Common-Good 3D Printing Compatibility with an Open OS As A Canny Business Strategy

Quick! What’s the biggest show-stopper impeding 3D Printing’s total dominance of The Known World? IF you said “OS compatibility”: Kudos! (Really?! You did…?? We should know you better…)

If the need for technological compatibility — to drive a nascent revolution —sounds familiar, it is! We have only to look back to the early days of the PC industry and the history of personal computing’s operating systems.

In the early-Eighties, the marketplace was full of little-known companies building personal computers and vying to carve out a winning space. (Even though these machines were yet to be called Personal Computers — or “PCs,” the neologism that has, more or less, conquered all, unless you’re a Mac user, of course, and sometimes even then.) Most of these systems ran on different Operating Systems, most of which were proprietary.

Apple was better known than most of the others because of the success of the Apple II (the VisiCalc “spreadsheet engine”) — and its proprietary operating system. (A “walled garden” that got higher and thicker walls with the intro of the Macintosh and its revolutionary and iconic — literally and metaphorically —Graphical User Interface.)

Then, the very young — but very entrepreneurial — Bill Gates (re)licensed a personal computer operating system (he’d just licensed himself!) to IBM for Big Blue’s soon-to-be-released “Personal Computer.” The OS — the (in)famous DOS — was also a proprietary system. BUT — de facto — it became “open” in the marketplace. This spawned the worldwide IBM “PC”-clone business, largely as a result of the clear commercial virtues of compatibility across standards, systems, software accessories and third-party offerings.

The irony was that IBM never intended to sell an “open system” — or even to enable one. The marketing and sales virtues of Open Source were a distant glimmer in the far future. However, in the mid-80s, IBM was commercially constrained by the Federal Government’s on-going, anti-trust attack on its key Main Frame “monopoly” business. So, Big Blue could not afford to vigorously defend its PC OS IP — for fear of adding to their anti-trust problems.

A tiny and unknown entrepreneurial shop in Norwood, MA, namely Phoenix Technologies, created a legal and compatible ROM BIOS (the computer’s internal “traffic cop” and compatibility kernel), licensed it to all players around the world and the clone-PC business took off like a rocket! Especially, since Apple DID —vigorously — defend its own OS and BIOS. Steve Jobs — the bare-knuckled capitalist — legally body-slammed ALL Apple II cloners. As a result, none survived to help Apple create a countervailing commercial Apple-clone ecosystem. Ahh, unintended consequences…

NOW, it seems, our 3D printing industry is like the personal computer business prior to the Microsoft deal with IBM — and IBM’s inadvertent fostering of the whole PC business via a grassroots clone-ecosystem.

That is, we have NO 3DP compatibility across standards, systems, software, accessories and third-party offerings. Which — unfortunately — translates to customer “FUD”: fear, uncertainty and doubt. (“FUD” was, in fact, a famous IBM tactic for keeping its clients in the fold and under control. With Big Blue pumping out FUD about its competitors, you couldn’t get fired for buying IBM — the Anti-FUD.)

With our own form of amorphous and unattributed 3DP FUD abroad in the land, the 3DP industry is experiencing lower and slower sales than anyone in the business would like — even if it does look like boom-time to outsiders.

Here we are in the early-Teens of a new century: thirty years after the PC business coalesced around a “universal” Operating System. (Ironically, at just about the same time, Chuck Hull — granddaddy of 3DP and Founder of leading 3D Systems Corporation — was building the first 3D printers.) After 30 years — with patents expiring, new Kickstarted ‘Preneurs springing up from the grassroots like weeds in Spring and major digital players about to jump in (think Apple, Google, HP and Amazon) — the 3DP industry needs a “coalescing” of its own.

Enter another small and relatively unknown company hoping to rationalize the 3DP industry via universal compatibility. 3D Control Systems (3DCS) of San Francisco and Estonia is releasing its groundbreaking 3DPrinterOS in August 2014. (Funnily enough and full-circle: 3DCS is, in part, funded by Vulcan Capital, whose principal is Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates…).

The 3DCS crew of entrepreneurs/engineers come out of large-scale PC manufacturing, cloud computing, robotics and digital-security systems. Founded by former Dell lead engineer John Dogru and 3D printing cloud Ph.D candidate Anton Vedeshin, the 3DCS team presents a unique mash-up of desktop experience, cloud vision and cyber defense capabilities. The 3DPrinterOS reflects the Maker Movement’s ethos with its open operating-system (O/OS) stance in the market, while addressing digitally secure control of diverse 3D printers anywhere there is connectivity worldwide.

Designed around UI simplicity — versus complicated machine specific operating systems — 3DCS states that its “cloud interface will allow users to access slicing, workflows, and manage multiple printers, through one single standardized platform.”

“Software is the key to widespread adoption of the 3D Printing movement,” said John Dogru, “Our plan is for the cloud to be the spinal cord connecting minds and machines.”

3DCS is clearly out to make 3DP compatibility — with open-source seductiveness and cloud connectedness — its means to establish the universal platform for the industry. And, the 3DCS Team is cleverly working to assure that 3DPrinterOS will support the majority of design tools and 3D printers presently — or prospectively — in the marketplace. 3DCS boldly states that it is seeking to empower users to “collaborate, communicate and create in a universal [3DP] language for the first time.”

According to 3DCS, “…the initial release of 3DPrinterOS is slated for August 2014 and will eventually support 100’s of 3D printers including new manufacturers entering the market.”

Well, IBM inadvertently created a commercial ecosystem around innovation that it never intended to empower with the IBM PC. Now, 3DCS is proactively and intentionally seeking to help create a commercial ecosystem that will empower everyone in the 3DP space — and, oh yes, to profit from their common-good innovation at the same time. Doing well by doing good, 3DCS-style.