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The Maker Pro Newsletter & Maker Market Study

fustini

I thought this may be of interest:

 

The Maker Pro Newsletter

http://createsend.com/t/r-3E3A949980CE1596

From the editors of MAKE magazine, The Maker Pro Newsletter will focus on makers in business, covering developments in the emerging maker market. Our coverage will include hardware startups, new products, incubators, innovators, and maker market trends.

 

 

Maker Market Study: An In-depth Profile of Makers at the Forefront of Hardware Innovation

http://cdn.makezine.com/make/bootstrap/img/etc/Maker-Market-Study.pdf

It's widely acknowledged that the maker movement is having far reaching effects on business, our economy, even our everyday way of life. MAKE magazine and Intel co-sponsored a survey among a cross-section of the maker universe to provide an in-depth profile of makers at the forefront of hardware innovation.

 

An portion of the study highlighted in the newsletter:

A new Purchase Intentions & Attitudes Study, commissioned by Maker Media, Inc. provides a look at the intersection of makers moving from hobbyist to pro.

 

Forty four percent of casual makers say the garage is still their main workspace, while 45 percent of professional makers have a designated space. The garage is second at 37 percent.

Nearly 1 in 5 professional makers favor a collaborative space like a hackerspace or TechShop model.

 

Makers' Projects Have Commercial Viability:

About 1 in 5 respondents (19%) indicated that they have been approached by a commercial enterprise about an idea or prototype.

34 percent indicated a commerce or income activity related to their making.

 

 

Cheers,

Drew

  • The study is a very interesting view and insight of the Maker following.

    You have to acknowledge that there are just more than novices pursuing ways to bring their ideas to fruition.

    Clearly, 3D printing is an enabling technology for people to explore complex shapes and other ideas that would be cost prohibitive to machine using normal material.  The combination of good control software and a easy to use material has gone a long way in encouraging people to explore what they think about.

     

    There is also a strong leaning towards openness.  Makers like to freely share instead of try to get rich off of their ideas.  These ideals follow the frontier spirit where everyone helped one another with problems they encountered.  Its too bad that corporations world wide now squash this approach.  Most of us just want to help people, not take advantage of them.

     

    I hope you all read the report.  You will see a lot of good data and ideas about what Making is and how it is growing.

    Plus I now have a goal to build a 3D chocolate printer at my wife's urging. image

     

    You just can't keep a good idea down.

    Just my opinion,

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    I definitely agree.  It was interesting to see data backup some things I've suspected. 

     

    Make seems to be making an effort to produce more content aimed at makers involved in business activities.  The Make: Hardware Innovation Workshop will be happening again in May (2nd annual):

     

    http://makezine.com/hardware-innovation-workshop/

    Makers, product designers, artists, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and venture capitalists talked about bridging the gap between home hardware hacking and building a real hardware business.

     

    ... I look forward to seeing blog posts about your chocolate printer! image

  • in reply to fustini

    Since you guys are on the subject of 3D printing and printing different materials I would check out the blog by RichRap http://richrap.com/?p=60.

    I've been following him ever since I got into 3d printing and find him leading the way in DIY/open source printing.  He was one of a couple people to get Pronterface and Slic3r running on the Raspberry Pi.   Let me know what you guys think.

  • in reply to Nate1616

    Hi Nate,

     

    Great link, I will spend more time looking into his materials and techniques, but very impressive.

     

    Thanks

    DAB