[hackerspaces] Idea: things.hackerspaces.org now that Thingiverse is not ok anymore

[Stewart Dickson]

Well, this may not be entirely on-topic, but here are my impressions...

Did I hear "Venture Capital"?
<flame> That means that MakerBot is on the hook to exercise Fiscal
Responsibility.
Which means making good on a prediction of ridiculous, unsustainable
growth, translating to return-on-investment
to the V-C.</flame>
But never mind that.

We are talking about 3D Printing, which is a Radically new concept.
(I've been saying this since 1990, but it takes
people a *long* time to catch on.)

Here, in principle, is the difference between Open-Source Software and
Open-Source Hardware.
Moore's Law is what drives them toward Convergence -- But, they are
not there yet, because:
1) 3D Printers cannot really build themselves completely yet.  They
still require precision
machined metal parts which extruders (sinterers, etc.) can't yet manage.
2) Moore's Law is really about Manufacturing Technology -- The
evolution of the Silicon Foundry (Hard Drive, ...)
which evolves toward ever faster, smaller, denser, ... exponentially.
3) A Silicon Foundry cannot build a copy of itself (yet) -- *AND* a
computer.  When it *can* do so, then it will evolve
organically in a manner closer to software than hardware.
4) Post-Industrial manufacturing -- When you build a million of
*anything* the cost per unit drops to zero.
The only way to sustain anything in a Capitalist model, which has zero
cost is by artificially manipulating the Market.  Otherwise it would
be free.
5) All of the cost required to manufacture anything is the design,
engineering and up-front tooling required to make Unit #1.
Shapeways/Thingiverse may be a model for reducing this cost.

As I see it, the only way to sustain Open-Source Software is by
marketing yourself as an expert on it --
Having people pay you to maintain it, train others on it and by
publishing the User's Manual.

We have not figured out Post-Industrial Manufacturing, which might be
the same as Open-Source Hardware.  The old-school Owning Class has
just exported
the Manufacturing Industry to countries where Slave Labor is still
legal.   Capitalism is still stuck at pre-1865 by United States
standards.

It comes down to "How do you feed yourself and pay the rent while you
are designing open-source hardware products?"
To me, this is the same question as "How do you feed yourself and pay
the rent as an artist?" (Writer, blogger, ... Any independent creative
activity -- Which is really the only one worth doing.)

At the 2012 SME RAPID Conference, Terry Wohlers said that Additive
Manufacturing (3D Printing) is a $1.3Billion industry and will double
within 4 years.
Consumer-grade 3D printers are a really tiny fraction of the market he
is talking about -- *BUT* they are majorly contributing to the
public's
awareness of 3D printing/Additive Manufacturing.

My question is -- How will this $1.3 -> $2.6Billion industry float *ALL* boats?

-Stewart, http://us.imdb.com/Name?Stewart+Dickson
	http://www.ifp.uiuc.edu/~sdickson
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/vedic_math_machines_and_3d_zoetrope.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20100218191347/http://emsh.calarts.edu/~mathart/Clock_Cam.html
http://boingboing.net/2011/06/17/jeff-bezos-co-to-bui.html	http://longnow.org/clock/prototype1
http://longnow.org/people/associate/StewartDickson	
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/author.html?author=Stewart+Dickson

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:
> Just a quick update on thingiverse.
>
> http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2012/09/26/our-lawyer-explains-the-thingiverse-terms-of-service/
>
> Curious if anyone has any concerns not addressed in there.
>
>
>...
> Matt
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