“the former audience” to describe the shift in
power represented by blogging and citizen
journalism. But the former audience isn’t just taking
control of news. A fan group recently completed a
full-length feature film of Terry Pratchett’s Disc-
world novel Lords and Ladies. Cost: 300 euros. Over
at
untamedcinema.com, fans create high-quality
trailers for movies they wish the studios would
make. And much of the buzz in the months leading
up to the release of the latest Star Wars flick “The future is here. It’s just not evenly
centered around the 40-minute fan film, Star Wars distributed yet.” — William Gibson
Revelations, which many think is better than the last
two efforts from the man himself. The producers company that sells it to you. It may not even have
of Serenity, a science fiction movie due out in been designed by an employee of that company, as
September, who have been doing an aggressive new product design is increasingly being outsourced.
online push for fan participation, decided to show In a manufacturing realm that is both larger and
an unfinished copy of the movie in ten cities, five smaller than consumer goods, the Liftport Group,
months in advance of the official release. a consortium focused on building a space elevator,
On the radio front, Infinity Broadcasting, a unit of will be opening a carbon nanotube manufacturing
Viacom, has announced that its KYCY-AM station in plant in New Jersey. Meanwhile, scientists at the
San Francisco will be switching to an all-podcast University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson
format. Meanwhile, Evan Williams, of blogger.com Cancer Research Center have successfully induced
fame, is launching Odeo, a company that aims to a state of hibernation in mice. It’s time to crack
bring podcasting to the masses. And, hot on the out the science fiction of the 50s for ideas about
heels of the new buzz, we see several startups promising applications for human hibernation, from
focused on bringing advertising to the new medium. space travel to trauma care.
The principles of “former audience” participation Did I say trauma care? The U.S. Army is research-
don’t apply only to the media world. Neil Gershenfeld’s ing mobile robot surgery units for battlefield use.
FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop And as for life extension, Ray Kurzweil likes to
— From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication point out that average life expectancy in developing
hit the Amazon bestseller lists immediately upon nations is going up by a quarter of a year per year.
publication. A researcher at the University of Bath When that number goes above a year per year, we
aims to release, under the GPL (a free software live forever, right? On the other hand, largely driven
license), designs that would allow rapid prototyping by the spread of AIDS, life expectancies in many
machines to make copies of themselves. A USC re- African countries have fallen every year since 1988,
searcher has prototyped a “contour crafting” robot a phenomenon some are referring to as “the African
that can extrude concrete walls; his next project is cliff.” But, in a true sign of the discontinuities of the
to extrude an entire house. modern world, a startup in Kenya recruits villagers
It’s not personal fabrication that will most for city jobs by texting job offers to (and accepting
change the way we create physical goods, though applications from) their mobile phones, leapfrog-
(at least not at first). Never mind “the network is the ging services in the developed world.
computer” — the network is the factory. “Build to You can get URLs for the referenced stories at
suit” (as when you configure and order your next
makezine.com/03/nff.
computer online) may mean internet coordination
of a network of suppliers, and the computer you Tim O’Reilly (
tim.oreilly.com) is founder and CEO of O’Reilly
order may never be touched by an employee of the Media, Inc. See what’s on the O’Reilly Radar at
radar.oreilly.com.
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