GE Launches New Crowdsourcing Startup

[Clare S]

GE has announced that they will be launching a startup completely dedicated to crowdsourcing and to innovation through global networking. The business venture, called Fuse, will be launched next week, and will be a 3D printing/rapid prototyping factory in practice, but it will also be the grounds for testing a new business model, one that will draw on the expertise of professionals around the world to create new solutions and companies. Read more at 3DPrint.com: https://3dprint.com/152529/ge-fuse-3d-printing-startup/

[awerby]

It sounds like this giant industrial concern wants people everywhere to contribute their ideas and energy to the greater good of GE. There's no mention of any compensation trickling down to the "crowd". How much nicer for GE not to have to burden themselves with salaries for engineers, or license fees for intellectual property. Instead, they can simply harvest the best of these ideas and patent them themselves, bestowing hearty "thank-yous" in lieu of cash. Hey, it worked for Thingiverse/Makerbot/Stratasys, why not General Electric?

[curious aardvark]

there are a lot of begging sites around now. Guess it wasn't going to be long before big business realised how gullible people are.

[Sebastian Finke]

... they can simply harvest the best of these ideas and patent them themselves...

+1000!! A lot of that going round. Autodesk are major culprits...

[Sebastian Finke]

... it worked for Thingiverse/Makerbot/Stratasys, why not General Electric?

Don't forget GrabCAD!