6 Comments

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  Matt Strong

  7 years ago

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  The URL going down to my resume was an accident. I just fixed it. When I posted my project on Kickstarter I didn't think anyone would care about who I was other than my relevant work experience. All of the links on my bio used to point at corporate websites that showed the projects I had done. I felt like they didn’t really show who I was so I decided to change the link to my old online resume. I haven’t updated it in years. On Sunday night I was trying to update it with a message that said the site was out of date. I wanted people to skip past the over the top intro video I did over a decade ago. In doing so I messed up my redirects. Sorry. The problem is now fixed.

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  Luke

  7 years ago

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  What Strong is doing isn't technically illegal, since Makerbot's hardware is in fact open-source (though, depending on the license of the Makerbot replicator, it may become illegal if Strong doesn't share what changes he's made), but it doesn't seem to hold to the spirit of open-source hardware.
  
  It's true that Makerbot's stuff is ultimately based on early RepRap designs, but their first printer, the Cupcake, was considerably altered and brought many new ideas to the table, in the spirit of fostering innovation. If I'm not mistaken, Makerbot's designs inspired Ultimaker and Printrbot (the latter being a successfully funded Kickstarter project).
  
  If Strong happened to change the design to enable that 30% price difference without compromising quality or materials, then it's kosher in my book if he shares the new design with the community. Thus far, it doesn't seem like that's the case, or if it is, it doesn't look like he's willing to share (which again, might or might not be forbidden under the Replicator's license).
  
  Open source hardware is still uncharted territory, rife with peril and opportunity. Arduino has run into similar issues. Phillip Torrone has written about that on the Makezine blog.
  http://blog.makezine.com/2012/04/18/soapbox-counterfeit-open-source-hardware-knock-offs-101/

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  Terence Tam

  7 years ago

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  Andrew - I'm probably the commenter that kept drilling him with technical questions.
  
  This is not competition. This is predatory business practice. He has built nothing new, and he's not transparent about what he's doing, nor does he feel he has an obligation to be transparent to his backers. These are all warning signs for a Kickstarter project. I've wrote in detail why I personally think it's a bad idea here:
  
  http://blog.openbeamusa.com/2012/08/11/how-not-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-on-kickstarter/
  
  Basically, the only "innovation" is that he's taking someone's hard work and moving it to a country where the labor wage is 1/5-1/10 of what it is in the US. His contract manufacturer will do all the heavy lifting and from the looks of it he'll pocket a tidy sum in the process. And at the same time, he's doing this at the cost of defunding MakerBot Industries, whom - regardless of what you think of them and their machines, have done a lot of educational outreach and publicizing 3D printing to make it mainstream.
  
  Don't get me wrong - I think the Makerbot is quite overhyped and quite expensive for what it is. That being said, I don't consider knocking off their design - thus inheriting all the flaws - is the answer.
  
  If he had made improvements to the design, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But the fact that this is the best he can do *right now* makes me think that this is the best he can do, period.

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  Andrew

  7 years ago

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  Isn't competition supposedly good in driving quality and lower prices for consumers? Why should one company have a "monopoly" on low-cost, kinda-DIY, 3d printers?

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  Matt (Not Strong)

  7 years ago

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  I agree that there a very few new ideas but this is ridiculous. He's stealing someone else's product. I thought the purpose of open source design was to collectively work towards moving an idea further. He's simply undercutting them and taking advantage of the situation. This is the kind of behavior that will kill open source.
  
  He mentions wanting to add in a color touch screen control to future designs. Why doesn't he just make his project the control unit and help make 3D printing easier for all?
  
  Don't be a leech Matt Strong and perhaps don't spend so much time talking about all your past work in your video. I get it you designed paper cutters.
  
  

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  Catarina

  7 years ago

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  Hi there. I just wanted to point out that the person who said "I don't live in the US, so I don't care for home-turf manufacturing" was not Matt Strong.

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