Quick 3d printing survey: help me with my Master of science in less than 5 minutes

Hello everybody,

My name is Francesco Balocco, I’m a Master of Science student at Bocconi University in Milan.

My graduation paper is about 3D printing and the evolution of consumer behaviour that is taking place thanks to open source projects and to the availability of low cost production hardware.

I’ve prepared a quick survey (10 questions) to test some of my hypothesis, and, since I’m personally interested and I care about the topic, I decided to scale up my research and post it on tech forum not relying only on the usual social buzz.

I’ll be infinitely thankful to you who will decide to answer, and I’ll keep you updated on my results once the work will be done, if you’re interested.

Don’t hesitate to contact me in case of doubt or for any inquieries.

Thanks so much,

Francesco Balocco

Link to the survey:
[www.surveymonkey.com]

I've just filled out the survey. A few of the questions seem oriented towards people who don't currently own a 3D printer, so I found them a little difficult to answer. I left "would you consider buying a 3D printer" blank since I already said yes to owning one. I hope that's not an issue.

I'm certainly interested to see the results when you have them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2014 12:41PM by samp20.

Good luck with your thesis.

Rightly or wrongly, I get the sense from your questions that you presuppose that a 3D printer will, in the near- to medium-term, be an indispensable appliance in every modern first-world home. All those printers with all that downtime seems mighty economically inefficient to me. I see business adoption of the printers as a more likely outcome. Think websites offering same-day turnaround with local production close to a distribution hub (i.e. post office.) Plumbers and auto-parts stores producing patent-protected proprietary designs on demand, saving the cost of warehousing and returns to wholesalers. Of course, there's plenty of room in the technology forecasting game for reasonable people to disagree.

As a thought exercise, I like to start a common household appliance, (say, a washing machine,) and try to enforce an analogy to 3D printers. If, say, ...
* your washing machine was unsuitable for much of your clothing, and
* it didn't get your clothes as clean as at the reasonably-priced laundromat, and
* you often had to wash your clothes several times for it to work for even simple cases, and
* the cost of washing your clothes was often less than the cost of just buying new clothes at the store, and
* if your washing machine wasn't perfectly level in your room it wouldn't start, and
* you weren't interested in using your washing machine as a hobby, and rarely truly needed it,
would you spend money on a washing machine?

Of course, lots of these things will change, but I think on-demand use at local and far-flung businesses is going to be the cost-optimizing solution for the vast majority. I expect lots of business models will duke it out in this arena. Dissension welcome.

Karmavore,

What you describe here is perfectly true for a ... home computer . Even after 30 years of producing computers, it's still true ! how to explain there's so many in every home now ?

I could add :
- your washing machine would stop without any apparent reason but would restart perfectly after a reboot
- your washing machine would work ONLY with the right , expensive , powder from the same brand !
- your would need to buy a new washing machine every 2 years because it is obsolete and the field of washing machines evolved so fast.
.. and so on..

European college surveys. Puke in my mouth. I know, send the hate mail. But still, European college surveys? This is Kryptonite to my warrior spirit.

And survey monkey? Come on! blatant industry BS.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2014 10:15PM by ohioplastics.

Quote
ohioplastics
European college surveys. Puke in my mouth. I know, send the hate mail. But still, European college surveys? This is Kryptonite to my warrior spirit.

And survey monkey? Come on! blatant industry BS.

Then don't take it? I used similar platforms for surveys for my undergrad. They work great for getting an overview of your topic, especially if they aggregate the data for you.

---

greghoge.com

HUGE 3D PRINTER PARTS SALE!!!

Oh I took the survey, and I answered 34343434, just to taint their results. Don't take them at their word.

Their's people who seek knowledge and their's people who mine information. Which is this? Nobody knows. Who's Francesco Balocco of Bocconi University in Milan?

My name is John Henry, President of Nigeria. If you could please give me your bank account number, I can give you 2 million dollars.

I'm just messing around of course. My name's kyle keith, of some podunk town in Ohio, USA you've never heard of. I have no need for your information, frankly because I could give an F.

Umm, ok? It's a survey, you don't even give any personal information other than gender...

---

greghoge.com

HUGE 3D PRINTER PARTS SALE!!!

They're not looking for personal information per say. They're looking for the general feelings/tendencies of a rapidly growing consumer base.

It's most likely a consumer data mining operation, looking to sell the results to God knows who.

GOD, people are naive. I'm not judging. People are vulnerable to a guy who's a college student. It's very identifiable: I'm just working on a thesis, yada yada yada, fill out the survey. But, under the facade, it's the same scam, over and over and over again. whether it's a TV commercial, an email from a Nigerian prince, or an anonymous post on the reprap forum, always, Always, ALWAYS..... thimk.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2014 12:43AM by ohioplastics.

Just as I said. A complete scam artist.

If you were lying then shame on you Francesco (as if you care). I think I'll fill out the form again with contradictory information to what I initially put.

I hate it when my helpfulness gets taken advantage of.

Karmavore,

I'm not sure that comparison with a washing machine is a good analogy for a 3D printer, perhaps a comparison with a mobile phone or even a domestic ink jet printer would be better.


e.g.
my inkjet printer only works with very expensive supplies
if i leave my inkjet printer for a month without using it, the ink cartridge has probably dried out and may be unusable
if i try to unblock my inkjet cartridge it makes a huge mess of indelible ink thats hard to clear up
my old inkjet computer doesn't have a Windows 7 driver so, I'll probably have to replace it.

vs

if i drive to the local mall they can print my photos for 50c each and are good quality
etc

or

my mobile goes slow with the latest OS upgrade, so i will need to replace it soon.
my mobile phone battery is not replaceable, so in 2 or 3 years i'll need to replace the whole phone
i cant get any signal on my mobile phone when inside my appartment, so i need to stand outside to use it

vs

without a mobile phone i'd have to find a payphone when i'm not at home (very hard to do), to make a call

etc


Albeit, 3d printers have far more issues than either of the above, but people put up with a lot of issues with technology, if it allows when to do things which would otherwise be either impossible, or extremely expensive, or very time consuming.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2014 03:45PM by rogerclark.

Just out of curiosity, what is your Masters Degree in?

Um am I missing something? Why do people think it's a scam? If you wanted to mine consumer data, there are far better ways than this. Yes the OP may have posted to several different forums relating to 3D printing, you can debate whether that's okay or not but I don't see any evidence it's a scam. If you are really concerned, I suspect the OP will be willing to provide contact info for their supervisor so you can confirm they are indeed a Masters student.

I have no reason to believe this is a scam, just curious.

Quote
Evil Monkey
Just out of curiosity, what is your Masters Degree in?

Management it looks.