Re: What's in a Name II

From: Brock Hinzmann (SRI  International)
To: RP-ML, Terry Wohlers (Wohlers Associates)
Date: Wednesday, January 4, 1995
Subject: Re: What's in a Name II
Dear Terry & Yakov,
     I am allowed one day per week to work on RP. I think looking up a few articles
is good use of my time. 
     I agree with Terry's assertion that it would be very difficult to change the
name. It will evolve on its own anyway, just as home computers became personal
computers, workstations, laptops, palm tops, PDAs, and the like. I'm not going
to sweat it. I like such mild forms of interesting change.
     Besides, I don't think Yakov realizes how quickly the presses work at the
Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). By now, just about everyone in the
world must have received at least one piece of paper from SME that says rapid
prototyping on it.
     It may be more important to try to create a technology roadmap to the future
of this technology. Which are the most important hardware and software
engineering problems to be solved? How long will it take to solve each one of
them? What other supporting or synergistic technologies can or must evolve to
speed up the solution to RP problems? What other technologies are changing in
competition with RP that will lessen or slow its market impact? Who needs
information about RP now versus who will need information about it in the
future? How will changes in RP and other technologies change the workplace
environment in the future and in what way does that environment then become a
moving target for RP technology solutions? My list goes on and on. When you
answer all of those types of questions, you may resort to such names as
desktop manufacturing, home fabricator, and dreamware. Each of you has a map
or vision in your head, which might be quite different than others. I have
found that by working together, the group consensus is often more accurate
than a single person, unless that person is really well connected to other
people. Perhaps once a week or once a month we could tackle a new question
with long-term implications, so that each of us could draw our own little
maps. Or perhaps it is just enough to suggest you do it and fill in the
different blanks as bumble along each week, trying to solve our daily
questions.
     whoops, my time is up for this week. bh.