Summary of Makers

Chris Anderson

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Recommendation

For today’s entrepreneurs, mass production proves increasingly to be a do-it-yourself enterprise. In the past, someone who had a breakthrough idea for a product had to raise capital to build a factory or sell the idea to an established manufacturer. According to Chris Anderson, now CEO of 3D Robotics, these entry barriers are coming down fast. Today’s “Maker Movement” inventors can create instant prototypes by using desktop 3D printers or by transmitting their digital design files to fabrication services. In this nontechnical primer on the Maker Movement, Anderson describes new technologies like computer-aided design software and laser cutters. He describes the movement’s open sharing culture, in which Makers release their designs on the web to allow other users from the online community to give feedback. He believes the emergence of thousands of microindustrialists could revive the slowing manufacturing sector in developed countries. Anderson’s evangelistic tone can grow tiresome, but for the most part, the former editor in chief of Wired is an entertaining writer with a knack for the clarifying anecdote. getAbstract recommends his step-by-step guide to the coming manufacturing status quo to inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and that kid in the basement with a great idea.

In this summary, you will learn

How the Internet revolutionizes entrepreneurship for information-based and media-based ventures;
How the web and new fabrication technology change commerce in physical products in the same way; and
What methods you can use to design, manufacture and sell products in this new environment.

About the Author

Chris Anderson is the CEO of 3D Robotics, an open-source hardware company. He was formerly the editor in chief of Wired magazine.

Summary

The “Maker Movement”
Cottage industries are making a comeback in the 21st century. The barriers to entering the manufacturing business have been high for more than 100 years. Making things was the province of huge, “capital-intensive” factories, so the manufacturing of products remained...