NO MORE TOYS

Why Amateur 3D Printing Has the Potential to Change the World

Graham Leach, School of Design (PolyU)&

FRIENDS

DEFINITELY NOT A TOY

2008: 1st Printer

• Stratasys uPrint• Dual Filament• Heated Chamber• 1.75mm ABS• FOR WORK• USD15,000.00

DEFINITELY A TOY

2013: 2nd Printer

• RepRap Prusa Mendel• Single Filament• Heated Print Bed?• 3mm PLA• AN EXPERIMENT• USD300.00

NO LONGER A TOY

2014: 3rd Printer

• Printrbot Plus• Single Filament• Heated Print Bed• 1.75mm ABS• FOR WORK• USD500.00

The High Priests of 3D Printing

Industrial 3D Specialists:• Elite printing is limited to certain experts only• The experts are currently very focused by their

bosses on rapid prototyping -> for production.• They are not normally allowed or encouraged to

go “play” with their machines• Every iota of machine utilization is accounted for• To me…this sounds like old mainframe culture

The Rabble of 3D Printing

Hobbyist 3D Printers:• Usage of these printers is limited to geeks• A lot of geek time & energy is devoted to simply

getting and keeping the machines up and running• Geeks play with their machines a LOT, but there’s

no easy way for non geeks to get onboard• Filament is cheap - but relevance is weak• To me…this sounds like early Open Source

culture

Rabble Unite!

Linus & Richard (Two Very Different Geniuses):• In the early 1990’s a student named Linus put out an

open call on Usenet to get help developing a Unix look-alike kernel wrapped with the GNU tools that Richard Stallman had spent years developing. I helped out with that effort.

• Coming in just the right way at the right time, Linus Torvalds was able to program, motivate and galvanize a global community to build Linux in a way that Richard Stallman never could have.

Linux Crosses the Rubicon

The Point of Inflection:• Linux, after much experimentation, flirting with

the desktop and other false starts, became relevant to normal people by powering the Web.

• This was largely because IBM and Microsoft have a major blind spot. Their revenue model revolves around authentication, not an anonymous Internet. This left a gap for Linux to fill…so it did!

Where’s the LAMP of 3D Printing?

The Linux Killer App Was Actually a Suite:• After 5 to 10 years of fierce competition, a cluster

of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP became the dominant eCommerce platform.

• LAMP IS FREE – But it has made many people very, very rich. Some famous, some infamous.

• Knowing this, I wonder if the 3D Printing folks still have something to learn from Open Source beyond its infrastructure development model?

Why 3D Printing Amateurs Matter

Staying Sharp:• One of the interesting things that happened in

the Open Source ecosystem was people would work on things until they got very, very good and then go off and start their own companies.

• Or they went to work for big companies that put their highly developed talents to good use – by giving them big problems and deep resources so they could manifest their creative genius.

It’s All About the Money

Disruptive Innovation:• Disruptive Innovation triggers massive wealth

transfer because it de-stabilizes the status quo, or ecosystem, creating new winners and new losers.

• Normally, the disruptive innovation catches the incumbents completely by surprise because it comes from outside of the domain of expertise they come from and the market that they are constantly scanning just to stay competitive.

The Rest is On YOU

The Challenge:• I think we can stay sharp, have a global impact and help

guide the 3D Printing community to its own individual Rubicon moment, where normal people start saying “YES! YES! I GET IT NOW”

• My favorite? PARAMETRIC PROSTHETICS where we change peoples lives by by designing and crowd-printing new limbs for them much faster than their (broke/slow) social services could ever hope to serve them.

So…Are We Going to Do This?

Or This?

Thanks!

Now Let’s Talk!