Makers, the new super geeks?

Autodesk’s acquisitive ways continue as the company today announced its purchase of Instructables, a website that lets people share their do-it-yourself ("DIY") project ideas. There are many interesting aspects to this acquisition – not the least of which is Autodesk’s focus on web-hosted apps – but what I find fascinating is Autodesk’s recent fascination with "makers".

My husband’s father was a maker of the highest order. He was a craftsman, a carpenter who made beautiful things out of normal lumber, cabinets and tables and beds. He made a magnificent crib for his granddaughter … and I don’t think he used even a paper sketch to rough out designs, let alone a computer or CAD package. He seemed to have a sixth sense of how things could go together and then have his hands and tools execute on that vision. My husband, too, is a maker but one who may use paper or a computer for detailed designs, to make material lists and figure out assembly. He makes things out of wood, creates computer code and uses computer programs to mix music. Will the next generation use computerized tools to the exclusion of paper? What happens to intuition in an environment where wizards help the design process along?

For Autodesk, involvement in Instructables.com brings clear advantages. By linking Instructables’ online members to its software and services brands (SketchBook, 123D and Homestyler now but likely many more to come), Autodesk exposes a sizable new audience to its products and taps a market that would never have heard of its professional tools, let alone bought a license of Inventor or Revit. There aren’t any signs of this yet, but I can’t help wonder, though, if so much focus on casual users is a two-edged sword: easier to use products for all perhaps at the price of advancing functionality for the experts?

Instructables gets a big boost too, since this deal will help them reach a several million people who know the Autodesk offerings from a professional setting but want to exercise their creativity outside the office. Autodesk says that it intends to retain the Instructables brand and will continue to operate the Instructables.com website, “preserving the elements that make the Instructables community so authentic and successful today”.

I like this quote from Autodesk’s press release about the acquisition: Samir Hanna, VP of Consumer Products at Autodesk, said that, “as a result of this acquisition, Autodesk will host a unique ecosystem that combines inspiration, accessible 3D software tools and fabrication services so anyone can be empowered to express themselves creatively.” Perhaps that’s the key to it all: taking design tools out of the humdrum, “work” world and putting them to use as tools of inspiration.