Feb.10, 2012
Yesterday Shen Xiaoming, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, China announced that Shanghai government is going to build up the first 30 hackerspaces (community creative space/innovation house) and 30 communities demonstrating scientific and technological achievements in 2012, following our report from last November. These hackerspaces will be built in 30 residential areas and sponsored by Shanghai government. The local residential communities will take care of the daily space management and pay for the materials. Each space is required to be at least 100 square meters, more than 200 days/year open, equipped with wood lathes, metal lathes, saws and drill grinding combined machine, milling machine, 3D printers and other tools.
At the same time Open3DP, a lab at the University of Washington announced in their blog "Sorry we're not so Open lately" because of a change to UW's intellectual property policy. Open3DP has been openly sharing their knowledge and research in 3D printing with everyone to push the technology to go further. This is very sad! While on the other side the world a government is trying to sponsor hackerspace to interest people by giving them access to all kinds of tools and sharing their achievements, researchers at Open3DP has to stop sharing what they are learning and all their research in the 3D printing arena. Obviously the university has the concern of intellectual property and economic benefit.
The difference between these two cases are the level of support. We don't know if the University of Washington has financial difficulties or not, but it can be true that universities benefit little or nothing from all the inventions they developed. If government in western countries could give some sponsorship or recognition to reduce the financial pressure of local universities or institutes, they may be more willing to share their research for the benefit of the society.
In 2012 Shanghai government is going to provide a solid and strong technical support to speed up innovation and to create a breeding ground for al innovation projects. We wish we could see this level of support in all countries more often because it will undoubtedly cause a revolution in awesomeness and creative momentum.
Via Open3DP & boingboing
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
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Wouldn't it be wonderful if MS or apple sponsored a free lab in every major city -Apple has billions in $ - maybe just 100 million a year for the next 5 years ? Maybe give away 5 3d printers / cnc machines to every community college that would teach a basic printing course ? WOuldn't it be grand to see these in schools at the 6th grade level to get kids excited about science and enjineeering ?