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创客（Maker，又译为“自造者”），指一群酷爱科技、热衷实践的人，他们不以赢利为目标、乐于分享技术、交流思想，把创意转变为现实。
当下，创客运动风靡全球。去年6月17日美国总统奥巴马在白宫举办了创客嘉年华活动并确定每年的6月18日为美国“制造日”。而美国著名科技杂志《连线》杂志的主编、畅销书《长尾理论》的作者Chris Anderson在其新书《Makers： the New Industrial Revolution》直指创客将成为新的工业革命。到底“创客”有多大的能耐？我们直接节选了Chris Anderson的书，各位先睹为快。
Back in the early 1940s my grandfather had a great idea. Noting the obsession Californians have with perfectly green front lawns， he decided that what they needed was an automatic 1）sprinkler system. He lavished time and love on it， inventing this and fine-tuning that， and eventually came up with what was essentially an electric clock that could be timed to turn water valves on or off at given times of the day and night. Patent number 2311108 was duly filed in 1943， at which point my grandfather started knocking on manufacturers’ doors. It was a long， 2）arduous process. Finally， in 1950， after endless discussions， the Moody Rainmaster hit the stores. It earned my grandfather a modest income.
Recently， I decided to follow in his footsteps， while adding a little 21st-century know-how to the mix. Online， I found a few like-minded souls interested in producing an improved water sprinkler. We used 3）opensource software to help us create a sprinkler system not only capable of being operated remotely via an app by worried gardeners on holiday， but also sophisticated enough to factor in the latest local weather forecasts before deciding whether to switch the system on or off. We then sent our designs to an assembly house， who duly came up with a smart-looking finished product. It has proved quite popular. It took my grandfather a decade and a small fortune to perfect his device and market it. It took us a few months and $5，000.
And that 4）in a nutshell is the Maker movement—harnessing the Internet and the latest manufacturing technologies to make things. The past 10 years have been about discovering new ways to work together and offer services on the web. The next 10 years will， I believe， be about applying those lessons to the real world. It means that the future doesn’t just belong to Internet businesses founded on virtual principles， but to ones that are firmly rooted in the physical world.
It’s almost a cliché that anyone with a sufficiently good software idea can create a fabulously successful company on the web. That’s because there are practically no barriers preventing entry to entrepreneurship online： if you’ve got a laptop and a credit card， you’re in business. Manufacturing has traditionally been regarded as something else entirely. But over the past few years， something remarkable has begun to happen. The process of making physical stuff has started to look more like the process of making digital stuff.
Various innovations are helping to make this possible. The first， of course， is the 5）crowdsourcing power of the Internet—if you don’t know all the answers， there is someone out there who will. Put out a call for help on a blog or online forum， and somewhere there will be an expert prepared to help you. The second innovation is the increasing sophistication of design programs that can take raw ideas and transform them into executable files. Just as word-processing software has become ever simpler and more intuitive for the user， so Cad （computer-aided design） programs are becoming simultaneously more sophisticated and easier to handle. You design something； the Cad program works out how it can be produced.
First of all， such technology helps remove the 6）shackles from innovation. Until now， the creative process has been beset with obstacles， from the problems inherent in creating a prototype， to the difficulties of persuading a third party to become involved， to the expense of the final launch. And， of course， there’s no guarantee of ultimate success.
But it’s easy to see how Maker technology suits this sort of 7）niche enterprise. Chances are that a savvy and committed market already exists for the right product， and， thanks to the Internet， it’s relatively easy to find it. What’s more， the current manufacturing technology that supports Makers is ideally suited to small batches of bespoke products—from customised plastic toys to tailored clothes.
Moreover， you can， if you choose， make every item bespoke. And you can manufacture at home， perhaps using your own 3D printer （in the U.S.， prices are already dropping to $1，000） or sending your files to a third party fitted out with the necessary kit. That said； I don’t believe that Makers enterprises have to remain smallscale.
Imagine a new company， WindCo， making its first product： a small backyard wind turbine generator. They make the first prototype themselves， as well as a handful of others. Then， it’s time to go into serious production. WindCo is small， and they don’t have sufficient manufacturing capacity themselves， so they outsource to a factory in China that can handle small batches cheaply.
If the product is successful and demand builds， they may well opt to move production back home to cut out delays. If it’s astonishingly successful， then they may decide to move production to a different factory in China that specialises in 8）bulk manufacturing. They have to be flexible because their business is constantly evolving. They are able to be flexible because their design files are digital， the tooling costs of setting up a new manufacturing operation are minimal， and they all use the same robotic machinery. That this can work is demonstrated by the success of a Colorado-based company， Sparkfun， which operates in one of the most ruthlessly cut-throat of all areas of business—electronics. Back in 2003 its founder， Nathan Seidle， was an undergraduate engineering student， who was finding it frustratingly difficult to locate electronic components that he needed for his projects. Today， Sparkfun designs and manufactures specialist printed circuit boards， using sophisticated pick-and-place robot machines to assemble them.
Its employees are young， passionate and appear to totally love their jobs. Dogs and hobbies are indulged at work （though not on the production floor）； tattoos and indie punk rock reflect its culture. It’s a far cry from the “dark satanic mill” vision of manufacturing—much closer in fact to the 9）maverick image of software companies in their startup days.
And it works. Today， Sparkfun has more than 120 employees and annual revenues of around $30 million. It’s growing by 50% a year. A basketball-court-sized ground floor is dominated by robotic electronic production lines， running day and night. And its popular daily blog posts and tutorials have turned its retail website into a high-traffic community， with more than 50，000 visitors a day.
The Maker movement has a long way to go before it can really be said to have come of age. But that doesn’t mean it should be ignored or regarded solely as a hobbyist’s or niche manufacturer’s paradise. It represents the first steps in a different way of doing business. Rather than top-down innovation by some of the biggest companies in the world， we’re starting to see bottom-up innovation by countless individuals， including amateurs， entrepreneurs and professionals. We’ve already seen it work before， in bits， from the original PC hobbyists to the web’s citizen army. Now the conditions have arrived for it to work again， on an even greater， broader scale， in atoms. If the Second Industrial Revolution was the Information Age， then I would argue that a Third Industrial Age is on its way： the age of the Makers.
在20世纪40年代早期，我祖父有个很棒的想法。自从发现加利福尼亚人痴迷绿油油的前院草坪后，他就认定他们所需要的是一套自动洒水系统。他在这套系统上倾注了大量的时间和热情，不停创新并精心调试，最后制作出了最为关键的电子钟，无论在白天还是黑夜，都能够在指定的时间里打开或是关上水阀。1943年，祖父适时申请到了专利号：2311108，同时他开始拜访各大制造商。这个过程漫长而艰辛。最终，在1950年，经过没完没了的商讨，穆迪雨阀投入市面，为我祖父带来了一笔不太多的收入。
最近，我决定追随他的步伐，再加上点21世纪的技术秘诀。在网上，我找到了和我一样对改良洒水系统有兴趣的同好。我们使用开源软件的帮助，设计出一套新的洒水系统，不仅能够让度假时心怀忧虑的园丁们通过一个应用程序进行远程控制，而且还精良设计至加入当地天气实时预报，方便用家决定是打开还是关闭系统。然后我们将设计送往组装厂，他们按时装配好了一套外观漂亮的成品，结果产品相当受欢迎。我祖父花了十年时间和不少钱来完善其产品并推向市场。而我们只用了几个月和5000美元而已。 简而言之，这就是创客运动—利用互联网和最新的制造业科技来创造事物。在过去的十年里，网络被用于发现新的合作方式以及提供服务。在接下来的十年，我相信，就是要把这些经验运用到现实世界当中。这就意味着，未来不仅属于建立在虚拟原则之上的网络产业，同样也属于那些牢牢扎根于现实世界的产业。
任何有着不错的软件产品构想的人都能够在互联网上建立一个极其成功的公司，这差不多已经是个陈腔滥调了。因为在线上几乎没有任何阻止创业的障碍：只要你有一台笔记本电脑和一张信用卡，你就能开始做生意。传统意义上，制造业曾被看作是一种完全不同的产业，但在过去的几年间，某些显著的改变开始发生了。实物产品的制造过程开始越来越趋近于数字产品的制造过程。
各种各样的创新都在使其变为可能。首先，当然是互联网的众包力量—如果你并非全知全能，网上总会有人知道答案。在某个博客或是网上论坛里发布寻求帮助的信息，就会有那么一个专家从某个地方冒出来等着给你帮助。第二项创新便是，越来越智能的设计软件能够吸收不成熟的想法，并将其转化为可操作的文档。正如文字处理软件对于用户来说已经变得更为简易更为直观，CAD（电脑辅助设计）软件同时也变得更加精巧、更容易操作。你提供某种设计；CAD软件解决如何投产的问题。
首先，这一科技帮助解除了创新的枷锁。直至今日，创新的进程常常遭遇各种障碍，包括产品原型创制过程中的内在问题、劝服第三方加入的困难、最后投入市场的经费，不一而足。当然了，谁也不能保证最后一定会成功。
但是不难发现的是，创客科技十分适合于此类小众产业。对于合适的产品来说，一个识货且捧场的市场很可能早已存在，而多亏了互联网，找到这一市场也变得相对容易了。此外，目前支持创客们的制造科技对于小批量生产预订产品也非常合适—从定制的塑料玩具到剪裁考究的成衣，应有尽有。
此外，只要你愿意的话，你就能定制每件物品。而你在家就能制作，也许使用你自己的3D打印机（在美国，目前价格已降至1000美元），或者将你的文档发给配有必需设备的第三方来制作。话虽如此，我却并不认为创客产业就得保持小规模发展。
想象一家叫WindCo的新公司，制作出了它的第一款产品：一个小型的后院风力发电机。他们自己制作了第一件产品原型，以及少量的样板。接着，到了正规投产的阶段。这家公司规模很小，自己没有充足的生产能力，于是他们将其产品外包给了某家能够以低价生产小批量产品的中国工厂。
如果产品获得了成功，市场需求增大，他们很可能会选择将生产移回国内以避免交货延期。但如果产品空前大卖，接着他们也许会决定将生产移交给另一家专业大量生产的中国工厂。他们必须灵活应对，因为其生意在不断发展。他们能够灵活应对，是因为其设计图纸是电子版的，建立新的制造业务所需的模具成本是有限的，用的是同样的那套自动机械。
科罗拉多州Sparkfun公司的成功证明了这种模式的可行性，其身处商业领域里竞争最为惨烈的行业之一—电子业。回溯到2003年，公司的创始人内森·西德尔还是个工程专业的本科生，他发现要为自己的项目寻找所需的电子组件极为困难。如今，Sparkfun设计并制造专门的印刷电路板，通过精密的拾放自动机械来组装产品。
该公司的雇员全都年轻、充满激情且看起来十分热爱自己的工作。工作时可随意携带狗狗或是拥有别的爱好（不过生产车间除外）；文身和独立朋克摇滚乐反映了公司的文化。它与制造业“暗黑撒旦作坊”的形象相去甚远—实际上倒更像处于创业初期的软件公司那样特立独行。
而这一切成功了。如今，Sparkfun已拥有超过120名员工，年收入约三千万美元，且正在以每年50%的速度增长。篮球场大小的首层大楼被自动化电子生产线所占据，日夜不停地运转。而其备受欢迎且每日更新的博文和教程，将其零售网站转变成了信息量巨大的社区，每天有超过五万用户访问。
创客运动还有很长的一段路要走，才能真正被看作是迎来自己的时代。但这并不意味着它应该被忽视，或是仅仅被视为玩家或小众制造业的天堂。它代表了以不同方式经营生意所迈出的第一步。不同于某些世界上最大型的企业所进行的自上而下的革新，我们正开始看见由无数个体所进行的自下而上的推进革新，其中包括业余爱好者、企业家和专业人士等。我们已经见到了它之前所取得的成功，在比特范畴上，从最初的PC机爱好者到网上的市民部队。如今再度取得成功的条件已经到来，在更宏大、更广泛的范围内，在原子范畴上。如果说第二次工业革命是信息时代，那么我想说的是，一场第三次工业革命正要到来：那就是创客时代。
当下，创客运动风靡全球。去年6月17日美国总统奥巴马在白宫举办了创客嘉年华活动并确定每年的6月18日为美国“制造日”。而美国著名科技杂志《连线》杂志的主编、畅销书《长尾理论》的作者Chris Anderson在其新书《Makers： the New Industrial Revolution》直指创客将成为新的工业革命。到底“创客”有多大的能耐？我们直接节选了Chris Anderson的书，各位先睹为快。
Back in the early 1940s my grandfather had a great idea. Noting the obsession Californians have with perfectly green front lawns， he decided that what they needed was an automatic 1）sprinkler system. He lavished time and love on it， inventing this and fine-tuning that， and eventually came up with what was essentially an electric clock that could be timed to turn water valves on or off at given times of the day and night. Patent number 2311108 was duly filed in 1943， at which point my grandfather started knocking on manufacturers’ doors. It was a long， 2）arduous process. Finally， in 1950， after endless discussions， the Moody Rainmaster hit the stores. It earned my grandfather a modest income.
Recently， I decided to follow in his footsteps， while adding a little 21st-century know-how to the mix. Online， I found a few like-minded souls interested in producing an improved water sprinkler. We used 3）opensource software to help us create a sprinkler system not only capable of being operated remotely via an app by worried gardeners on holiday， but also sophisticated enough to factor in the latest local weather forecasts before deciding whether to switch the system on or off. We then sent our designs to an assembly house， who duly came up with a smart-looking finished product. It has proved quite popular. It took my grandfather a decade and a small fortune to perfect his device and market it. It took us a few months and $5，000.
And that 4）in a nutshell is the Maker movement—harnessing the Internet and the latest manufacturing technologies to make things. The past 10 years have been about discovering new ways to work together and offer services on the web. The next 10 years will， I believe， be about applying those lessons to the real world. It means that the future doesn’t just belong to Internet businesses founded on virtual principles， but to ones that are firmly rooted in the physical world.
It’s almost a cliché that anyone with a sufficiently good software idea can create a fabulously successful company on the web. That’s because there are practically no barriers preventing entry to entrepreneurship online： if you’ve got a laptop and a credit card， you’re in business. Manufacturing has traditionally been regarded as something else entirely. But over the past few years， something remarkable has begun to happen. The process of making physical stuff has started to look more like the process of making digital stuff.
Various innovations are helping to make this possible. The first， of course， is the 5）crowdsourcing power of the Internet—if you don’t know all the answers， there is someone out there who will. Put out a call for help on a blog or online forum， and somewhere there will be an expert prepared to help you. The second innovation is the increasing sophistication of design programs that can take raw ideas and transform them into executable files. Just as word-processing software has become ever simpler and more intuitive for the user， so Cad （computer-aided design） programs are becoming simultaneously more sophisticated and easier to handle. You design something； the Cad program works out how it can be produced.
First of all， such technology helps remove the 6）shackles from innovation. Until now， the creative process has been beset with obstacles， from the problems inherent in creating a prototype， to the difficulties of persuading a third party to become involved， to the expense of the final launch. And， of course， there’s no guarantee of ultimate success.
But it’s easy to see how Maker technology suits this sort of 7）niche enterprise. Chances are that a savvy and committed market already exists for the right product， and， thanks to the Internet， it’s relatively easy to find it. What’s more， the current manufacturing technology that supports Makers is ideally suited to small batches of bespoke products—from customised plastic toys to tailored clothes.
Moreover， you can， if you choose， make every item bespoke. And you can manufacture at home， perhaps using your own 3D printer （in the U.S.， prices are already dropping to $1，000） or sending your files to a third party fitted out with the necessary kit. That said； I don’t believe that Makers enterprises have to remain smallscale.
Imagine a new company， WindCo， making its first product： a small backyard wind turbine generator. They make the first prototype themselves， as well as a handful of others. Then， it’s time to go into serious production. WindCo is small， and they don’t have sufficient manufacturing capacity themselves， so they outsource to a factory in China that can handle small batches cheaply.
If the product is successful and demand builds， they may well opt to move production back home to cut out delays. If it’s astonishingly successful， then they may decide to move production to a different factory in China that specialises in 8）bulk manufacturing. They have to be flexible because their business is constantly evolving. They are able to be flexible because their design files are digital， the tooling costs of setting up a new manufacturing operation are minimal， and they all use the same robotic machinery. That this can work is demonstrated by the success of a Colorado-based company， Sparkfun， which operates in one of the most ruthlessly cut-throat of all areas of business—electronics. Back in 2003 its founder， Nathan Seidle， was an undergraduate engineering student， who was finding it frustratingly difficult to locate electronic components that he needed for his projects. Today， Sparkfun designs and manufactures specialist printed circuit boards， using sophisticated pick-and-place robot machines to assemble them.
Its employees are young， passionate and appear to totally love their jobs. Dogs and hobbies are indulged at work （though not on the production floor）； tattoos and indie punk rock reflect its culture. It’s a far cry from the “dark satanic mill” vision of manufacturing—much closer in fact to the 9）maverick image of software companies in their startup days.
And it works. Today， Sparkfun has more than 120 employees and annual revenues of around $30 million. It’s growing by 50% a year. A basketball-court-sized ground floor is dominated by robotic electronic production lines， running day and night. And its popular daily blog posts and tutorials have turned its retail website into a high-traffic community， with more than 50，000 visitors a day.
The Maker movement has a long way to go before it can really be said to have come of age. But that doesn’t mean it should be ignored or regarded solely as a hobbyist’s or niche manufacturer’s paradise. It represents the first steps in a different way of doing business. Rather than top-down innovation by some of the biggest companies in the world， we’re starting to see bottom-up innovation by countless individuals， including amateurs， entrepreneurs and professionals. We’ve already seen it work before， in bits， from the original PC hobbyists to the web’s citizen army. Now the conditions have arrived for it to work again， on an even greater， broader scale， in atoms. If the Second Industrial Revolution was the Information Age， then I would argue that a Third Industrial Age is on its way： the age of the Makers.
在20世纪40年代早期，我祖父有个很棒的想法。自从发现加利福尼亚人痴迷绿油油的前院草坪后，他就认定他们所需要的是一套自动洒水系统。他在这套系统上倾注了大量的时间和热情，不停创新并精心调试，最后制作出了最为关键的电子钟，无论在白天还是黑夜，都能够在指定的时间里打开或是关上水阀。1943年，祖父适时申请到了专利号：2311108，同时他开始拜访各大制造商。这个过程漫长而艰辛。最终，在1950年，经过没完没了的商讨，穆迪雨阀投入市面，为我祖父带来了一笔不太多的收入。
最近，我决定追随他的步伐，再加上点21世纪的技术秘诀。在网上，我找到了和我一样对改良洒水系统有兴趣的同好。我们使用开源软件的帮助，设计出一套新的洒水系统，不仅能够让度假时心怀忧虑的园丁们通过一个应用程序进行远程控制，而且还精良设计至加入当地天气实时预报，方便用家决定是打开还是关闭系统。然后我们将设计送往组装厂，他们按时装配好了一套外观漂亮的成品，结果产品相当受欢迎。我祖父花了十年时间和不少钱来完善其产品并推向市场。而我们只用了几个月和5000美元而已。 简而言之，这就是创客运动—利用互联网和最新的制造业科技来创造事物。在过去的十年里，网络被用于发现新的合作方式以及提供服务。在接下来的十年，我相信，就是要把这些经验运用到现实世界当中。这就意味着，未来不仅属于建立在虚拟原则之上的网络产业，同样也属于那些牢牢扎根于现实世界的产业。
任何有着不错的软件产品构想的人都能够在互联网上建立一个极其成功的公司，这差不多已经是个陈腔滥调了。因为在线上几乎没有任何阻止创业的障碍：只要你有一台笔记本电脑和一张信用卡，你就能开始做生意。传统意义上，制造业曾被看作是一种完全不同的产业，但在过去的几年间，某些显著的改变开始发生了。实物产品的制造过程开始越来越趋近于数字产品的制造过程。
各种各样的创新都在使其变为可能。首先，当然是互联网的众包力量—如果你并非全知全能，网上总会有人知道答案。在某个博客或是网上论坛里发布寻求帮助的信息，就会有那么一个专家从某个地方冒出来等着给你帮助。第二项创新便是，越来越智能的设计软件能够吸收不成熟的想法，并将其转化为可操作的文档。正如文字处理软件对于用户来说已经变得更为简易更为直观，CAD（电脑辅助设计）软件同时也变得更加精巧、更容易操作。你提供某种设计；CAD软件解决如何投产的问题。
首先，这一科技帮助解除了创新的枷锁。直至今日，创新的进程常常遭遇各种障碍，包括产品原型创制过程中的内在问题、劝服第三方加入的困难、最后投入市场的经费，不一而足。当然了，谁也不能保证最后一定会成功。
但是不难发现的是，创客科技十分适合于此类小众产业。对于合适的产品来说，一个识货且捧场的市场很可能早已存在，而多亏了互联网，找到这一市场也变得相对容易了。此外，目前支持创客们的制造科技对于小批量生产预订产品也非常合适—从定制的塑料玩具到剪裁考究的成衣，应有尽有。
此外，只要你愿意的话，你就能定制每件物品。而你在家就能制作，也许使用你自己的3D打印机（在美国，目前价格已降至1000美元），或者将你的文档发给配有必需设备的第三方来制作。话虽如此，我却并不认为创客产业就得保持小规模发展。
想象一家叫WindCo的新公司，制作出了它的第一款产品：一个小型的后院风力发电机。他们自己制作了第一件产品原型，以及少量的样板。接着，到了正规投产的阶段。这家公司规模很小，自己没有充足的生产能力，于是他们将其产品外包给了某家能够以低价生产小批量产品的中国工厂。
如果产品获得了成功，市场需求增大，他们很可能会选择将生产移回国内以避免交货延期。但如果产品空前大卖，接着他们也许会决定将生产移交给另一家专业大量生产的中国工厂。他们必须灵活应对，因为其生意在不断发展。他们能够灵活应对，是因为其设计图纸是电子版的，建立新的制造业务所需的模具成本是有限的，用的是同样的那套自动机械。
科罗拉多州Sparkfun公司的成功证明了这种模式的可行性，其身处商业领域里竞争最为惨烈的行业之一—电子业。回溯到2003年，公司的创始人内森·西德尔还是个工程专业的本科生，他发现要为自己的项目寻找所需的电子组件极为困难。如今，Sparkfun设计并制造专门的印刷电路板，通过精密的拾放自动机械来组装产品。
该公司的雇员全都年轻、充满激情且看起来十分热爱自己的工作。工作时可随意携带狗狗或是拥有别的爱好（不过生产车间除外）；文身和独立朋克摇滚乐反映了公司的文化。它与制造业“暗黑撒旦作坊”的形象相去甚远—实际上倒更像处于创业初期的软件公司那样特立独行。
而这一切成功了。如今，Sparkfun已拥有超过120名员工，年收入约三千万美元，且正在以每年50%的速度增长。篮球场大小的首层大楼被自动化电子生产线所占据，日夜不停地运转。而其备受欢迎且每日更新的博文和教程，将其零售网站转变成了信息量巨大的社区，每天有超过五万用户访问。
创客运动还有很长的一段路要走，才能真正被看作是迎来自己的时代。但这并不意味着它应该被忽视，或是仅仅被视为玩家或小众制造业的天堂。它代表了以不同方式经营生意所迈出的第一步。不同于某些世界上最大型的企业所进行的自上而下的革新，我们正开始看见由无数个体所进行的自下而上的推进革新，其中包括业余爱好者、企业家和专业人士等。我们已经见到了它之前所取得的成功，在比特范畴上，从最初的PC机爱好者到网上的市民部队。如今再度取得成功的条件已经到来，在更宏大、更广泛的范围内，在原子范畴上。如果说第二次工业革命是信息时代，那么我想说的是，一场第三次工业革命正要到来：那就是创客时代。