“In the last years people discovered through the Internet new ways of sharing information, knowledge and ideas at incredible speed. Another transformation will soon completely change the way in which ideas become inventions, prototypes and products “ready to market”: the advent of digital fabrication.
The newspaper The Economist, in an editorial on April 21, 2012, defines the advent of digital fabrication as the “third industrial revolution”: today, through desktop 3D printers, it is possible to mold shapes generated by modeling software in physical object.
The technology of “digital fabrication” have become more and more accessible thanks to the expiration of patents and to innovative open source projects like Rep Rap Project and Fab @ home. Then, it spread out around the world by the culture of DIT “do It Yourself” and DIT “do It Togheter”.
The disruption of this innovation has arrived in Italy, opening new horizons for the Made in Italy and for the Italian cultural and creative industries. The “Sprawl Design Industries – Cooperative Society” founded in Italy, in the city of Palermo has accepted this challenge.
S.D.I. is the first cooperative startup created in Sicily focusing on innovation for production and labour. Winner of the national contest “Culturability – Working together in Cooperative”, promoted by the Foundation Unipolis, S.D.I.is part of the scene of the Italian cultural and creative industries by offering digital manufacturing goods and services, through innovative techniques of digital fabrication. The enterprise project is the result of the idea of three young innovators of Palermo, Michele Anzalone 27 years old, architect and PhD student in “Arts and Architecture Planning” at the University of Palermo, Luca Rizzuto, 30 years old, video maker and student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo and Claudio Romano, 27, architect with advanced training in 3D modeling and rendering.
The corporate mission of these innovators from Palermo is to build networks, conversations and markets between makers, designers and consumers. They imagined and designed an innovative platform for social commerce, a marketplace dedicated to the production, marketing and promotion of digitally crafted & made in Italy design.
The platform integrates the dimension of social media and e-commerce: each designer will have the possibility to upload their own design for 3D printing, to present cultural, aesthetic and functional instances that inspired his project, to communicate with customers and to get economic remuneration from all those who purchase their products.
S.D.I. is hosted by the business incubator “ARCA” at the University of Palermo, offering on-site 3D modeling, 3D printing, rapid prototyping, graphic design and video editing services. Moreover. S.D.I. organize events to promote the culture of design, self-production and knowledge of new technologies and digital fabrication. In the first months of life, the work of the startup focused on the internal organization, on the definition of the promotion strategy and on the design and development of the marketplace. The team has also participated to several national competitions to gain access to seed accelerators programs.
From 2 to 5 October in Rome, the startup will have the opportunity to present to the Maker Faire 2014, the beta version of the platform for social commerce.”
