Hey fellas! My name is Dario and I live in Rome.

Hey fellas! My name is Dario and I live in Rome. At the moment I’m following a course on startups and as an exercise we have to create one (of course). With my team we decided to work with rapid prototyping (expecially 3D priting) and we were trying to figure out what kind of problems this community may have…do you have any hints?

Patents are currently one of the big inhibitors of progress in this community.

Are you actually looking at rapid prototyping or are you looking at 3D printing of final products? I, and many others, use 3D printing to create final objects for use, even if it’s just an ornament or a shelf support for my books. Or are you looking at businesses using 3D printing for iterative testing of the design of products? I think the first major problem in this community is lumping both groups together. Companies need to know their consumer and stop using one industry terminology across markets. Who is your audience, Dario?

our first idea was to create a platform on the basis of shapeways and sculpteo, but also including laser cutting, with a “design contest” dimension in order to make it more viral

we are also thinking to add one section of “scientific divulgation” in order to make people understand what is rapid prototyping (considering that people may land to the website because of the design contest)

I understand. So you’re looking at designers, artists and their consumers rather than businesses. For me as a consumer in that arena, the hardest parts are the cost of a single product, the turn-around time, and the uniqueness of the object. With etsy and shapeways and sculpteo, the access to designers is unprecedented. However, they are mainly static designs with long-lead times. What’s the difference between that and buying something from Pottery Barn besides the difference in materials? And if I get it in plastic, I can pay large costs for something that, let’s face it, is plastic. Good luck and I hope my answers lead to discussion. It seems there are a lot of people on this Google+ community that are looking into similar “designer hubs”.

it has been very useful :slight_smile: Our aim will be to give a great chance to designer to show off they work (starting from italian design of course). This should bring the dynamic environment your were talking about.