Thanks to Josh for some interesting ideas about proliferation of fabber
technology. (Josh, I take if that by "PF" you mean "personal fabber." Is
that right?)
Along these lines, people may be interested in something we just posted last
night on our site. It's a brief description of a talk I'm giving with a
partner later this week in San Francisco at the O'Reilly Conference on
peer-to-peer computing. The title of the talk is "Napster Fabbing--Internet
Delivery of Physical Products" and it's at
http://www.ennex.com/publish/200102-MB&Howison-Napster.sht.
Enjoy!
Best regards,
Marshall Burns
President, Ennex Corporation
Marshall@Ennex.com
Los Angeles, USA, (310) 397-1314
http://www.Ennex.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Josh McCormick" <josh.mccormick@wcom.com>
To: <rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 11:10
Subject: How RP turns into the PF? Introducing RP to the mass market.
> All --
>
> I've just had a massive introduction to the world of RP/PF and the like.
> (Many thanks to the Ennex Corporation to their library of documents.)
> Naturally, my head is swimming with ideas in the consumer market for the
> PF. But the big leap seems to be getting to the point of the PF.
>
> Thinking along those lines, I can think of one thing that'll create a
> massive demand for a PF, and that's real-time RP in the stores. An
> arts-and-crafts store. Or a candy store. Both are simple and practical
> applications.
>
> The upcoming Valentine's day is an excellent example of enticing the
> mass market with the idea of the PF. Personalized etches of pictures or
> messages into chocolate (simple automated carving or dot-matrix type
> impressions or, yes, lasers). Or in the craft store, custom moldings
> (even as simple as a 2d image extended into 3d space). On the high-end
> of the market, creation of elaborate and intricate designs that would
> normally take hours of work and may be too delicate to ship
> conventionally. (Even more interesting would be multiple moldings that
> link together to create a bigger and more complex object.)
>
> True, they do stuff like this today, for example, etching of pictures
> with a laser onto grave markers. But that doesn't whet the public's
> appetite for multiple reasons (low entertainment level, low practical
> level, not real-time, grief, nobody expecting to need a lot of grave
> markers, etc). Although I'll bet that if a Home Depot or Garden Ridge
> did elaborate stone etchings on the spot (and more importantly, on a
> variety of objects), that would create some excitement!
>
> We've already seen some of the customization technology, on a limited
> basis, to create dog tags at Petsmart. But the scope is so focused and
> the demand is so limited that it, again, doesn't capture the attention
> of the consumer.
>
> What kind of customization application in a commercial environment is it
> going to take to make everyone want their own PF or RP device for
> personal or entertainment purposes?
>
> PS: I really see the idea of types of PFs being excellent for
> entertainment, amusement, and enjoyment.
>
> Josh McCormick
> This email does not represent the position or beliefs of Electronic Data
> Systems.
>
> For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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