Dear all, I am a PhD student at the Free University of Bolzano in

3D Printing
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1

Dear all,

I am a PhD student at the Free University of Bolzano in Italy. My research focuses on the emergence of the 3D printing industry. I am looking for individuals that can participate in an interview with me over the phone/Skype. Specifically individuals who have been involved in the 3D printing industry for a greater length of time or from the beginning. Your assistance will be of great help in the succession of this research project. Looking forward to your response. Thank you.

Kind Regards,
Abeer Pervaiz

2

Gonna be hard to have people take that much time but based on prior experience if you publish a survey using say Google Surveys or Survey Monkey, you’ll get a lot of responses if you post a link. Still feel free to hit me up with any specific questions. I’ve been involved with 3D printing for 3 years, work with them now for my job, used about 15 different models of printers, and am currently designing one.

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If you do a survey like a google forms I bet you will get more data. People are more apt to spend 3 minutes filling that out rather then just a couple doing a Skype call. Better data spread

4

Thanks. Yes that is an idea as well but the questions require a lot more in depth discussions. However, I have had good luck in finding people via LinkedIn so I thought I would post here as well and see if any other would be interested. Though thanks for the suggestions. Will see if I can design a form as well to get more information.

5

I’ve been involved in the community for over 5 years and have been following at least the reprap program since it’s inception.

I don’t have time for a Skype call, but I do respond to Google hangouts decently well if you’re okay chatting that way.

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@Justin_Nesselrotte Im fine with hangouts as well. Can you tell me when you are available and what time? Thanks

7

Asking someone like Joel Telling (3D Printing Nerd) or Angus Deveson (MakersMuse) would help boost popularity

8

Nobody around here has been involved in 3D printing from the beginning, since that was closed-source development in the early 1980s.

RepRap started in 2005. You might find a few people involved in that. @nophead comes to mind.

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@Abeer_Pervaiz ​ I messaged you on hangouts

@Ryan_Carlyle ​ yep, but that’s definitely a useful piece of history to explain, since many people probably think 3d printing started with makerbot.

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Also worth mentioning that Chuck Hull pioneered 3D printing and the very first format was SLA, not FDM.

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Definitely. Actually according to my research the concept of 3D printing goes far back as 1859, that time it was more of photosculptures, but it followed on the same techniques that of 3D printing. Though thanks everyone. I have had much more luck on LinkedIn and found a few participants who have been part of this industry since 1990s. Keep printing. :slight_smile: