The Lighthouse project is doing some really nice work displaying software development processes across multiple monitors. They’re using Google maps, 3D and other location oriented approaches to create new kinds of developer tools. Now they’re integrating these tools with IBM Jazz. Sweet.

I’ve long viewed screen real estate as a huge constraint to be worked around. The tasks and ideas in my mind just don’t fit on a single screen. It’s rare for me to use just a single screen or even a single computer unless it’s my laptop outside of my office. Most of the time I’m using 2-3 machines and lately more and more that ratchets up to 4-5. Typically one of the machines has a dual display so at any given time I have 3-6 screens visible.

The volume of information flowing through IBM Jazz or any development environment doesn’t fit on a single screen so it’s a huge productivity drain to constantly search for, then minimize and maximize windows. Virtual desktops help, but then windows are out of sight.

In an attempt to broaden the awareness and appeal of it’s Jazz collaboration software, IBM is considering putting parts of it open source, although one source claims not the parts that really matter. It’s really hard to build a following around a closed platform these days as CNET’s Matt Asay points out.

… another step along the way to a desktop manufacturing revolution

Software used in today’s conventional milling machines is helping nanotech researchers make progress in nanomanufacturing:

The new technique suggests that the nanotechnology factories of the future might not operate so differently from existing manufacturing plants.

“If you can take prototyping and nanomanufacturing to a level that leverages what engineers know how to do, then you are ahead of the game,” Clark said. “Most engineers with conventional training don’t think about nanoscale manipulation. But if you want to leverage a workforce that’s already in place, how do you set up the future of manufacturing in a language that engineers already use to communicate? That’s what we’re focused on doing here.”

Duke News: Automation of Nanotech Manufacturing May Be Ahead

This should prove to be very helpful because there’s no getting around the strange and often counter-intuitive aspects of the nanoscale realm where thermal and quantum fluctuations make moving molecules from place to place like walking in a hurricane. Similar to the proven patterns used in software virtual machines, the Duke researchers are abstracting out the unfamiliar/counter-intuitive and substituting the more familiar. This is yet another sign of dematerialization and virtualization so I expect it will bear fruit.

In a nutshell, “rapid manufacturing” is poised for an unprecedented explosion of growth in the next 3 to 5 years. To see why this potential exists, it’s necessary to examine a broad set of shaping factors. If only a single segment is explored, significant growth looks to be much further out but when one takes into account the converging sources of influences and innovation at work, a different perspective emerges. in this regard it is helpful to examine some other patterns of technology evolution.
Initially PC’s were no match for mainframes when it came to raw processing power, but their accessibility(price and learning curve) enabled people to do things they simply couldn’t do before. In the process, people pushed the limits of PC’s and accelerated the demand for reducing their limits. They also at the same transformed the design and operation of mainframes - Linux and Java are significant contributors to renewed interest in mainframes. During the early days of PC’s many people didn’t see the potential for rapid growth because PC database programs could only manage a fraction of the data that mainframes did. These skeptics didn’t realize that departments and groups within departments did not need the capacity of a mainframe for many important tasks. They didn’t recognize how big an impact spreadsheets would have or what it would mean to empower thousands of developers previously unable to create solutions because they couldn’t afford the necessary equipment. A similar pattern unfolded for the web, although desktop publishing is probably more relevant to the subject of desktop manufacturing.
I found via reBang to an excellent, but narrowly focused review of a Design News feature on Rapid Manufacturing’s Role in the Factory of the Future. The discussion is valuable but assumes that traditional high production volume factories will continue to dominate the manufacturing landscape forever and ignores overlapping influences. Like mainframes and printing presses, high production volume factories will be with us for a long time, their fall from dominance will happen faster then most people think and they will be significantly transformed by the emerging paradigm. How will this happen? Services such as Xardas and Ponoko are starting to give people the very powerful experience of “holding ideas in their hands” and providing engineers with insights into new forms of fabrication. With 3D printer prices dropping into the consumer electronics range, the number of people and organizations able to fabricate goods from their computers will grow rapidly. Architects, landscapers and engineering entrepreneurs will find immediate uses for these but many folks especially those lacking professional design and manufacturing experience will be frustrated. Parts will break or won’t come out right, but through Supplier Source and other online sources connections to professionals will be found. It’s not hard to envision Google figuring out a fabrication tie-in to it’s 3D Warehouse. All of this activity will expand the base of experiences and provide valuable feedback for engineers and designers. It will also drive demand for higher end 3D fabrication machines, as well as CNC machines.

At some point I expect that Fed-Ex/Kinkos will probably throw their hat in the ring and some distributed manufacturing network startup with have a huge IPO. Perhaps more significantly, a new type of product or service that hasn’t been thought of yet will emerge(think Lotus 1-2-3 or Amazon). One source in the Design News article put the widespread use of direct digital manufacturing 20 years out but by then nanotechnology will have already started having a significant impact. Desktop manufacturing is being driven by exponentially growing factors it’s just always hard to see it in the early stages. I think Ray Kurzweil has it exactly right

Although technology grows in the exponential domain, we humans live in a linear world. So technological trends are not noticed as small levels of technological power are doubled. Then seemingly out of nowhere, a technology explodes into view. For example, when the Internet went from 20,000 to 80,000 nodes over a two year period during the 1980s, this progress remained hidden from the general public. A decade later, when it went from 20 million to 80 million nodes in the same amount of time, the impact was rather conspicuous.

Ray Kurzweil: The Law of Accelerating Returns

More evidence that hardware is returning to its roots:

“We have the view that we have to become a software company,”

Cisco CEO John Chambers at the Networkers Conference via PC World

Rockefeller University: Measures And Trends

AT&T Industrial Ecology

Forbes Investopedia

Dematerialization and Virtualization

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility: Consumption

Product Lifecycle Managment and Engineering Systems(ES) are key components of Rhythmeering. Already a major force in engineering systems, Siemens purchase of the world’s leading PLM vendor UGS moves us all further down the road to Rhythmeering.

The acquisition also clearly sets a new agenda for the entire PLM industry. Customers across manufacturing and process industries will now able to benefit from the integration of the physical world, through Siemens’ leading automation design and production technology, and the virtual world, through UGS PLM Software’s leading factory design, product design and digital collaboration software.”

Press Release: Siemens Acquires UGS(emphasis mine)

So what’s the next step along this road? In a word - storytelling. PLM and ES have come from and remain largely focused on products manufactured from bulk materials. The growing role of software has shifted this somewhat towards bits, but these bits are still mainly about material processing. Products are created to play some part in human activities which are best described by stories. Besides, as noted in the Roots of Hardware, dematerialization is reducing the amount of bulk material in products. Nanotechnology is accelerating dematerialization. In addition other “products”(services, media, financial) and human activities(arts, sports) are already dematerialized. By design, Rhythmeering integrates storytelling processes at a fundamental level in ways not found in PLM or ES.