The document discusses the democratization of innovation through more affordable scientific and engineering tools that are blurring the lines between professionals and amateurs. It describes how this could lead to an innovation and manufacturing renaissance similar to the emergence of home computing. It then discusses 10 major trends that are converging to create an innovation ecosystem, including diminishing startup costs, social networks, easier access to capital, freelancing/offshoring, big data, artificial intelligence, internet growth and connectivity, collaborative culture, and risk management.

1. Democratization of Innovation
Professional grade scientific and engineering tools are increasingly affordable and blurring
the lines between professionals and amateurs . Many believe we are approaching an
innovation and manufacturing Renaissance, similar to the emergence of home computing.
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 1
Citizen Science And a Manufacturing Revolution

2. Convergence of 10 Major Trends
Minimal &
Diminishing
Startup Costs
All Location Independent
Social
Networks
Easier Access
To Capital
Freelance &
Offshoring
Innovation Ecosystem
Open Scientific
Inquiry &
Manufacturing
Revolution
Big Data
Artificial
Intelligence
Growth &
Connectivity of
Internet
Population
Collaborative
Culture
Risk
Management
Innovation Ecosystem
• Open Science Movement
• Open Access To Research
• Affordable And Free Access to Advanced
Software
• Maker Movement / Do It Yourself (DIY)
• 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing
2

3. Open Scientific Inquiry
An open scientific inquiry revolution is underway that is propelled by
the power of open knowledge stores, collaboration and the
diminishing cost of professional grade tools.
3

4. In much the same way as online readers of the New York Times are unable to read
stories without paying for access, the academic publishing industry keeps large
“knowledge stores” of scholarly research locked behind an industry “pay-wall.”
As a result, scientific and intellectual inquiry and innovation has been stunted because
of siloed knowledge that can only be accessed by those who can afford to pay.
The Pay-Wall
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 4

5. • Harvard now spends $3.75 million annually on academic journal subscriptions.
• Some journals cost schools up to $40,000 every year, with the two top publishers
increasing the price of content 145% over the last six years.
• To review the latest scientific research one can expect to spend nearly $30 to $40 for a
single paper.
5
• 52 Nobel Laureates have subsequently co-authored an open letter to Congress
supporting the open access bill and encouraging its passage.
• If passed, the legislation would create a knowledge and research commons that is
more transparent, accessible and participatory.
Cracks Are Forming In The Pay-Wall
The problem:
• Nearly 5,000 scholars are now boycotting Elsevier (research publisher), in protest of
price-gouging
• Pending federal legislation seeks to compel open access to publications that are
derived from tax payer funded research.
The Response:
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs

6. Open Scientific Inquiry
Just as the open access movement seeks to free up knowledge
stores, a growing number of scientists, mathematicians and
engineers want to encourage a collaborative environment in which
science can be pursued by anyone who is inspired to discover
something new about the natural world. The movement is
frequently called Open Science.
Open Access publications,
Open Data, and Open Source
software, are the pillars of
the Open Science
movement.
A complimentary trend is the emergence of Citizen Science which is a broadly defined
term that describes the participation of average citizens in scientific inquiry. Frequently it
includes the use of crowdsourcing volunteers who assist professional scientist with the
classification of data for which computers are equipped.
There is no hard and fast definition for Open Science but it is a
general term representing the application of various open
approaches (Open Access, Open Source, Open Data) to scientific
endeavor. Open Science is gaining adherents but still faces
headwinds from a culture that traditionally favors secrecy and
hoards data.
Access to knowledge stores, data and professional grade scientific software is becoming
more readily available to everyone, and the lines between professional scientist, enthusiasts and
hobbyist are blurring.
6

7. Scientific Software Is Going To The Cloud
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 7

8. Powerful Technology For Everyone
Based on high level discussions with Wolfram Research, we know that Wolfram is currently
developing a cloud-based version of it’s computational engine, Mathmatica. Mathmatica
supports dynamic modeling across a broad spectrum of industries and will likely be released
on a subscription model and is expected to be open to third party API plugins.
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 8

9. Wolfram’s Computation Engine
Core Algorithms
Numerical Computing
Application Areas
Graphics & Visualization Productivity & Usability
Data Sources & Analysis
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs

10. Engineering
Aerospace Engineering and Defense>>
Chemical Engineering »
Control Systems »
Electrical Engineering »
Image Processing »
Industrial Engineering »
Materials Science »
Mechanical Engineering »
Operations Research »
Optics »
Petroleum Engineering »
Biotechnology and Medicine
Bioinformatics
Medical Imaging
Software Engineering, Application
Development, and Content Delivery
Authoring and Publishing
Interface Development
Software Engineering
Web Development
Design, Arts, and Entertainment
Game Design, Special Effects, and
Generative Art »
Design, Arts, and Entertainment
Game Design, Special Effects, and
Generative Art »
Finance, Statistics, and Business Analysis
Actuarial Sciences »
Data Analysis and Mining »
Econometrics »
Economics »
Financial Engineering and Mathematics »
Financial Risk Management »
Statistics »
Science
Astronomy »
Biological Sciences »
Chemistry »
Environmental Sciences »
Geosciences »
Social and Behavioral Sciences »
“100% of the Fortune 50 companies rely on Mathematica to
maintain their competitive edge in innovation.” ~Source: Wolfram Research
10

11. Powered By Wolfram
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 11

12. Reinventing Discovery
The New Era Of Networked Science
“The internet is causing a radical change in how science is
done.”
“Online citizen science projects are enabling amateurs to
make scientific discoveries.”
“We can use online tools to amplify our collective
intelligence, and so extend our scientific problem-solving
ability.”
~Source: InTech Blog Michael Nielsen: Doing Science In the Open at the University
Campus in Rijeka, Croatia Posted on June 2, 2011
“We are living at the dawn of the most dramatic change
in science in more than 300 years. This change is being
driven by powerful new cognitive tools, enabled by the
internet, which are greatly accelerating scientific
discovery.
“The internet is transforming the nature of our collective
intelligence and how we understand the world.”
~Source: Reinventing Discovery, Princeton Press
Michael Nielsen is an internationally known
scientist who helped pioneer the field of quantum
computation. He co-authored the standard text in the
field, and wrote more than 50 scientific papers,
including invited contributions to Nature and
Scientific American. His work on quantum
teleportation was recognized in Science Magazine’s
list of the Top Ten Breakthroughs of 1998.
He worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as
the Richard Chace Tolman Prize Fellow at Caltech,
was Foundation Professor of Quantum
Information Science and a Federation Fellow at
the University of Queensland, and a Senior
Faculty Member at the Perimeter Institute for
Theoretical Physics. In 2008, he gave up his
tenured position to work fulltime on open
science.Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs

13. The First Industrial Revolution Was
Powered By Steam
IR 1.0
Manual labor to machines
Agrarian to industrial society
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 13

14. The Second Industrial Revolution Was Forged
Through Manufacturing Automation
IR 2.0
Mass production, standards, interchangeability
Disruptive innovations; electricity, engines, steel
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 14

15. The Information Technology Revolution
Fairchild Semiconductor co-Founders, 1960
Computers and telecommunications to
store, retrieve and transmit information
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs
15

16. The New Industrial Revolution
The third industrial revolution is about democratizing
the tools of creation and distribution.
IR 3.0
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 16

17. What Is 3D Printing?
These programs allows for the creation of digital, geometric representations of products in
virtual 3D. This data is then converted into an industry standard file format know as .STL,
which captures the data as a series of 2D slices. In this form, the data is sent to an AM
machine where the product is built layer by layer according to the 2D cross section at each
sequential point, so ‘growing’ a final product within hours. New layers can be added to
previous layers in various ways, which has given rise to number of different AM processes or
3D printing technologies, each with their own strengths.
What is 3D Printing?
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is often to as 3D printing,
is a process that builds physical 3D products binding
layer upon layer of material, in powder or liquid
form, directly from CAD data.
How the process works...
Typically, Computational Assisted Data (CAD) is
generated through traditional design programs (for
example, AutoCAD, Rhino, SolidWorks) by
professional trained CAD users such as engineers,
product designers and architects.
~Source: Digital Forming
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 17

18. $3.1 Billion Industry By 2016
“Low-cost 3D printers affect both the
professional and consumer markets.
The increased sale of these machines
over the past few years has taken
additive manufacturing (AM)
mainstream more than any other
single development.
3D printers have helped spread the
technology and made it more
accessible to students, researchers,
do-it-yourself enthusiasts,
hobbyists, inventors, and
entrepreneurs.”
~Source: 2011 Additive Manufacturing and 3D
Printing State of the Industry Annual Worldwide
Progress Report
The compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of
revenues produced by all
AM products and services
in 2010 was 24.1%. The
CAGR for the industry's
23-year history is an
impressive 26.2%.
~source: Wohler Associates
3D Printing Industry Will Reach $3.1 Billion Worldwide by 2016.
March 27, 2012
Terry Wohler sits inside a 3D printed car called the Urbee
The Urbee uses electric motors and is capable of 200 mpg when running
on an 8 hp ethanol-powered engine, which serves as a backup. The car is
expected to reach 70 mph. 18Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs

19. Additive Manufacturing: Past Is Prologue?
“The parallel with the hobbyist computer
movement of the 1970s is striking. In both
cases enthusiastic tinkerers, many on
America’s West Coast, began playing with
new technologies that had huge potential
to disrupt business and society.
Back then the machines manipulated bits;
now the action is in atoms. This has
prompted predictions of a new
industrial revolution, in which more
manufacturing is done by small firms or
even by individuals.
“The tools of factory production, from
electronics assembly to 3D printing, are
now available to individuals, in batches as
small as a single unit,” writes Chris
Anderson, the editor of Wired magazine.”
~source: The Economist More than just digital quilting
December 3 2011
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 19

20. Noted VC, Fred Wilson, Is Investing In 3D
Printing
Fred Wilson has been a highly
regarded and successful early
stage venture capitalist since
1987. Based out of New York, he
currently is a managing partner at
Union Square Ventures and also
founded Flatiron Partners. Fred
has a Bachelors degree in
Mechanical Engineering from MIT
and an MBA from The Wharton
School of Business at the
University of Pennsylvania.
In 2004 Wilson and Brad
Burnham founded Union Square
Ventures and have since invested
in companies such as Twitter,
Tumblr, Foursquare, Meetup
BugLabs, ,Zynga, Covestor,
del.icio.us, Etsy, FeedBurner, Heyz
ap, Indeed.com, Tacoda, Oddcast,
Disqus, Zemanta, and ClickableCopyright 2012 SparkFire Labs

21. The 3D Printing Market Is Growing
3D Printing Services
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs
21

22. The Growth of Shapeways’ 3D Printing Market
• In 2011, Shapeways 3D printed over 750,000 individual products and delivered them to people around the world
• Over 238,000 3D models were uploaded to Shapeways in 2011 by our community of over 100,000 members
• Shapeways shop owners earned over $270,000 in revenue in 2011 alone, compared to $100,000 from our launch in
2008 through April 2011
• Over 2,500 shops opened in 2011 alone Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 22

23. 3D Printing Costs
3D printers range from $600 for a small do-it-yourself
DIY kits to large industrial machines that may
approach a million dollars or more. However the
average machine ranges in the $3-4,000 range and
prices are expected to reduce over time
Project prints range from sub $100 to several
thousand dollars depending on the time, materials,
quality and complexity .
3D printing is still too expensive for many large scale
manufacturing but is ideal for rapid prototyping and
manufacturing on demand.
$3,920.00
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 23

24. Printing A Jet Engine In The Classroom
“It whirs like a real jet engine, but this tabletop replica of
a Rolls-Royce engine used in UAVs cost the University of
Virginia engineering class that built it less than $2000 in
materials.”
That's thanks to the revolution in 3D printing, which
allowed Professor David Sheffler's group to build plastic
engine parts to within thousandths of an inch, matching
the level of precision that goes into a real jet engine.
Not only did 3D printing allow the team to create parts
within such tight specifications, but the technique also
made this project financially viable for a college class. "If
you could get the time and design all this stuff, by my
estimate it would cost a quarter-million dollars to
fabricate what we did," he says. The class's fabrication
costs using 3D printing? Fifteen hundred dollars for the
plastic and another $300 for the bearings, nuts, and
bolts.
By Steve Rousseau June 14, 2011 3:00 PM
How to Build a Working Replica Jet
Engine With a 3D Printer
University of Virginia’s Professor
David Sheffler and his working 3D
printed turbo fan jet engine
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 24

25. 3D Printing Revolutionizes Prototyping,
Manufacturing, Engineering & Science
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 25

26. 3D Printing Enables Rapid And
Inexpensive Prototyping of Ideas
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 26

27. 3D Printing Architecture Design
3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution
By ASHLEE VANCE Published: September 13, 2010
“A wealth of design software programs, from
free applications to the more sophisticated
offerings of companies including Alibre and
Autodesk allows a person to concoct a
product at home, then send the design to a
company like Shapeways, which will print it
and mail it back.”
Charles Overy, founder of LGM, with a model
of a resort in Vail, Colo. “We used to take
two months to build $100,000 models,”
he said, adding that now they cost about
$2,000.
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 27

28. Outsourced Engineering and 3D Printing
Global spend for Engineering Services is approximately $750 billion per year, an amount
nearly half of India’s entire gross domestic product. Currently only $10-15 billion is currently
being offshored, a tiny fraction of the
total.
A significant component of
Engineering Services Outsourcing
(ESO) is comprised of CAD / CAM
(computer aided manufacturing /
design), drafting, testing and R&D
which compliment a growing 3D
Printing industry.
By 2020, the worldwide spend on
Engineering Services is projected to
exceed $1 trillion, of which $150 to
$225 billion is estimated to be
offshored.
~Source: Booz Allen Hamilton: Globalization of
Engineering Services
28Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs

29. Bio Printing
Dentures
Prosthetics
Orthopedics
Joints
Reconstructive Surgeries
Tissues
Organs
Vasculature
Trachea
Bladders
Kidneys
With a modified inkjet printing
device, military-funded researchers at
Wake Forest University's Institute for
Regenerative Medicine are "printing"
blood-vessel, heart and bone tissue.
Bioprinting: A 'printer' that prints 3D
tissue structures using human cells.
Additive Manufacturing in Medicine
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 29

30. Maker Movement
The maker movement is primarily the name given to the
increasing number of people employing do-it-yourself
(DIY) and do-it-with-others ( DIWO) techniques and
processes to develop unique technology products.
Generally, DIY and DIWO enables individuals to create
sophisticated devices and gadgets, such as printers,
robotics and electronic devices, using diagrammed,
textual and or video demonstration.
With all the resources now available over the Internet,
virtually anyone can create simple devices, which in some
cases are widely adopted by users.
Technology
The DIY 'Maker Movement' Meets the VCs
By Alexandra Dean on February 16, 2012
“The maker movement is “as significant as the
shift from agriculture to the early industrial
era,” says Jeremy Rifkin, a Wharton economist.”
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 30

31. Private Skunkworks
“The maker movement is both a response to and an outgrowth of
digital culture, made possible by the convergence of several
trends. New tools and electronic components let people integrate
the physical and digital worlds simply and cheaply.
Online services and design software make it easy to develop and
share digital blueprints. And many people who spend all day
manipulating bits on computer screens are rediscovering the
pleasure of making physical objects and interacting with other
enthusiasts in person, rather than online.”
Monitor
More than just digital quilting
Technology and society: The “maker” movement could
change how science is taught and boost innovation. It
may even herald a new industrial revolution
Dec 3rd 2011
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 31

32. Autodesk Acquired DIY Community Site,
Instructables for $30 Million
Autodesk adds DIY site Instructables to
its stable By Terrence O'Brien 8/2/2011
“Autodesk has really decided to embrace the
DIY community recently. First the company
launched 123D, a free design tool for hobbyists,
now it's snatched up Instructables, an online
repository for everything from quadrocopter
plans to bruschetta recipes.
Instructables is the most popular project-sharing community on the Internet. Started in August 2005,
Instructables provides accessible publishing tools to enable passionate, creative people to share their
most innovative projects, recipes, ideas, and hacks. The site is currently home to over 40,000 projects
covering all subjects, including crafts, art, electronics, kids, home improvement, pets, outdoors, reuse,
bikes, cars, robotics, decorating, woodworking, costuming, and games.
Instructables monthly user base has doubled since
September 2009 to nearly 9 million.
~Source: Graph Quantcast Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 32

33. Cambrian Cloud
Inflection Points
Rise of Citizen Science & a Manufacturing Revolution
• Open and Participatory Science
• Likely passage of open access bill
• Open Access to scholarly research
• Open source software
• Open Data
• Affordable access to professional grade SaaS for heavy computation and
computer-based modeling.
• Access to knowledge stores and scientific, engineering and mathematical
software and emerging collaborative communities blur the line between
scholars, professionals, hobbyists, and entrepreneurs.
• Additive Manufacturing / 3D Printing
• A new Industrial Revolution that changes the economics of niche custom
manufacturing, and distribution.
• A Rapidly expanding list of potential applications of 3D Printing.
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 33

34. Conclusion
Like the advent of personal computing, when average citizens have affordable access to
information and tools within an emergent domain, innovation and economic activity tends
to expand exponentially.
We believe that “open” Scientific Inquiry and Additive Manufacturing represent such
an inflection point. SparkFire Labs will be positioned to take advantage of these and
other emerging trends by creating a project-based collaborative ecosystem that
supports access to professional grade tools, and manufacturing.
Copyright 2012 SparkFire Labs 34