A ‘verse of things: Thingiverse.com
Over the past two years, 3d-printing and -lasercutting has become easier and more available. The basic idea behind 3d-printing is that you need the material you want to model an object with, and a 3d-printer, 3d-drafting software and your imagination to make any object (the size your printer can print). The first company to provide a self-replicating open source hardware kit to assemble a 3d-printer for home use was Makerbot Industries. But since the field is young and the community working on it is still quite small, Makerbot came up wih the idea of creating a community where people can exchange their designs and howtos.
Designs have to be made to communicate with the printer, and to share those designs with fellow makers, there exists a social network called "Thingiverse". Once I created my profile there, I could choose between a few sets of tools which I frequently have access to. Thingiverse says it will show me what projects I can do with them. People upload their designs and tutorials to show people how to create new objects from parts and material with a chosen toolset.
As far as I have so far found out, there is no way of following a certain person or creating groups, which I think would be really helpful in terms of collaboration. Maybe this will be like the video below in the future...
FULL PRINTED from nueve ojos on Vimeo.
