3d printing magazine?

So does that mean only complimentary ramarks about sponsors/advertisers will be included ???,
and would advertisers be allowed any editorial control, ie, approve content.
I shall now get off my hobby horse and leave this to the community, I hope it all goes well and my fear
of possible problems is misguided.

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Random Precision

... I think, to be authentic, a 3D-printing magazine should cover all aspects, even the comercialisation or or starting RepRap-related business.

What could help - a small 'board' of people known/accepted in the community, that will decide problematic themes/issues ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I agree with Viktor that all aspects should be featured, and commercialisation is a valid topic. However I have to disagree about the board - I don't think there are many (any?) examples of times where a committee actually helps. By all means have some kind of advisory board, but I would strongly recommend that someone take control of the magazine and have the final say. Of course I also recommend they should be open to constructive feedback from the community etc, but with something as creative and far reaching as a magazine I think a beneficent dictator would produce a better magazine than a committee.

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garyhodgson.com/reprap | reprap.development-tracker.info | thingtracker.net

... agree about the board - but who is 'thrust-worthy' enough?

Don't think, Adrian will volunteer

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Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Well, we could have an election, couldn't we? Everyone interested in becoming the content editor could send their name to pdeigns and then the top two or three nominations could be voted on by the community - the resulting winner would be the editor in chief, and the runners-up could be on th board. I'm not talking layout or revenue, just content - pdesigns should ultimately control the project, but I'd feel better about having a senior member at the helm as far as what issues should be addressed in the mag as they are more familiar with the topics being discussed.

As far as contributions are concerned, I think it should be up to the community as to what is submitted for publication - write up your own article and send it in, maybe it'll get published. Let the editors choose what to include to match the theme and save the other articles for later editions.

Just a few ideas.

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- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

Sorry akhlut but I have to disagree about the election idea. Firstly, it's pdesigns' idea so I think he should run with it as he see's fit. Secondly, democracy, and hence elections, only work when the people are informed - how can picking from a list of names choose the right person to be an editor? Choose the right person for the job based on their skills, abilities and commitment, rather than letting the mob pick someone because they recognise the name.

I also don't see why a "senior member" necessarily has to be involved (although if they want to be then of course that's ok). If the magazine has sufficiently open channels to receive feedback from all members of the community then it will soon hear whether the content is suitable, or needs more details, or should be thrown out.

I do agree that having user submitted content would be potentially a good source of material, so long as the team can handle the submissions.

@pdesigns - the topic seems to veering off into details a bit prematurely. Do you have a plan or ideas on what you'd like see happen next? I think there is sufficient interest and material to give it a go.

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garyhodgson.com/reprap | reprap.development-tracker.info | thingtracker.net

It's good to see this on going discussion, indicating several possible paths.

At this point i´m working up with on the basic plan for the project. This a bit of a struggle...

And to set off the ground with the project i will start to try to assemble a small team.This will be the base team to run the project for the long term.
Ideal basic profile is people with knowledge and experience. In the next days i will make some contacts trying to assemble this team.

The development of the early stages off the magazine will be discussed among the team (to be selected/assembled) and them we will update on the developments.

For now if anyone wants to add their opinion to this post please do so, i will certainly read it.

Start small, get issue 1 up and running with a few people. See where it takes you, it can obviously grow and as more issues are done, it will be a fantastic source for new people getting into RepRap and also a great way for long standing members to share the knowledge.

This magazine could be exactly what RepRap needs, very exciting.

As someone on here once said, we are an adhocracy - it may get a bit messy, but the results speak for themselves!

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

"adhocracy" - love it! and it does describe this project very well. At first I found it quite frustrating, but I now realise that there are genuine advantages of it being so loosely coupled.

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garyhodgson.com/reprap | reprap.development-tracker.info | thingtracker.net

I dunno, elections seem to work. Maybe I didn't express the idea clearly. Maybe I left a step or two out. Please allow me to clarify.

1.) Pdesigns is in control of the entire process.
2.) As Viktor asked, who does the community trust? How can this trust be allocated to provide the publication in question the gravitas it will need in a fractious community such as this? This is possibly the most important aspect - the people who will read this publication will want to hear from experienced members of the community. Not to say that those who are new have nothing useful to say - quite to the contrary. But people want to hear from those who are in-the-know. So in order to determine who the community trusts you have to ask the community, not guess at who is trusted.
3.) The other issue is one of will - who amongst us has the will to participate in such a venture, let alone the time. Many think it is a good idea and have expressed the an interest in consuming the information. But people have to be willing to perform this function which will require quite a bit of time and effort - potentially unpaid effort at that.
4.) Given that points 2 and 3 describe an inefficient market (one where some possess the will to perform a function but potentially not all will be well received by the consumers of their content) a mechanism must be put in place to efficiently allocate levels of trust to those who have demonstrated the will to perform. The most effective mechanism for this type of matching is...an election/poll.
5.) Pdesigns would be in charge of the polling, vetting each candidate to ensure their suitability, then pdesigns puts forth their names to be voted upon by the consumers of the content.
6.) If you're concerned by mob mentality then utilize a weighting mechanism where the votes of those who have been registered longer/posted more count more than someone who just registered today Maybe discount that with a ratio of (quantity of posts)/time to give those who respond to every little thing less weight. Who said that elections must be fair?
7.) The results of the election are merely a guide for pdesigns to choose quality candidates to work with that the audience will listen to.

Seems pretty straightforward to me. But going through such a process might be burdensome...

I re-read the 'senior member' aspect and it came out wrong. I didn't mean that an arbitrary senior member should run it, but rather that ultimately a senior member of the community would be elected - probably an admin - and would help pdesigns steer the editorial aspect of the publication.

Either way, I look forward to such a publication. Pdesigns, I'm sure you'll choose the right people to help you in this regard.

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- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

Thanks for the clarification akhlut, I see what you are saying now, and I agree that given pdesigns, or someone, vets and organises the candidates accordingly then a community vote could help ascertain the suitable candidates. I think your point 7 ("The results of the election are merely a guide...") would be a sensible approach.

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garyhodgson.com/reprap | reprap.development-tracker.info | thingtracker.net

Guys, please, keep it free. There are lot's of people from "crappy" countries (im from Argentina for example), for us is quite expesive to buy magazines abroad.

If you manage to do that it will get a really big audience.

Just my 2 cents.

I had to chuckle. A non-printed mag about printing

(I do dig the idea of the mag!)

pdesigns Wrote:
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> A free web-magazine, new
> editions every month or so, with general articles,
> how to, tips, reviews and so on...

... no, it's essentially a non-3D-printed mag about 3D-printing

Imagine the weight of a magazine, printed with a RepRap

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Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

You guys all *do* realise print magazine industry has gone down the toilet years ago, right?
And no, this isn't coming from a bright-eyed-hipster-e-everything-kiddie, but someone who used to work as a journalist for print newspapers and magazines for about 9-10 years.

Print is dead.
It's become financially unviable (except for mass-market media mastodons who are still drifting by virtue of their massive inertia).

Online or e-mag gets my vote.

orcinus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Print is dead.
> It's become financially unviable (except for
> mass-market media mastodons who are still drifting
> by virtue of their massive inertia).
>
> Online or e-mag gets my vote.

Who said anything about printing the thing?, it's staying electronic, unless you or anyone else wants to print out a copy on a 2D or 3D printer

And free! This is only about getting more information out there, and helping the RepRap and 3D printing community.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

... I was thinking about an online magazine and all three or six months a condensed and refined version as spin-off print - here in Germany we have some magazines 'working' in this style, but 'refining' their in two-weeks turnus printed-mags.

Another methode is designing the online mag so it can be printed without any reconverting, if wanted by someone - maybe in PDF format or such ...

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Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Glad to see this topic !
I have a background in digital design and I also love RepRap and would like to contribute in any way I can.

Richraps post with list of topics is a good starting point.

Content and articles from people must trust worthy in the community
- stick to online, print is no use.
- keep it simple so any device can be used to view it
- keep it cool see [www.youtube.com]
- graphics and media ( I can help out with stuff, make simple page layouts ect. )
- entertainment is crucial for non geeks
- keep it informative and technical for tips and tricks for all the geeks

Anyone think of a name? What about the name keep it simple RepRap magazine? or go creative with somthing like 3dadhocracy?
Oh, and did I mention that EVERY issue should have a stl file attached so you can challenge your 3d printer to print the cover. I'm up for that.

Keep it simple - RepMag

i think a mag will be nice, but how about a e-handbook? as what was mentioned, the wiki does contain loads of info, however, it does not have a "linear" organisation to it for new readers, it is really very much like a tree branch.

i think, if it becomes a web handbook done in a way like ARRL ham radio handbook, it will definately boost the speed at which noobs can pick up the hobby. why do i say ARRL ham radio handbook? cos if u happen to take a look at it, the book covers all the basics in the first few chapters, and then gets into the good stuff after that ... and it adds on hobbyist contributions, new discoveries etc ... to certain extent, some machines have crossed over into the cnc arena by attaching mills and PCB routers lol. not forgetting, the photo-cure resin based machines.

why do i think basics are important? cos not all new ppl understand some of the possible "dangers" of this hobby, eg : chemical fumes, electrical fire hazards, etc.

maybe all of us prototypers can get a plastic "callsign" to boot ... "ZR5GN just made a bust of darth vader using bla bla bla ... "

we be like ARRL in the pre-1950s lol, everything is starting to take off. and the more mature machine manufacturers take up some advertizing in it ... wa la !!! presto ...

however, since reprap is a registered/copyrighted name ... i dont think it can be used (or should be used). i dont want a successful free mag/handbook to turn corners like thingiverse :p ... it should be independant of manufacturers influence to certain degree.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2012 05:55PM by redreprap.

i cant imagine turning a solid PLA plastic page ... dual extruded ... white background .. black text ... and grayscale for whatever pics ... oh gawd no!


VDX Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... no, it's essentially a non-3D-printed mag
> about 3D-printing
>
> Imagine the weight of a magazine, printed with a
> RepRap

Print may be dead, but throwing some printed magazines around might get some more attention. For instance at student cafeteria..

There are a lot of bloggers and people creating great content worth of being in a publication.


Maybe creating a website in the form of a online news/magazine thing then there would be a great start to a magazine publication.


If people are interested I am a bit of a web dev/ RepRap fanatic so would love to help out.

3dmagazine is the best

I like the idea of a 3D Printing Magazine. I have been researching the technology as part of a class project. I think that it is a shame that more people don't about the crazy and amazing things that you can do with a 3D Printer. Do you think that people would be interested in going to a full-service store that would walk you through the process of printing object in 3D? I am thinking the store would be a mashup of Kinkos and The Apple Store.

If you have a moment check out my website on 3D printing.

[www.ideaprinters.com]


I am trying to use the website to gauge interest in 3D printing. There is nothing for sale on the site.

Thanks

I would be interested in lending my skills and knowledge as a former graphic designer/prepress operator and as a current IT/Marketing manager for an American pulley manufactuer. This project interests me for a variety of reasons. As a former graphic designer, I have always loved laying out magazines and advertisements. As the IT manager, I am looking at 3D printing as a potential solution for prototyping pulleys for other companies and/or using prototypes made from machinable plastics as low quantity end solutions. As a marketing manager, our pulleys are often used in these devices and the project would offer insight into our standing in the Reprap community.

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Kevin Cox
IT/Marketing Manager | B&B Manufacturing
219-324-0247 | kevin@bbman.com | [www.bbman.com]
Twitter: [twitter.com] | LinkedIn: [lnkd.in]

I just thought I would chime in here. While I am not (yet) qualified to contribute, I would be a subscriber to a magazine on 3d Printer (reprap style not $$$ commercial units).

While I would read an electronic version if I had to, I still prefer my magazines in printed form.

Is the RepRap evolving fast enough for a monthly magazine?, maybe you could start off with a quarterly publication.

Ideal point to make practice

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I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions —— Production-machine

Hi,

I'm a fan of digital photography magazines. Sure would like to see something like 3D mags.

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Dbucsko01
[danbucsko.com]