Capping IT Off

Very difficult these days to avoid these topics. Big Data is a huge game changer, as well as Cloud Computing or Social Media. ;-) .

But something else is deeper, stronger. Another disruption, the kind that can change industries, our lives, the world. This disruption is...Additive Manufacturing....also named 3D printing. According to wikipedia, Additive Manufacturing is making three dimensional solid objects from a digital model where the objects are created by laying down successive layers of material.

Bastian Schafer, who is a designer at one of my favorite customers ;-), Airbus, has just explain that they are exploring 3D printers to build…planes…

Without going that far, a few days ago a group of talented students and engineers presented the Areion. More than 100 KM per hour in less than 4 sec. Guess what? This car, the Areion, is partly built from... a 3D Printer.

We might see some amazing engineering works. We might also see the kind of revolution we saw in the 90's when TCP/IP invaded the world, creating the Internet beast that forever changed human communication.

Why? Because like the Internet, 3D printing is the sum of communities, hackers, open source & a radical change in Industrial companies' business models, just as the Internet was a radical change in the telcos' business models.

3D printing will pretty soon enable you and me to build our own objects, locally. Greener products because produced locally. 3D printing is not only for large industrial companies or prototypers. It is coming for the rest of us. For instance, Makerbot is making a great 3D printer, the Replicator, for less than 1500 Euros. Or you can build your own 3D printer in a Plastic Hacker Space Fest. Some hackers are even trying to use plastics recycling technique to ensure the object is 100% produced locally. You can join a huge community of people sharing digital designs. Thingiverse has for instance hundreds of designs. You can even use your 3D printer to build...a bigger 3D printer.