May 10, 2010 at 22:56Industrial revolution. Part 2. Atoms - New Bits
Continuation of an exciting article from Wired 's American magazine “In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits” (last time I talked about Rally Fighter - a car created by the “crowd” ).
Fundamental transformations in any industry occur when control over the industry passes from companies, clans, governments, to the average person. The Internet has made publishing, television and communications available to the masses, which has led to a radical increase in the digital world — the long tail of bits.
Now the same thing happens with production - the long chain of things.
All tools that have been used in industry, from electronics assembly to 3D printing, are now available to ordinary people. Everyone with an idea and competence can launch assembly lines in China simply by pressing a few keys on their laptop. A few days later, the prototype will be at its door and, if everything is in order, it will be possible to press a few more keys in order to launch the product into full production, producing hundreds and thousands of copies. Thus, everyone can create their own virtual mini-factory: products will be assembled and delivered by subcontractors that serve hundreds of such customers at the same time.
Today, mini-factories produce everything from cars and bicycles to custom-made furniture in any design you can dream of! The collective potential of millions of garage enthusiasts is about to be realized in global markets, which will not require millions of investments and high-performance equipment. Previously, a typical web startup was “three guys with a laptop,” but now the same description applies to a hardware company.
“Hardware is now more and more like software,” says MIT professor Eric von Hippel. And this is not only because there is a lot of “software” in the hardware, when the products are actually intellectual property wrapped in a beautiful shell, be it program code that drives the mechanisms, or CAD packages in which future devices are simulated. It also becomes possible thanks to the availability of tools, collaboration through the Web and the spread of the Internet.
We observed something similar earlier: this happened before when monolithic industries, such as the music industry or publishing, began to fall apart when many small players appeared on the market. Lower the barrier to entry and the crowd will rush in!
At present, suppliers of materials and equipment can serve as garage mini-factories, and such giants as Sony. This change was made possible by two factors. Firstly, the beginning of the widespread use of cheap and powerful means of rapid prototyping, which even people who are far from technology can now take advantage of. And, secondly, the economic crisis has led many Chinese manufacturers to radically revise their methods of working with customers, becoming more flexible, web-oriented, ready to fulfill any customer request.
As a result, innovation has moved from the online world to the real world. Corey Doctorow in his book “Makers” says: “The days of companies such as 'General Electric', 'General Mills', 'General Motors' are numbered. There are billions of opportunities on the market that are open to creative and entrepreneurial people. ”
The revival of garage entrepreneurship leads to the success of events that bring together people who like to do things with their own hands (maker faires) and venues where people can come together under one roof to create something new (hackerspaces). Peer-to-peer production, open source, crowd-based creation, user filling (peer production, open source, crowdsourcing, user-generated content) - all these digital concepts can now be applied in the world of atoms. The web was just the beginning. The revolution is now happening in the real world.
In short, atoms are new bits.
To be continued.
Fundamental transformations in any industry occur when control over the industry passes from companies, clans, governments, to the average person. The Internet has made publishing, television and communications available to the masses, which has led to a radical increase in the digital world — the long tail of bits.
Now the same thing happens with production - the long chain of things.
All tools that have been used in industry, from electronics assembly to 3D printing, are now available to ordinary people. Everyone with an idea and competence can launch assembly lines in China simply by pressing a few keys on their laptop. A few days later, the prototype will be at its door and, if everything is in order, it will be possible to press a few more keys in order to launch the product into full production, producing hundreds and thousands of copies. Thus, everyone can create their own virtual mini-factory: products will be assembled and delivered by subcontractors that serve hundreds of such customers at the same time.
Today, mini-factories produce everything from cars and bicycles to custom-made furniture in any design you can dream of! The collective potential of millions of garage enthusiasts is about to be realized in global markets, which will not require millions of investments and high-performance equipment. Previously, a typical web startup was “three guys with a laptop,” but now the same description applies to a hardware company.
“Hardware is now more and more like software,” says MIT professor Eric von Hippel. And this is not only because there is a lot of “software” in the hardware, when the products are actually intellectual property wrapped in a beautiful shell, be it program code that drives the mechanisms, or CAD packages in which future devices are simulated. It also becomes possible thanks to the availability of tools, collaboration through the Web and the spread of the Internet.
We observed something similar earlier: this happened before when monolithic industries, such as the music industry or publishing, began to fall apart when many small players appeared on the market. Lower the barrier to entry and the crowd will rush in!
At present, suppliers of materials and equipment can serve as garage mini-factories, and such giants as Sony. This change was made possible by two factors. Firstly, the beginning of the widespread use of cheap and powerful means of rapid prototyping, which even people who are far from technology can now take advantage of. And, secondly, the economic crisis has led many Chinese manufacturers to radically revise their methods of working with customers, becoming more flexible, web-oriented, ready to fulfill any customer request.
As a result, innovation has moved from the online world to the real world. Corey Doctorow in his book “Makers” says: “The days of companies such as 'General Electric', 'General Mills', 'General Motors' are numbered. There are billions of opportunities on the market that are open to creative and entrepreneurial people. ”
The revival of garage entrepreneurship leads to the success of events that bring together people who like to do things with their own hands (maker faires) and venues where people can come together under one roof to create something new (hackerspaces). Peer-to-peer production, open source, crowd-based creation, user filling (peer production, open source, crowdsourcing, user-generated content) - all these digital concepts can now be applied in the world of atoms. The web was just the beginning. The revolution is now happening in the real world.
In short, atoms are new bits.
To be continued.