RE: 1998 Conference at DTI: Rapid Tooling & Manufacturing

From: Brock Hinzmann (bhinzmann@sric.sri.com)
Date: Fri Sep 11 1998 - 01:42:04 EEST


Standards are often the biggest hidden barriers to new technologies. I
believe that the early rapid growth of RP was due to the early acceptance of
 certain standards. If specialists want to spend their time buying and
learning the latest and greatest every few months, fine. But most consumers
want to be able to use something familiar, or they will stop using it.

I expect someone at Kodak is already giving a lot of thought to what kind
of image exchange standards the digital imaging market will accept.
Perhaps Joe can enlighten us on their findings.

It is interesting, even delightful that I can walk through the Stanford
Shopping Center and hear a lot of different languages being spoken on any
given day, but I also appreciate that all of the shop owners speak English.
Diversity is a great source of creativity, but standards are required for
commercial acceptance.

Derek and Joe, Isn't it great belonging to an on-line community?

Brock Hinzmann
Technology Navigator
Business Intelligence Center
SRI International

Derek Smith-EDS014 wrote:
>Joe,
Seriously now. FWIW (For What It's Worth), I could not open the original
>mail attachment either. I think there is an appropriate rate at which
>software should change, determined by the added benefits relative to
cost of
>upgrading (not just $, but also time and effort). Not everyone has the
same
>balance, and email is probably the most universal form of electronic
>communication, and therefore especially sensitive to this debate.
>
>There is a reason this is a mailing list, and not some hot new web Java
>applet driven forum. The reason is to reach a broader audience. If you
are
>suggesting it is appropriate to leave some people "behind" in exchange
for
>some marginal benefit which allows special attachments, I disagree.
Where
>would we then draw the line??
>
>I think an appropriate solution is what we commonly see, which is to
provide
>the CONTENT of the message in basic text form, and if someone wants a
fancy
>formatted printout they can print and bring to their boss for approval
to
>attend the Conference, provide the text of the URL address in the
message
>and let those who need to access it that way. This is a good compromise,
and
>people have often used this approach.
>
>> > What's the sense of upgrading your mail utility if you have to
>> shut off
>> > all the bells and whistles?
>>
>I think that is a very good question! The answer: use the bells and
whistles
>internally at Kodak to improve your productivity (if it indeed
accomplishes
>that), and when you go "outside", dumb it down for the rest of us.
>
>> > Your running state of the art RP equipment,
>>
>Sounds like they put their investment where it will generate some
revenue!
>
>Regards,
>
> ...ederek

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