Career
The Future of Work: From Bits to Atoms
Feb 10th
What if I told you that it was possible to use a magic machine at home that could make anything…and that maybe you could use it to conjure up “things” to sell as part of your job?
Maybe you’d think I was crazy, but almost two years ago, we speculated that the web workers of the future may begin taking their digital designs and producing tangible items to sell, using online fabrication and production services such as Ponoko. Since then, the infrastructure of personal manufacturing has become gradually more accessible and affordable, suggesting that boutique production could become a viable career choice for many of us.
Last month’s issue of Wired explored some of the culture around personal manufacturing, noting that “global supply chains have become scale-free, able to serve the small as well as the large, the garage inventor and Sony.” Wired’s piece drew some criticism, with Gizmodo suggesting that rather than being the the “future of American manufacturing,” the developments of the last few years are really only affecting hobbyists — who are actually just outsourcing work to China. Despite this, it’s clear that everything from open-source car designs to customized LEGO parts are just a click away.
“Thing” Directories and Fabrication Services
Companies such as Ponoko and Shapeways are providing end-to-end services that enable product designers to submit designs, have prototypes manufactured for review and then listed in online stores where customers can customize them, place orders and have items shipped.
Other services such as Thingiverse act as open-source directories of “construction files” for items as diverse as engagement rings and light-duty pliers. Elsewhere, Flexible Stream is offering free, downloadable portfolios of designer’s work for use in rapid manufacturing devices such as 3D printers and CNC machines. The company’s catalog includes objects as esoteric as collections of wood joints for making furniture.
Other creators are offering their designs as direct downloads from their own sites and blogs; designer Julien Madérou’s downloadable papercraft iPhone stand is a great example. Indeed, rather than printing such a design on paper, services such as Ponoko or Shapeways enable such designs to be fabricated from tougher materials, such as wood and metal.
3D Printers and Rapid Manufacturing Fabrication
Where the likes of Ponoko enable hobbyists to submit a design file for fabrication at a remote facility, for the more adventurous designer who’d like to make things at home, tools such as 3D printers are becoming more affordable and accessible.
New York’s MakerBot Industries are producing 3D printers that cost less than $1,000 and can purportedly manufacture any item that’s less than 4″x4″x6″. Though currently limited only to ABS plastic as a material, the price point and capability of these devices will only improve over time.
In parallel with these low-cost fabrication devices, networks of fabrication workshops are emerging as a kind of “coworking for machine shops.” The most prominent of these — TechShop – is concentrated in California. More recently Ponoko and ShopBot Tools (a manufacturer of CNC tools) launched a joint venture — 100kGarages — to bring together creative consumers and local fabricators in a global network of “garage workshops.”
Between fabrication services, “thing directories,” low-cost 3D printers and “comaking” workshops, the opportunities for web worker careers is growing, moving beyond the production of digital value and into a new world of boutique physical items.
Have you considered adding making and selling boutique items to your portfolio of skills?
Related GigaOM Pro Research: Report: 3-D Computing From Digital Cinema to GPUs
Read more: http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/10/report-3-d-computing-from-digital-cinema-to-gpus/#ixzz0f9XwNgkf
Coworking Stories: Manchester’s MadLab
Feb 10th
A little over a year ago, I wrote about coworking taking root across the North of England, with five coworking communities either side of the Pennine mountains, strung along the M62 corridor. More recently, “hackspaces“ have also begun to spring up around the UK, drawing in people involved in “make“ groups and a wider community of technologists.
Last month, Manchester saw its first coworking community — FlyThe.Coop — move to a new location shared with the recently-launched MadLab hackspace. MadLab, also known as the Manchester Digital Laboratory, describes itself as:
“a community space for people who want to do and make interesting stuff — a place for geeks, artists, designers, illustrators, hackers, tinkerers, innovators and idle dreamers; an autonomous R&D laboratory and a release valve for Manchester’s creative communities”
Last week, I got the chance to talk to one of MadLab’s four founders, Dave Mee, about the vision for MadLab, its history, its residents, the challenges it has faced, and his advice for other coworking space founders.
Imran Ali: Tell us a little about the background of MadLab. What were the motivations of the founders?
Dave Mee: We spent a lot of time around hacker user groups and communities, and often found ourselves in pubs for the events they held. Pubs aren’t great locations for these events: Projectors wouldn’t work, DJs would show up halfway through presentations, and generally they’re not geared up for reliable Wi-Fi and soldering, particularly with alcohol around. At the same time, we saw there were no real alternatives; other presentation spaces were either too expensive, lacked facilities, or were too far out for people to get to.
At the same time, we missed some of the events we were used to from London: DorkBot, Flash user groups, MiniBar, the Takeaway festival. The was the talent, passion and eagerness for these things to start in Manchester, but without the infrastructure to support bottom-up cultural activity, they never could get off the ground and move beyond being meet-and-drink events.
We spoke with people around the city; there’s a vibrant Social Media Cafe in Machester, and this provided a great way to get involved with many of the people and institutions that supported us as we set the project up. The Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) were a great ally early on, and understood the value of a cross-disciplinary space in the city, in readiness for the next cultural and technical waves we’ll be hit by.
Manchester — technically, Salford — is seeing huge investment as the BBC moves to Media City. There will be a huge growth in media and technology companies here over the next few years, and we see MadLab as a space for tomorrow’s media and cultural professionals.
Imran: Do you see much collaboration between residents? What’s the general breakdown of residents in your space — what kind of work are they involved in?
Mee: Our basic aim was to provide a free space for community and professional groups to use to explore their practices and share them with new people and groups — a kind of ”digital salon” for the 21st century. We’re approaching this in three ways:
- Establishing programming and events (such as our Robot Hack Day, which we arranged with the Museum of Science and Industry).
- Providing a platform for new and established user groups to build from, and giving them some permanence and infrastructure to rely on. As organisers, we’re actively engaged with the local council, education schemes, libraries and agencies to provide us with further programming and events which we can bring to people who wouldn’t normally be aware of them — from contract law workshops to book clubs.
- Supporting a local coworking organisation, FlyThe.Coop, who provide a bridge between people exploring digital spaces and those establishing their own businesses.
Imran: What were your greatest surprises in bootstrapping MadLab — and the largest operational challenges?
Mee: Finding out how much spaces like the MadLab are needed in modern cities has been the most surprising thing — our basic idea of open practices and collaborative space has been adopted by a huge number of communities around the area. We’ve found we’re bringing together animators with robot builders, permaculturists with screenwriters. We always hoped for a mixed group of users, but the variety of people who have embraced what’s going on has been inspiring.
It’s been hard work; we don’t want anyone thinking of starting their own that it’s an easy thing to do. As a new organization we’ve had to start everything from scratch, but enough people value the idea and the work we’ve put in that we were offered a lot of pro-bono support and assistance. This is ultimately what it’s about; building a framework around which people can get together, find each other, and support their activities.
One of the biggest challenges is securing funding. We set out with the aim of making the MadLab free or low-cost for people using the space, and that there would be a democracy of participation, rather than having room-hire or membership fees. This means there’s constant background activity in chasing applications and finding sources of funding, and building a solid network and outreach between the regional and national agencies and organizations we want to work with.
Imran: What’re your plans for the future?
Mee: We are establishing a few new strands of programming, and we’re bringing in a broader range of speakers and events on both the national and international level. We’re also working with some of the festivals and events around the region, and building a platform to provide greater exposure to our community’s work to these other audiences. On a longer-term basis, we want to build ties across the world and organize MadLab and hackspace exchanges.
Imran: What are the key pieces of advice you’d give to people thinking about establishing a coworking space?
- Don’t underestimate your running costs!
- Never, ever undervalue the strength of your community; build out and spread the word far and early.
- Local development agencies and business advice groups are there to help.
Post your thoughts and reactions to Dave’s observations in the comments below.
How Mel Gibson Can Help Your Content Strategy
Feb 6th
I saw Mel Gibson on a talk show last night. He was there to promote a new action flick he has coming out, and the host asked him about his “Three E” approach to movie making. He responded that there are three things he tries to achieve with his movies: first entertain, then educate, and then, if possible, elevate.
I instantly thought these were admirable objectives to shoot for in almost any kind of communication, though the order of priority would vary depending on the type of communication and its purpose. It may seem like I’m stating the obvious, but what came to my mind right away was how appropriate these three objectives would be for a content development strategy.
Then it occurred to me that in this context, there has to be a fourth “E,” one that is pretty critical in the social Web: engage.
I wrote about content strategy not too long ago. It’s a hot topic and a rising career field. So if you create content (and who doesn’t these days?), you might want to ask yourself if your content satisfies any of these four criteria. Think of them as a kind of quality control standard.
The content you create — from animated demos to blogs to tweets to videos on YouTube — all influence your clients’ and peers’ perception of you. As a professional, you understand the importance of the quality of your product, and you should consider your content as one of your products.
Think about the people you follow on Twitter or whose blogs you read. Chances are your favorites provide a lot of Es. I looked at the tweets of one of the people I enjoy following, and found that most of his tweets qualified:
Just for fun, take a look at what you put out there and do a quick analysis to assess the quality of your content based on the four Es. What do you see?
If you want to learn more about content strategy, don’t miss “Content Strategy Forum 2010,” two days devoted to the topic in Paris in April.
What guidelines do you use for the content you create?
Time Tracking: How Granular Should You Be?
Jan 28th
Lots of clients like you to track your time and submit reports detailing your daily activities, so they know their money is being spent well. It’s good practice for them, and it’s good practice for you, since you have a handy log of how you work, and you can then analyze and improve upon your habits using that information.
The trick with time tracking is arriving upon a degree of detail that’s both useful and efficient. It doesn’t help you if keeping track of things is all you end up doing because it’s such a time and attention-intensive process. Conversely, a general account of “Peformed project-related work” for a time block of eight hours isn’t particularly illuminating, either for the client or yourself. So how granular should your time tracking and reporting be?
I worked with one company that insisted on providing time reporting for all project staff in 15-minute increments to all of its clients. It might seem impossible, and in practice, it was, though that didn’t change the wording of the guidelines. What ended up happening was that either the client would demand simpler reporting, or company assets on assignment would “go native” and refuse to submit such ridiculously extensive accounting of their time.
Over time, the most sensible way of going about time tracking for the company became apparent. Generally speaking, project staff would report changes in activity throughout the day in blocks of time of no less than half an hour, and no more than three. Then before passing on said info to the client, administrative staff would edit it, depending on the needs and wants of the particular client stakeholder receiving the report.
As a web worker working on a contract basis from home, your process should be similar. The easy part is knowing to what degree of detail you need for your own purposes of professional development: experience will tell you that. Determining what a client wants is trickier, but should follow a similar logic. Arrive at a standard first through trial and error with some early projects, and then use that as the template for all future engagements. Solicit and pay attention to client feedback after that to determine what’s right for the person you’re currently working with.
As with most things, the best way to go about it is to avoid extremes. Report too much or too little, and you’re likely to either over- or underwhelm a client. The perfect balance is hard to achieve, but a good balance shouldn’t be too hard to arrive at.
How do you determine how granular to make your time tracking?
9 Business Lessons From Celebrities
Jan 27th
If you pay attention, you can find inspiration and lessons that you can apply to your business everywhere you look. Personally, I’m surprised how many lessons I’ve learned from some of my favorite celebrities.
- Lance Armstrong: Be disciplined. No business will succeed without a lot of hard work and discipline. Commit to it. Stick with it. Eventually, you’ll reach your destination.
- Paula Deen: Be yourself (and be bold about it). You will naturally succeed if you build a base of followers who are naturally attracted to your personality. Don’t worry about being liked by everybody. Just let your own unique personality shine through.
- Mr. Rogers: Be positive. I can’t imagine making it in business without a whole lot of optimism.
- Ellen Degeneres: Have fun. The daily grind, even when you work for yourself, can be dull at times. Doing something you love, surrounding yourself with clients and connections that energize you, and taking time to appreciate the good things in life make it all worthwhile, and who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh every once in a while?
- Bill Cosby: Keep learning. I used to be so intimidated by what I didn’t know. But I’ve come to realize that such a list is endless, so I just continue to work at it, and I learn more and more each day about how to build a successful business.
- Carol Burnett: Be creative. Sometimes you have to improvise. You figure it out, and you come to enjoy the journey.
- Oprah: Build a platform. To succeed in business, you have to have a group of people who believe in you, who want to hear what you have to say, and who want to support you in everything you do.
- Jim Carrey & Steve Carell: Don’t take it all so seriously. You’re going to mess up, and you will look silly on occasion. Learn to be OK with that.
- Maya Angelou: Be resilient. Things will not always be easy, but if you refuse to give up and keep bouncing back, they manage to work themselves out.
Just like certain words bring to mind certain products or companies, certain celebrities make me think of lessons or traits I hope to apply within my business.
Do any lessons or traits come to mind when you think of certain celebrities?
Image from Flickr by j a r r o d
Be Willing to Put Yourself Out There
Jan 26th
When I was fourteen I was falling fast
For a blue-eyed girl in my homeroom class
Trying to find the courage to ask her out
Was like trying to get oil from a waterspout
What she would’ve said I can’t say
I never did ask and she moved away
But I learned something from my blue-eyed girl
Sink or swim you gotta give it a whirl.
- John Michael Montgomery, “Life’s a Dance”
I’m surprised sometimes by business owners who turn down opportunities for promotion. We can all feel intimidated by the thought of putting ourselves or our ideas out there, but whenever that happens to me, I stop and ask myself, “Are you serious about this?”
If there’s one thing I’m figuring out, especially lately, it’s that you have to be willing to make the approach. You have to be willing to ask for what you want. Ask the person to be a guest for your blog or podcast. Ask to be covered on another person’s site or radio show. Ask someone to join you for lunch or coffee. Just ask.
Maybe they’ll say yes. Maybe they’ll say no, but who cares? There are a million other people to ask.
It’s nerve-racking, spine-numbing and absolutely intimidating to get out there and tell the world about yourself and your business, but at some point, you have to ask yourself just how serious you are and how willing you are to let go of your fears and inhibitions and just do it.
The point is, you’re not going to get anywhere by staying holed up behind your computer screen tweaking, thinking, lurking or waiting. You have to take the initiative. Marketing, promotion and publicity – it’s all intimidating, and very few people are comfortable with it. That’s OK, though. If you admit that you’re nervous, people will be quick to support you and will actually see you as a real person who messes up and has feelings and is just like them, and that’s what you want — to make a connection with others.
What’s the best thing you ever accomplished by putting yourself out there?
Image from Flickr by geeknerd99
Have You Thanked a Community Manager Today?
Jan 25th
Today is the first annual Community Manager Appreciation Day, and it’s about time! Community Manager Appreciation Day will be celebrated on the fourth Monday of every January, so set that yearly calendar appointment now to remember it for years to come. A huge “thank you” needs to go to Jeremiah Owyang for coming up with the idea for Community Manager Appreciation Day and for making it happen.
Community management is one of those web worker roles that can be done from almost anywhere, and many of you are community managers in some form. It is such an important role that I did a whole series of posts about community management last year, about online community manager jobs; what community managers actually do; what skills are required to be successful in the role; and the dark side of community management.
Community management can be a tough profession, since so much of what community managers do every day goes unnoticed by most people, which is why it is so important to recognize the community managers that you work with as a manager, coworker, customer or community member. Jeremiah Owyang has a few suggestions for recognizing community managers:
- If you’re a customer, and your problem was solved by a community manager be sure to thank them in the medium that helped you in. Use the hashtag #CMAD.
- If you’re a colleague with community manager, take the time to understand their passion to improve the customers’ experience. Copy their boss.
- If you’re a community manager, stop and breathe for a second, and know that you’re appreciated. Hug your family.
Community Manager Appreciation Day is supported by Bill Johnston, Connie Benson, Rachel Happe, Jake McKee, Sean O’Driscoll, Lane Becker, Dawn Foster, Thor Muller, Amy Muller and Jeremiah Owyang.
How are you planning to thank your community manager?
Photo courtesy TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³.
