Voovo Crowdsourcing Site Launches for 3D Printing, modelling and Makers

Voovo has come up with a way to keep the cycle of innovation going with their crowdsourcing platform that allows those who have made the investment in 3D printing to recoup some of their money back while working as a private 3D printing servicer for those who are enthusiastic about 3D printing and want 3D models produced but don’t own the equipment. Based in Toronto, Voovo expects to put together 5,000 3D printing shops with more than 10,000 ‘auctions’ going on this year. For more details about Voovo, check out the full article: http://3dprint.com/48238/voovo-crowdsourcing-platform/


Below is a photo of the Voovo team:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...voovo-team.jpg

This "auction to print" idea is an interesting and creative concept. I see a few issues though.

The biggest problem, from a designer's perspective, is that the STL file has to be released to all the print shop owners. I read nothing on their website about protecting intellectual property rights. This is the same problem when dealing with 3DHubs or makexyz, but with those you're only releasing to a single party of your own choosing, and therefore still retain some measure of control. I've only seen NovoMaker address this issue of property rights seriously.

Another couple of minor issues crop up when a buyer posts a job for auction:

- In the description under print resolution it states, "Print resolution describes the layer thickness and is measured in dots-per-inch. Traditional DPI is 250, while more advanced printers can print as high as 1,600 DPI". First off, layer thickness (Z axis) is never measured in DPI. Two dimensional (X and Y axes) photographic images are measured that way, but that's not what we're dealing with here. Also, the guy with the printer is going to have to do a little math to convert DPI into the micron resolutions he's used to. I would think that most customers are also going to think of resolution in terms of microns (0.001mm) or thou (0.001") and are going to have to convert to this DPI. These back and forth conversions are not difficult but, i can see more than a little confusion being introduced into the process.

- "Job Type dictates the infill for your print job...". Then why not just call it Infill? It makes so much more sense. Here's a chance to educate the consumer.


My two cents...

Hi Brent,

Thanks a lot for the feedback! We're always open to thoughts, ideas, advice, criticism, hate mail, and compliments on our appearance.

We completely agree with you. We've gotten a TON of feedback about this. A lot of our startup/entrepreneur/engineer customers have even gone so far as to suggest having a generic NDA in place before releasing any intellectual property. You are absolutely correct in saying there is nothing about IP protection on our website. We do not offer it yet, but we're diligently working towards incorporating a feature that will offer protection against infringement. Instead of publicly posting an STL, we'll be offering the ability to hand pick verified print shops who have documented experience working with sensitive files. Should be finished early next week. Stay tuned.

Great point about DPI conversion. We'll have a look at converting everything to microns in the descriptions.

For Job Types...well, that's another great point! I'm going to implement that change as soon as possible.

Please keep it coming!