Makers

If the past ten years have been about discovering new social and innovation models on the Web, then the next ten years will be about applying them to the real world.

‍

If a country wants to stay economically vibrant it needs to manufacture things. In recent years, however, the developed world has become obsessed with making money out of the precarious service sector, leaving the real business of manufacturing to the developing world.

‍

Makers: The New Industrial Revolution is about how to reverse that. Transformative change happens when industries democratize, when they’re ripped from the sole domain of big business and government and taken over by entrepreneurs. The Internet democratized publishing, broadcasting, and communications, and the consequence was a massive increase in the range of both participation and participants in everything digital — the long tail of bits. Now the same is happening to manufacturing — the long tail of things.

‍

Chris Anderson, bestselling author of The Long Tail explains how this is happening: how such technologies as 3D printing and electronics assembly are becoming available to everybody, and how people are building successful businesses as a result. Anybody with an idea and a little expertise can now set assembly lines in China in motion with nothing more than some keystrokes on their laptop. And that’s just the beginning.

‍

The Web was once simply the proof of concepts. Now the revolution hits the real world.

‍

Crown Business (October 2, 2012)

‍

Book Reviews

‍

Many-to-Many Manufacturing — strategy+business

‍
Take the plunge — The Economist

‍
Makers — Bloomberg Businessweek

‍
Made to measure — Financial Times