Tracing the historical roots of collaborative production : emerging challenges posed by three-dimensional printing

Abstract

Computers and computer networks have transformed the functioning of our societies and economies on multiple levels. Our modes of production, commerce, communication, education and socialisation have changed. First, this paper provides a brief overview of the major points of contention between Internet optimists and Internet pessimists throughout the 1990s. It shows that, from its very outset, the creation of the “World Wide Web” has drawn a mixed reaction from the scientific community. Some commentators portrayed the advent of the Internet as a democratizing and freedom-enhancing revolution; some others believed that an uncontrolled growth of technology could endanger traditional mental processes and social relations. With the advent of the Web 2.0, a new modality of production and dissemination of information - that Benkler has defined “commons-based peer production” – has emerged, generating a new wave of discussion between Net enthusiasts and Net sceptics. The first part of my paper lays the groundwork for the subsequent inquiry into decentralized forms of production in Open Source Software, Open Innovation, and Open Source Hardware. The subtle differences between such collaborative endeavours are highlighted. The preliminary insight into early reactions to technological change serves the purpose to unfold, in the second part of my paper, positive and negative predictions about an emerging technology: three-dimensional printing (“3DP”). The latter is taken as a representative example of new forms of collaborative production. 3DP is ushering a new era where enthusiastic participants contribute their skill, time and labour to the creation of digital designs and the corresponding physical outputs. Regular people have gained access to tools of design, manufacture and distribution of products. By bypassing traditional means of production and supply chains, 3DP may exercise a broad transformational socioeconomic impact. It may trigger the advent of a “democratization” of manufacturing and a mass-scale customization of products.