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posted by CoolHand on Friday June 12 2015, @01:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the innovation-fun dept.

Software developers have long been able to collaborate through community sites like those based on Git and Apache Allura to contribute code, synchronize software builds, and track issues around a project. And games like Minecraft allow people to collaborate in building virtual environments with embedded behaviors—including "mods" that leverage the games' simulation capabilities to interact with other objects in a virtual world. Now, an open-source Web platform originally designed with Defense Department funding could let communities collaborate to build more tangible things—like tanks, planes, and consumer appliances.

Called the Digital Manufacturing Commons (DMC), and sponsored by a collection of universities and major manufacturers through UI Labs' Digital Manufacturing Design and Innovation (DMDI) Institute, the platform puts design, modeling, and simulation tools in reach of collaborative teams of all sizes, and allows designs to be "compiled" and tested like software projects before being prototyped in the physical world. If it gets traction, the software could open up the rapidly growing "digital manufacturing" space to allow even the smallest maker teams to partner with the largest manufacturing and distribution companies, allowing gadget-makers to scale into global players.

At this week's Big M Manufacturing Conference in Detroit, GE and UI Labs—a research center funded by a public-private partnership to help advance manufacturing technology—announced the roll-out of the Digital Manufacturing Commons, which GE Research Global Technology Director for Manufacturing and Materials Technologies Christine M. Furstoss said is "like massive multi-player online (MMO) gaming meeting the real world of manufacturing."


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  • (Score: 1) by WillAdams on Friday June 12 2015, @02:07PM

    by WillAdams (1424) on Friday June 12 2015, @02:07PM (#195397)

    An interesting site which looks at what one could do instead of fostering the military-industrial-complex: http://opensourceecology.org/ [opensourceecology.org] and their ``Global Village Construction Set''.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by rondon on Friday June 12 2015, @02:50PM

    by rondon (5167) on Friday June 12 2015, @02:50PM (#195414)

    I've followed the project for a long time, and it seems to have seriously stumbled recently due to tension between management and volunteers. However, I think what they were striving to accomplish is amazing. The "intellectual property" behind the factors of production (capital) are a huge stumbling block for individuals and collectives to providing for themselves, if they so desire.