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We are on the cusp of an opportunity to more fully tap into our
creative potential, driven by
significant technological innovation that is democratizing the
means of production and enabling

connections between resources and markets. Realizing this
opportunity will require re
- thinking and
redesigning all of our major institutions, innovating the way we
work, learn and consume. It will
require developing ecosystems that can more effectively
integrate distributed production by smaller
entities with the scale and scope that can be provided by larger
entities.
We will for the first time be
able to truly “race with the machine,” harnessing the power of
the machine to unleash and amplify
our creative energies. More broadly, we will finally make
learning a true lifetime journey, find new
sources of meaning, and develop ways to connect more richly in
physical space so that we all
benefit and prosper from the new opportunities that are now
available.
What does this mean? Over the past decade and a half, we’ve
witnessed tremendous disruption
across the economy at a speed that previously seemed impossible.
It all revolved around bits
—
digital was the edge, the frontier, we connected rapidly and
globally through social media, and new
business and institutional models evolved to fit the digital
world. Now, the edge has become the
core —the world is digitized. What we learned with software, web
services, and apps about
innovation, iteration and collaboration is being applied back to
the physical
—bits to atoms. Physical
“making” is the new frontier. But this time, the atoms are
supported by bits, enabled and enhanced
by technology that allows individuals everywhere to connect to
the same resources and use the
same tools.

A Future
of Potential
Collaborative production will define the
future of work
The Maker Movement will emerge as the dominant source of livelihood as individuals
find ways to

build small businesses around their creative activity and large companies increasingly
automate their
operations.
Traditional
employment may decline as work is organized primarily around projects
rather than job titles, however small businesses, enabled by the technologies of
production and
access (to funding, design, resources, tools, and markets), will collaborate across a
flexible ecosystem
and no longer require scale to be viable. Scale operations will continue to have a role,
but will
largely use automated, robotic production rather than labor.
A greater portion of the labor (and value creation) will reside in the
customization/personalization
component, including the transition of many “aftermarket” activities into pre
-market, in response to
changing consumer expectations. The shifting locus of value creation also reflects a
broader
definition of value creation that includes the exchange of ideas, learning and skills, as
well as capital,
in the marketplace.

IMPACT OF THE
MAKER MOVEMENT
SIGNALS

2
We are on the cusp of an opportunity to more fully tap into our
creative potential, driven by
significant technological innovation that is democratizing the
means of production and enabling
connections between resources and markets. Realizing this
opportunity will require re

- thinking and
redesigning all of our major institutions, innovating the way we
work, learn and consume. It will
require developing ecosystems that can more effectively
integrate distributed production by smaller
entities with the scale and scope that can be provided by larger
entities.
We will for the first time be
able to truly “race with the machine,” harnessing the power of
the machine to unleash and amplify
our creative energies. More broadly, we will finally make
learning a true lifetime journey, find new
sources of meaning, and develop ways to connect more richly in
physical space so that we all
benefit and prosper from the new opportunities that are now
available.
What does this mean? Over the past decade and a half, we’ve
witnessed tremendous disruption
across the economy at a speed that previously seemed impossible.
It all revolved around bits
—
digital was the edge, the frontier, we connected rapidly and
globally through social media, and new
business and institutional models evolved to fit the digital
world. Now, the edge has become the
core —the world is digitized. What we learned with software, web
services, and apps about
innovation, iteration and collaboration is being applied back to
the physical
—bits to atoms. Physical
“making” is the new frontier. But this time, the atoms are
supported by bits, enabled and enhanced
by technology that allows individuals everywhere to connect to
the same resources and use the
same tools.

A Future
of Potential
The Maker ecosystem will disrupt today’s
large enterprise
Individuals and small businesses will come together, both in urban areas and in virtual
communities,
driven by a desire to learn faster by working together. Within these ecosystems, participants
will combine

and recombine as necessary to exchange skills, capital or learning, creating a resilient and
agile network
structure that supports the decentralization of some activities, including innovation and
some types of
production, currently done within large enterprises.
R&D
effectively moves out of the corporate environment into niche development by individual
innovators
and eventually works back into the core business. Platforms will allow these ecosystems to
access the...