3D Printing and Nokia Developer Outreach North Texas

Thanks to John Kneeland, Fred Patton and Hamish Willee for their work on this!

For those who don't know me, I'm a Nokia Developer Champion and Ambassador living near Dallas, Texas. We have thriving communities of software developers and makers interested in Nokia's Lumia products. My (part time) job and personal mission is to ramp that up.

I will be supporting the 3D printing efforts in general with sample projects, tutorials and other resources, but closer to home I will work with local communities to get them fully engaged.

One plan is to put together a Nokia-branded hackathon I'm calling [B]Nokiathon[/B]. The original goal focused on mobile software (Windows Phone) but after seeing hardware projects at the recent AT&T Developer Hackathon in Las Vegas, and with the new 3D printing possibilities, I plan to expand that.

So I will be working with fellow Champions and Ambassadors to develop a plan for Nokiathons with software, hardware and hybrid tracks. I think there are exciting possibilities and hope to hear ideas from the broad community here.

So let's make some cool things happen!

Randall "texrat" Arnold
Nokia Developer Ambassador

My own article on the subject: [url]http://post404.com/2013/01/nokia-dips-a-toe-into-the-makerspace/[/url]

Getting things started in my local maker community: [url]http://www.fortworthmakerspace.com/nokia-embracing-the-3d-printing-community/[/url]

Great work, Randall! Super excited for this :)

I've been sharing this quite a bit and really pumped at the interest. One really cool factor is opening up the Lumia line to nontraditional enthusiast communities. It would be great if we could expand it further; some are asking for CNC data to mill their own Lumia 920 cases, for instance. I realize that gets more complicated, but one can dream!

I am thinking how we can generate more excitement for 3D printing in this part of the continent.

Regards
Gopal

[QUOTE=balagopalks;910182]I am thinking how we can generate more excitement for 3D printing in this part of the continent.

Regards
Gopal[/QUOTE]

One way is to approach people who might benefit and show them samples. I have found that many people still think of 3D printing as incapable of producing anything useful, and they're amazed when they actually have the results in their hands. Check with online providers like Shapeways, Ponoko, iMaterialise and Cubify to see about samples of their production.

Interesting! Will give it a try..

Regards
Gopal

Have you done any more on this? Would be interested in doing something like this in St. Louis too.