Small Empires episode 5: Shapeways with Alexis Ohanian, via the Shapeways Blog:
Memes are incredibly popular on Shapeways, and we were able to show Alexis and The Verge gang some of our favorites. Alexis even tried to 3D Print his own real bacon (okay, I’m half kidding, but he did leave a treat on our Materials Scientists’ desk.) The day of the shoot was as fun as it was functional, and we hope that the feature gives you more of an inside look at life here at Shapeways.
I have been in social media since the dawn of its time (depending on who you ask). I consider myself very fortunate to have been one of the first people to be a member of “The Facebook.” I remember when Twitter launched, and how many years it took for it to have relevance. I remember when memes went from something I read about in textbooks to something I saw on the internet every week -> Day ->5 minutes. I also remember the light gray, simple UI, and ferocious virality that emerged when Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman founded Reddit. Maximizing the ease of upvote, Reddit made it possible to go viral at a completely new speed.
This is very similar to how 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing make it possible to go to market at record (nearly instantaneous) speed. The ability to go from digital design file to finished, shipping product in a click fulfills a need for our designers just as Reddit does for it’s content creators and curators.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!