Technology

How 3D Printing Could Change More Than We Think

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So if you follow our Twitter feed, you saw the awesome news that Teenage Engineering, a synthesizer company, encourages people to print 3D replacement parts for their synthesizers.

Now that’s awesome on the whole cool-technology-culture, thing.  It’s also pretty awesome from a customer service perspective.  But I want you to think about this a bit further.

  1. This idea is great for making things easier on companies and customers.
  2. There are sites like Shapeways that will 3D print for you.
  3. There are also industrial collectives that have various tools people pool money to use.
  4. This is a lot like Print On Demand.
  5. Print On Demand is spreading, such as Kodak’s deals with CVS. (If Kodak can stop laying people off so they don’t have enough people to do it).

Now you probably see where I’m going here.  If POD is spreading, 3D printing can spread as well – it certainly seems to be.  I can easily see companies like CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. keeping 3D printers around to make custom components.  Hell, some companies may let you print entire products in time.

Think what this means culture – and of course career wise.

  • People will need to be able to operate these things.  This changes supposed retail jobs and may give people options to move up at careers – and think of how companies may need POD or 3D printer managers and experts.
  • Companies could use this as further outsourcing.  They could literally exist as entities providing directions and support to print.
  • This changes consumer behavior.
  • This chances storage and mailing behavior.
  • This will bring up a lot of fascinating legal challenges (go for it geek lawyers).

So what do you think?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Why Kickstarter Had To Get More Real

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Well, you probably saw it but Kickstarter is changing their rules on hardware and people have to get real:

  • Risks and challenges must be stated and how they’ll be overcome.
  • Hardware must do what it says it can do, or you can only show what it currently can do.
  • There’s a crackdown on photorealistic portrayals.
  • Changes “bulk” donor benefits (sometimes infamous as appealing to resellers)

First, let me be honest in my assessments – I think the Ouya is part of this.  I trust the Ouya product (in fact I shelled out a $100 donation and if you know me, then you know how hard it is to get me to part with money).  But there’s been rumblings here and there on how it could have been a scam and how others could scam people in similar ways.  The Ouya could be a success that later breaks Kickstarter.

However this is also just part of being more realistic – Kickstarter is pretty successful, and that means they want to be realistic and continue that success.

Success, good publicity, big scores is not the “end” of any venture like Kickstarter.  No one starts with the perfect business model, and even if they somehow did, the changes in the world would make it imperfect in time.  So even big popular hits like Kickstarter have to change.

The lessons to take away from this are:

  • Even successes have to adapt.
  • Kickstarter (and it’s imitators) will doubtlessly keep changing rules – so if you’re using it for your career or projects, remember that.
  • This is a good bit of “ammo” to use at work to show a company getting realistic and changing rules.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

So What’s Next For Apple?

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We here at the fan-to-pro group have a mailing list we discuss things on, including tweets, news, etc.  This came partially from my discussion on what’s next for Apple.

And namely, I’m not entirely sure – because it’s hard to know where anything goes next.

Look, Apple was successful.  They defined markets and products.  They defined designs.  They’re being imitated.  They’ve done well – but as we all know, there’s always the question of “what’s next” which is kind of hard when you’ve come as far as they have.

Except I think the question applies to a lot of technology companies.

Where does anyone go from here?

  • The norm is portable phones that are small computers.
  • The norm is tablets that are flat slates of computing power.
  • The norm is slick and powerful laptops.
  • The norm is portable music, portable books, portable video – portable everything.

So we’ve all got a lot of powerful stuff that does all sorts of things out of SF films and technophilic fantasies.  Hell, I’ll say we’re further along technically than I’d ever dreamed 10 years ago.  The problem is I’m not sure what’s next for any company.

Television?  Gaming consoles?  Being subsumed into other devices.  Social media is established.  Until we start implanting things it seems we’ve hit a great pinnacle of This Stuff Is Awesome.

So what’s next for Apple?  Hell, what’s next for any technology company?

For those of us who can figure it out it’s a fantastic career advantage, or a chance to even found a business.  It’s just we won’t always know when we’re right until it’s too late . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.