In the last couple of years, the cost of 3D printing has been dropping dramatically to the point where home and desktop 3D printer kits were available. In 2009, there was one major home 3D printer maker, called Makerbot. In 2011, we’ve counted at least 16 different kits available.
As 3D printing becomes more accessible and user friendly, more and more people will not only wan to print objects, but also design their own. Currently, there are many tools that help you design your own 3D printable objects, from Blender, Solidworks, Autocad, and Sketchup, to OpenSCAD.
When you’re armed with the ability to create objects, you can make your imaginations real. No longer will the ability to create out of pure thought be the domain of software developers.
In addition, we’re armed with the ability to share over the internet our creations. We can share them with others to build upon, and we can build upon the works of others to make our life and world better than we found it. Software that lets us socialize with others over the bettering of our world is of value. We believe part of the solution to make this happen is visual version control, where you can see a history of what has changed in an object. Additions in transparent green, and deletions in transparent red.
Social software around a maker culture will be a powerful force in the years to come.
So checkout the landing page, while sparse, should give you an idea of what we’re shooting for. As we make progress, we’ll update you more on what’s going on. Follow us on twitter, and we’ll keep you posted.
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