創客時代：新的工業革命

創客（Maker，又譯為“自造者”），指一群酷愛科技、熱衷實踐的人，他們不以贏利為目標、樂于分享技術、交流思想，把創意轉變為現實。

當下，創客運動風靡全球。去年6月17日美國總統奧巴馬在白宮舉辦了創客嘉年華活動并確定每年的6月18日為美國“制造日”。而美國著名科技雜志《連線》雜志的主編、暢銷書《長尾理論》的作者Chris Anderson在其新書《Makers： the New Industrial Revolution》直指創客將成為新的工業革命。到底“創客”有多大的能耐？我們直接節選了Chris Anderson的書，各位先睹為快。

Back in the early 1940s my grandfather had a great idea. Noting the obsession Californians have with perfectly green front lawns， he decided that what they needed was an automatic 1）sprinkler system. He lavished time and love on it， inventing this and fine-tuning that， and eventually came up with what was essentially an electric clock that could be timed to turn water valves on or off at given times of the day and night. Patent number 2311108 was duly filed in 1943， at which point my grandfather started knocking on manufacturers’ doors. It was a long， 2）arduous process. Finally， in 1950， after endless discussions， the Moody Rainmaster hit the stores. It earned my grandfather a modest income.

Recently， I decided to follow in his footsteps， while adding a little 21st-century know-how to the mix. Online， I found a few like-minded souls interested in producing an improved water sprinkler. We used 3）opensource software to help us create a sprinkler system not only capable of being operated remotely via an app by worried gardeners on holiday， but also sophisticated enough to factor in the latest local weather forecasts before deciding whether to switch the system on or off. We then sent our designs to an assembly house， who duly came up with a smart-looking finished product. It has proved quite popular. It took my grandfather a decade and a small fortune to perfect his device and market it. It took us a few months and $5，000.

And that 4）in a nutshell is the Maker movement—harnessing the Internet and the latest manufacturing technologies to make things. The past 10 years have been about discovering new ways to work together and offer services on the web. The next 10 years will， I believe， be about applying those lessons to the real world. It means that the future doesn’t just belong to Internet businesses founded on virtual principles， but to ones that are firmly rooted in the physical world.

It’s almost a cliché that anyone with a sufficiently good software idea can create a fabulously successful company on the web. That’s because there are practically no barriers preventing entry to entrepreneurship online： if you’ve got a laptop and a credit card， you’re in business. Manufacturing has traditionally been regarded as something else entirely. But over the past few years， something remarkable has begun to happen. The process of making physical stuff has started to look more like the process of making digital stuff.

Various innovations are helping to make this possible. The first， of course， is the 5）crowdsourcing power of the Internet—if you don’t know all the answers， there is someone out there who will. Put out a call for help on a blog or online forum， and somewhere there will be an expert prepared to help you. The second innovation is the increasing sophistication of design programs that can take raw ideas and transform them into executable files. Just as word-processing software has become ever simpler and more intuitive for the user， so Cad （computer-aided design） programs are becoming simultaneously more sophisticated and easier to handle. You design something； the Cad program works out how it can be produced.

First of all， such technology helps remove the 6）shackles from innovation. Until now， the creative process has been beset with obstacles， from the problems inherent in creating a prototype， to the difficulties of persuading a third party to become involved， to the expense of the final launch. And， of course， there’s no guarantee of ultimate success.

But it’s easy to see how Maker technology suits this sort of 7）niche enterprise. Chances are that a savvy and committed market already exists for the right product， and， thanks to the Internet， it’s relatively easy to find it. What’s more， the current manufacturing technology that supports Makers is ideally suited to small batches of bespoke products—from customised plastic toys to tailored clothes.

Moreover， you can， if you choose， make every item bespoke. And you can manufacture at home， perhaps using your own 3D printer （in the U.S.， prices are already dropping to $1，000） or sending your files to a third party fitted out with the necessary kit. That said； I don’t believe that Makers enterprises have to remain smallscale.

Imagine a new company， WindCo， making its first product： a small backyard wind turbine generator. They make the first prototype themselves， as well as a handful of others. Then， it’s time to go into serious production. WindCo is small， and they don’t have sufficient manufacturing capacity themselves， so they outsource to a factory in China that can handle small batches cheaply.

If the product is successful and demand builds， they may well opt to move production back home to cut out delays. If it’s astonishingly successful， then they may decide to move production to a different factory in China that specialises in 8）bulk manufacturing. They have to be flexible because their business is constantly evolving. They are able to be flexible because their design files are digital， the tooling costs of setting up a new manufacturing operation are minimal， and they all use the same robotic machinery.

That this can work is demonstrated by the success of a Colorado-based company， Sparkfun， which operates in one of the most ruthlessly cut-throat of all areas of business—electronics. Back in 2003 its founder， Nathan Seidle， was an undergraduate engineering student， who was finding it frustratingly difficult to locate electronic components that he needed for his projects. Today， Sparkfun designs and manufactures specialist printed circuit boards， using sophisticated pick-and-place robot machines to assemble them.

Its employees are young， passionate and appear to totally love their jobs. Dogs and hobbies are indulged at work （though not on the production floor）； tattoos and indie punk rock reflect its culture. It’s a far cry from the “dark satanic mill” vision of manufacturing—much closer in fact to the 9）maverick image of software companies in their startup days.

And it works. Today， Sparkfun has more than 120 employees and annual revenues of around $30 million. It’s growing by 50% a year. A basketball-court-sized ground floor is dominated by robotic electronic production lines， running day and night. And its popular daily blog posts and tutorials have turned its retail website into a high-traffic community， with more than 50，000 visitors a day.

The Maker movement has a long way to go before it can really be said to have come of age. But that doesn’t mean it should be ignored or regarded solely as a hobbyist’s or niche manufacturer’s paradise. It represents the first steps in a different way of doing business. Rather than top-down innovation by some of the biggest companies in the world， we’re starting to see bottom-up innovation by countless individuals， including amateurs， entrepreneurs and professionals. We’ve already seen it work before， in bits， from the original PC hobbyists to the web’s citizen army. Now the conditions have arrived for it to work again， on an even greater， broader scale， in atoms. If the Second Industrial Revolution was the Information Age， then I would argue that a Third Industrial Age is on its way： the age of the Makers.

在20世紀40年代早期，我祖父有個很棒的想法。自從發現加利福尼亞人癡迷綠油油的前院草坪后，他就認定他們所需要的是一套自動灑水系統。他在這套系統上傾注了大量的時間和熱情，不停創新并精心調試，最后制作出了最為關鍵的電子鐘，無論在白天還是黑夜，都能夠在指定的時間里打開或是關上水閥。1943年，祖父適時申請到了專利號：2311108，同時他開始拜訪各大制造商。這個過程漫長而艱辛。最終，在1950年，經過沒完沒了的商討，穆迪雨閥投入市面，為我祖父帶來了一筆不太多的收入。

最近，我決定追隨他的步伐，再加上點21世紀的技術秘訣。在網上，我找到了和我一樣對改良灑水系統有興趣的同好。我們使用開源軟件的幫助，設計出一套新的灑水系統，不僅能夠讓度假時心懷憂慮的園丁們通過一個應用程序進行遠程控制，而且還精良設計至加入當地天氣實時預報，方便用家決定是打開還是關閉系統。然后我們將設計送往組裝廠，他們按時裝配好了一套外觀漂亮的成品，結果產品相當受歡迎?！?br>