I really apreciate it when I'm shopping for components and there is a link to the CAD files, such as shown on http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=89K0691
However for many components I'd like to use these files don't exist. Something I'd really like to see Newark / Element14 offer is the ability to offer a bounty on CAD files for a component.
Basically a customer [the requester] could follow an "Offer Bounty" link from a given component page's list of related files and then enter some requested file format data plus an award ammount. The website would the place the "Offer Bounty for SKU=xyz123 in CAD CadSoft_EAGLE format" as an item in the user's cart. When the user checks out the "Offer Bounty" item is placed on backorder status, and the award ammount (minus some percentage, ~10%, reserved for processing & QA) is posted on the product page as "Bounty of $XX.XX offered for YYYY format file for this product". If mumtiple requesters submit a bounty offer for the same product, the posted award ammount increases. When some enterprising user [the submitter] follows the associated link and uploads a file with the correct format, the file is queued for QA review. Once the file is accepted by a QA reviewer a link is posted to the product page, the requester(s) is (are) notified via e-mail, their backordered boutny offer items are processed (credit cards charged, etc) and the submitter received a site credit in the ammount of the posted award. QA reviewers would be recruited from the Element14 community and receive a portion of the processing & QA percentage (2 to 5% based on reputation). Requesters and submitters would be asked to provide reputation feedback for QA reviewers. QA reviewers and requesters would be asked to provide feedback to submitters. Newark / Element14 would receive a small processig percentage of each bounty AND have access to a growing library of quality CAD files for their products.
If these files were also posted in a publicly accessable repository and included links to the Newark product pages / info, CAD developers such as CadSoft could tools for selecting and ordering components right from within the design environment. If CadSoft isn't interedted in developing tools like this, then Newark / Element14 should look into investing in an open source tool like KiCAD, by sponsoring a developer conference and/or fellowships.
