
What the Maker Revolution Will Really Look Like - KenjiCrosland
http://blog.zanoby.com/what-the-maker-revolution-will-really-look-like/
======
emilepetrone
If you really want to know what the maker revolution will look like, visit
<https://tindie.com>, the site I started. Tindie is the marketplace for the
'makers' the author references. We have robots, custom chips, amps, synths -
all at the highest quality made by single makers.

The author is missing is actual knowledge of how the manufacturing process
works for maker products. Because of that, he or she is left making an
assumption that the majority of products will be poor quality - when Tindie
actually proves the opposite. The majority of our products are at the highest
quality, and that is because of the accessibility of modern manufacturing.

That is why the maker revolution is powerful. One maker can make a product,
design it, manufacture it, and sell it all from their garage.

------
michaelfeathers
Call me pessimistic, but I suspect that the 'Maker Revolution' could bring us
a level of legal madness that is far beyond what we have seen in copyright
over the past 20 years.

Plans for 3D printing are not only copyrightable, they are subject to patent
law. That, and the potential for creation of contraband with 3D printers may
lead to online clearing houses for designs that you make and print at home, or
strict legislation controlling the use of home printers and sale of items from
them.

Beyond that, it is likely that there will be a secondary effect. Right now,
you can make just about any item you want to in your wood shop, hobby shop or
on your kitchen table, and use it at home or sell it to neighbors or friends.
3D printers may bring much more legal scrutiny to things that pass under the
radar as craft today even if printers aren't used.

I want a better future than that, so I hope that people take the initiative to
support early safe harbor legislation and exemptions for home projects.

~~~
tarice
I wouldn't call you pessimistic - more realistic.

I expect that the reaction of the Manufacturing industry's reaction to small-
scale Makers will parallel the Recording/Movie industry to file-sharing, as
the situations are similar in many regards.

It's very likely to happen, and it'll suck, but like you said, hopefully we
get legislation through in time to protect some of the small Makers so they
don't get sued into oblivion by the future-RIAA.

------
hosh
The author missed the true significance of the Maker Revolution. It is not
about people being able to design their own products or having a market full
of craptastic products.

The Maker Revolution is about being able to provide for your needs without
depending on a global supply chain. It's about the kind of material freedom
you might have if your neighborhood hardware store, or even your household fab
in the garage can _make_ all the goods for your basic needs, and then some.

~~~
nickpinkston
With all respect, I think your's is the "maker idealist" position on this
movement. There are many reasons why economies of scale (which are due to
physics / engineering problems) will continue to exist in manufacturing - even
if many methods are democratized and available locally (a la TechShop today).

I've written on this recently: [http://www.nickpinkston.com/2013/01/some-
thoughts-on-digital...](http://www.nickpinkston.com/2013/01/some-thoughts-on-
digital-manufacturing.html)

~~~
hosh
Ok. I'm not expecting distributed manufacturing to come over night or even in
the near term. I'm aware that it requires crossing over a threshold before
that happens.

However, I think it is worth developing these technologies with that in mind.
The landscape may change faster than we think.

So I don't think it is "idealist" in the sense that, "well, in the real world,
this just isn't practical or possible."

~~~
nickpinkston
Yea, I think you're right on landscape changing fast. There are definitely
bottlenecks that could be opened if the right discoveries were made in
material science, etc.

------
Zimahl
_Yes, real products, from haute couture handbags..._

I don't think they know what _haute couture_ means. The maker bot is about
localized mass production, not something made specifically for one person. And
clothing has always been a maker activity - you can go buy a sewing machine
(and pretty advanced ones at that) right this second.

------
zwieback
The Maker Revolution improves our capability to make small-run and custom
products, that's what's so great about it.

However, it's far from any kind of industrial revolution. It's also important
to point out that rapid prototyping has been a standard tool in most
manufacturing disciplines for at least the 20 years I've been an engineer.

Another encouraging side-effect of the Maker discussion is that the new
consensus about the advantages of local manufacturing. We've been complaining
to our bosses about the loss of manufacturing capability not only because our
jobs are going overseas but also because the local knowledge about design-for-
manufacturability and the other DFx's are eroding.

When I started my current job we had assembly lines, machine shops,
reliability and regulatory labs and a large force of highly skilled
technicians. Now it's almost all engineers and the most we can hope for is to
build the first 10 prototypes of anything we design.

The "Maker" induced renewed interest in rapid prototyping has caused a subtle
shift in the minds of mid and upper management about how far to take local
manufacturing before going to CMs in China.

------
podperson
I think this article misses not only "the" point but pretty much all points
about the "maker" revolution. The maker revolution is about the world of
"atoms" being converged into the world of "bits". Just as desktop publishing
technology engulfed specialized information-centric industries such as
mathematical and musical typesetting, 3d printers are the first step towards
what Neal Stephenson referred to as "matter compilers" in The Diamond Age --
where the gap between design and physicality is almost trivial -- the idea
that this will look like guilds or mass cottage industry or whatever is wrong-
headed: it will look like something we've never seen before.

(I think matter compilers are going to far, and we'll probably use
standardized recyclable lego-like pieces rather than atoms but the idea is
basically sound).

~~~
wmf
_3d printers are the first step towards ... where the gap between design and
physicality is almost trivial_

Maybe the author is thinking of the next few years and you're thinking about
the next few decades.

~~~
podperson
Perhaps. I don't think that we'll return to the guild system in the next few
years either :-)

------
jdreaver
I don't understand why we keep us in the word "democratize" when it comes to
increasing individual freedom with technology. Democracy is the tyranny of the
majority; we aren't voting to see who gets to produce or consume what. It's a
pet peeve of mine because it's simply used as a buzzword and makes no sense in
a technological context.

~~~
Jtsummers
I think it gets used that way because it has been for at least decades now.
Democratization of information, knowledge has long been tied to the idea of
decentralization and distribution amongst the masses. This easily carries over
to many of the principal ideas of the internet and the communication of ideas,
designs, etc that it permits.

------
JohnBooty
You know what's sad? I got genuinely excited because I thought this thread
title said "Marker Revolution."

To be fair, look... I'm left-handed. I'd be pretty excited about a new kind of
smear-proof marker that didn't leave my hand and the drawing surface looking
like unintentional abstract art if I wasn't careful.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Write right to left :-) I too am left handed and if you don't mind annoying
people it does solve the problem (well at least as much as it does for right
handed people). The weird thing is that when you first write stuff that way
its all weird and uncomfortable and then if you force it your brain will flip
the switch and you'll write as fast as you ever have. Once you get there its
especially fun signing things, that freaks people out.

Of course middle eastern folks have done this forever so its not a 'new' thing
in any sense of the word.

------
ph0rque
_This tacit knowledge is the reason why we don’t have a 3D model of a
Stradivarius violin, or even a real-life exact replica of any kind, for that
matter._

It may be no Stradivarius, but it's a start on 3D printing musical
instruments: [http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-11/the-
worlds-f...](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-11/the-worlds-
first-3d-printed-guitar)

~~~
kybernetikos
That whole thing about the 3d model of a Stradivarius is complete nonsense:

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15926864>
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2067981/Resea...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2067981/Researchers-
use-3D-imaging-hi-tech-tools-rebuild-Stradivarius-time.html)

So we do have 3d models of Stradivarius violins, plus computer cut replicas.
And on top of that, in blind tests, violinists preferred modern violins
anyway.

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/02/how-many-
notes-v...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/02/how-many-notes-
violinist-stradivarius)

------
jamieb
I think it'll look like this:

<http://www.assaultweb.net/Forums/showthread.php?t=142405>

"AR-15 30rd Magazine Dowloadable CAD Files"

Edit: Maybe I've been reading too much Charles Stross:

"Mind you, not everything that comes out of a rapid prototyper is good. Here's
the Magpul FMG-9 prototype: and here's some more. Is it a flashlight? Is it a
submachine gun? Who knows? Here's another baroque weapon that probably started
life on a rapid prototyping machine. If reprap-like machines with strong
materials turn out to be cheap and easy, then never mind licensing handguns —
we're going to have a problem with home-made crew-served weapons. (Reminder:
yr. hmbl. crspndnt. lives in a country where, for better or worse, possession
of a pistol by anyone who's not in the police or military carries a mandatory
5-year minimum prison sentence. The implications of rapid prototyping machines
for this sort of legislative environment probably parallel the effects of peer
to peer networking on music industry cartels.)"

[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/2008/06/the_futu...](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/2008/06/the_future_today_maybe.html)

~~~
thechut
Downvoted, why does everyone need to bring up the gun issue when somebody
talks about the maker revolution? Big gun manufactures have been making guns
for a long time. I don't see how people making themselves matters at all.

~~~
dllthomas
The point is the difficulty of enforcing gun control legislation, when a
banned 30 round clip can be simply printed in anyone's garage from a easily
transferred file. Not entirely germane to the present discussion I think, but
not entirely irrelevant either.

------
Havoc
Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His
passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people.

This being HN I'll probably get stoned for this reddit-like comment. So be it.

~~~
Havoc
Well that didn't take long. -1 downvote per 8 minutes.

