Atoms are the New Bits

The past decade was about finding new social and innovation models on the web. The next decade will be about applying them to the real world.

The rise of cheap, powerful digital prototyping tools, such as desktop CNC machines and 3D printers, along with the opening of global manufacturing to small batch production, has created an end-to-end opportunity for small businesses and individuals to create and distribute physical goods just as the web let them do with digital goods.

The result is an emerging Long Tail of Things. Chris Anderson will talk about his own experience in starting new micro-manufacturing businesses using these techniques and the impact of the industrialization of the Maker movement.

Presenter(s)

Chris Anderson took the helm of Wired in 2001 and has led the magazine to eleven National Magazine Award nominations since, winning the prestigious top prize for general excellence in 2005, 2007, and 2009. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Long Tail and FREE: The Future of Radical Price, both of which are based on influential articles published in Wired.

Chris is also founder of Booktour.com, a free online service that connects authors on tour with audiences (Amazon.com took a stake in the company in 2009), and of 3D Robotics, an open source robotics company. He was named in April 2007 to the "Time 100," the news magazine's list of the 100 most influential men and women in the world. He previously was at The Economist, where he served as U.S. business editor, Asia business editor, and technology editor. Chris' media career began at the two premier science journals, Nature and Science, where he served in several editorial capacities.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from George Washington University and studied Quantum Mechanics and Science Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.