Writing for OpenSource.com, Luis Ibanez offers a succinct review of “Makers: The New Industrial Revolution” by Chris Anderson. As Ibanez notes, Anderson is a former Editor in Chief of Wired and no stranger to the economic paradoxes of peer-production and open source. He is also the CEO and co-founder of 3D Robotics, a company dedicated to producing kits for the DIY drone community.
”In his most recent book, Anderson examines the historical parallels between the Maker movement and the second Industrial Revolution [which] took place between 1850 and the end of World War I,” writes Ibanez.
“While the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) was based on large factories and expensive means of production, the second was characterized by the development of small machines (in particular the spinning wheel and the sewing machine) that democratized the means of production, leading to the proliferation of home-based micro business and cottage industries.”
Anderson then explains how the advent of the Maker Movement and 3D printing ecosystem will prompt a second Industrial Revolution which is expected to unfold at the speed of the information age. More specifically, Anderson discusses the Atmel-powered MakerBot 3D printer, noting that the platform is not just a tool, but rather:
- A plaything
- Revolutionary act
- Kinetic sculpture
- Political statement
- Thrillingly cool
Of course, the above-mentioned description applies to other 3D printers as well like RepRap, along with the rest of the DIY Maker Movement.
“Open source is not just an efficient innovation method—it’s a belief system as powerful as democracy or capitalism for its adherents,” Anderson emphasizes.
The author also offers a closer look at a number of Maker-related business stories, including Local Motors, SparkFun, Kickstarter, Etsy, MFG and OpenPCR.
“This book, Makers, helps us put into perspective the impact that the maker culture will have in the following years on the renaissance of manufacturing, while showing us how we can apply to the new revolution, the lessons that we’ve learned from the second Industrial Revolution of 1850 and the lessons from the more recent emergence of desktop computers in the 1980’s,” adds Ibanez.
Interested in learning more? You can pick up Makers: The New Industrial Revolution for $11.84 on Amazon Kindle here.
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