starship Enterprise, he simply walks up to a “replicator” and says: “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”…and it appears! Although still science fiction today, the idea behind it is not. 3D printers have been around for years. And although we can’t make tea with one yet, we can make a cup, saucer, and spoon. Most people don’t have a 3D printer but a growing number of entrepreneurs have started to innovate with them. These people call themselves “Makers.”
New Role for Small Business Entrepreneurship usually meant setting up a modest local business. Starting a major enterprise (the realm of the internet excluded) meant you needed lots of smarts and money…but not anymore.
The Maker Movement Until very recently, most of the small-batch manufacturing was done at home – from cupcakes to jewelry – and it was never distributed far beyond our immediate circle. Today, anyone with an invention or good design can have that product made, or make it themselves with increasingly powerful 3-D printers. Entrepreneurs and inventors are no longer at the mercy of large companies to manufacture their ideas. “Maker-spaces” (or shared production facilities) are growing at an astounding rate and distribution channels for “homemade” goods are expanding rapidly.
The Power of Open Innovation In the past, if you came up with something new, you filed a patent or got a copyright. The Maker Movement promotes sharing innovations publicly. They’d rather get help and feedback than protection, which in turn spawns unique new products.
The Future is Already Here When we find an entrepreneur leveraging a “crowdfunding” site like Kickstarter to access financing; working from her basement with a state-of-the-art 3D printer manufacturing high-value, niche products; and then using an online distribution channel like Etsy to reach a global market, it’s not very hard to imagine the shape of the twenty-first-century economy. Get ready for it – this really is the New Industrial Revolution.
TheBusinessSource.com
All Rights Reserved
