New 3D Printer and the future of manufacturing and trade

18 days
by in 3D Printing

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/09/makerbot-announces-their-latest-3d-printer-the-replicator/

I’ve been following “3D printing” for a long time — since the early days when it was insanely expensive and was used to prototype things like airplane parts.

Fast forward to today. While many 3D printers are still $25k and way up, there are now small versions you can buy for a couple of grand. You can copy objects, make toys and parts and all sorts of things. Kind of like how I saw you can buy a CNC 3D woodworking machine.

I know this is very gadgety-hobbiest right now. What is really interesting to me is the prospect that, like the introduction of the PC and other machines back around 1980, these developments seem like the embryonic sign of things to come. If you can “print” increasingly complicated objects, then doesn’t that say something about the future of mass-manufacturing? I mean, if you don’t have to mass-manufacture an object and ship it half-way around the glob, maybe you can instead make them at a shop around the corner — and provide a new level of customization? Makes me think back to the old-style crafstman of yesteryear.

Now, instead the hot tennis shoe being made in a 3rd world country and shipped across an ocean and then on trains and trucks to warehouses, then to a store where you buy them — instead you have a custom shoe that EXACTLY fits YOU printed, one layer at a time? What does this imply about global economics and the balance of trade?

Perhaps the currency is no longer the physical item, but the IP?

-pfs

Cinsay makes Forbes ’100 Most Promising’ list

58 days
by in Cinsay

WooHoo! Cinsay made the Forbes ‘100 Most Promising’ list!

White House meeting

92 days
by in Cinsay

It was nice meeting today at White House with United States CTO, Aneesh Chopra on the “Joining Forces” initiative to help veterans find jobs.

Getting the band back together!

162 days
by in Cinsay

Cool things happening at Cinsay. We’ve already brought several broadcast.com alumni on board. It’s great to have their experience with a fast-moving startup on the team.

Now, Rick Jackson is joining us too! Rick was a key part of the broadcast.com / yahoo sales team and he’s now joining us as Cinsay’s SVP of Global Sales.

“We’re gettin’ the *band* back together!”

-pfs

Stop whining

223 days
by in Push -vs- Pull

Another Rupert quote:

“Stop whining about the challenge of new technology and get out in front of it.” — Rupert Murdoch

Update

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253 days
by in Cinsay

Wow, so much going on these days! Between WhichBox and Cinsay, I’m back in relativistic Internet-Time. WhichBox is going great and Cinsay is exploding.

In case you are wondering, since I haven’t mentioned it before, Cinsay is another SaaS company I’m involved with. Cinsay is basically a deeply featured eCommerce platform disguised as a video player. The Cinsay Platform includes a full featured eCommerce back-end system, merchant account options and content/asset management system combined with a video CMS. Store items are tied to specific videos so when the player is viral-ly embedded in blogs, facebook / social pages, and other sites, the store goes with it. Transactions are completed without leaving the page / site where the player is embedded. The store is in the player, wherever the player goes.

Really, really cool stuff.

YIN / YANG

254 days
by in Push -vs- Pull

There will always be a demand for PUSH content. Large live sporting events, mega movie titles, coverage of major global news events, disasters, elections, and overall transcendent content – and the natural human tendency to want to “veg out” and be a couch potato.

OTOH, the above have rapidly growing audiences for blogs, podcasts and independent coverage in general. Combined with interactive content and the explosion of business, entertainment, news, opinion, political, and other content, there is a level of balance between PUSH and PULL.

Assuming COO role at Cinsay

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278 days
by in Cinsay

The Press Release:

Digital Media Pioneer Patrick Seaman Assumes Chief Operating Officer Role at Cinsay, Inc.

25 April, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CA–(Marketwire – Apr 25, 2011) – Technology and new media pioneer Patrick Seaman has been elevated to Chief Operating Officer for Cinsay, Inc., it was announced today by Matthew D. Papish, President and CEO, Cinsay, Inc. Seaman joined Cinsay as Chief Information Officer in February, and his expanded role now includes oversight of all operations at the eCommerce technology company. Since his arrival, Seaman has brought a number of technology executives onboard, including Chief Technology Officer Rick Spitz and Vice President, Engineering Sergey L. Sundukovskiy as part of the company’s major technology staffing initiative. Further key staff additions are expected within the coming weeks, as Cinsay completes major funding with Pepperwood Partners, with whom an agreement for up to $40 million in financing is in place.

“In a very short time, Patrick has further expanded the potential for our core eCommerce platform to include businesses of every size in nearly every industry sector,” said Papish in making the announcement. “His experience with various technologies including streaming and now cloud-based, is informing applications for our platform and proprietary video player that will drive our business to new heights.”

“I am really excited about what I have discovered here at Cinsay, and I know that with this team, including our founder Christian Briggs, we now have world class players in the emerging technology game,” Seaman remarked. “Bringing Rick and Sergey onboard heads up our tech team with visionary leadership that allows me to focus on identifying and developing new applications for our technology properties.”

In the past few months, Cinsay has announced agreements to drive product sales for numerous brands, including Chevron/Texaco, Caesars Entertainment Group’s World Series of Poker “WSOP,” “The American Outdoorsman” and Chicken Soup For the Soul brands, as well as for Health Strips, featuring spokesman Tommy Lasorda. The company also has announced the formation of a dedicated health/beauty/skin/personal care subsidiary called CinsaYtions, which already has numerous celebrity contracts in place, including those with Montel WIlliams, “The View’s” Elizabeth Hasselbeck, and Supermodel and TV host Kim Alexis.

Patrick Seaman is one of New Media’s most respected pioneers, with more than 25 years’ experience in online/digital media, entertainment and technology. At the forefront of his career has been his drive to not only manage and develop products, but to connect them with their audience and the marketplace. He helped transform the Internet media revolution as Employee #1 and Director of Technology at AudioNet/broadcast.com. There he built and managed what effectively became the first Content Delivery Network, and also produced and broadcast the first live webcasts from inside China. He negotiated the BBC’s first master Internet contract, and led European integration plans with Yahoo!. Seaman launched Yahoo! Japan and served on that company’s Board of Directors.

Prior to Yahoo!, he served as Director of Technology at Broadcast.com, where he logged many of the Internet’s “firsts” for the company, including First Radio Station, First Audiobook, First Internet Jukebox and First Police Scanner Station. Under his leadership, Yahoo! produced what were at the time the largest-ever webcasts of events such as the Super Bowl and Victoria’s Secret Runway Shows, as well as 400+ radio stations and TV/Cable networks, and more than 16,000 live events.

In 2008, Seaman helped launch whichboxmedia.com, the first fully integrated cloud-based online content publishing platform that combines next generation content creation and management, online publishing, social network, and social media technology. WhichBox Media is a winner of the 2010 “OnMedia 100″ Award for the Top 100Most Disruptive Companies in Online Media. He will continue his role at WhichBox as CTO, COO and New Media Vanguard. Seaman is a consultant to numerous media and technology companies as well.

More About Cinsay, Inc. Cinsay, Inc. delivers groundbreaking media and e-commerce experiences through its next-generation video, advertising, and eCommerce enterprise platform. Leveraging the latest internet and mobile technology, Cinsay provides a cost-effective and uniquely portable way for brands, retailers, and content owners to target their customers across the web, social, and mobile channels. The Cinsay platform leverages the strong impact video content has on a consumer’s decision to purchase and then Cinsay’s proprietary eCommerce software brings the store to the consumer and successfully turns a viewer into a shopper and a shopper into a buyer.

Based in Austin, Texas, with offices in Dallas and Los Angeles, Cinsay is a privately-held company.

Pull

284 days
by in Uncategorized

Content continues to be published by small groups with large production budgets but is now also being produced by a much larger array of small, independent publishers leveraging cheap technology to produce content of more vertical interest. Consumers are able to pick and choose from a rich array of static or interactive content, as well as choose how, when, and where it will be consumed. Many argue that this content landscape is actually becoming overloaded / overcrowded. The advent of “content farms” that spew out generic content in hopes of host sites increasing their SEO hasn’t helped.

The standard model of marketing shotguns a broad-base message in hopes of a trickle-back of eyeballs to select portals and sites. While companies and organizations push their message and brand, consumers increasingly pull what they want — and are empowered by pioneering content efforts.

In 1995, I was privileged to be a founding member of the online content movement. At first, with the idea of distributing select college sports content to people who had no access in their markets / locations, we quickly saw that there was an insatiable thirst among consumers to not “settle” for pushed content, but to instead be able to pull what they really were interested in. AudioNet grew and later became broadcast.com. The stunning velocity of that rocket ride was testament to consumer demand for content freedom.

Inflection Point

315 days
by in Push -vs- Pull

Technology is “allowing the little guy to do what once required a huge corporation… Matt Drudge has succeeded in challenging all the leading media companies of our day — including mine. And he has done it with minimal start-up costs: a computer, a modem and some space on a server.” – Rupert Murdoch News Corp, MySpace.com, The Wall Street Journal

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