2021/11/08 by Chen Liang, Liang, Chen, Nahyun Kwon +3
Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Open Source Software Innovations #Sharing Economy and Platforms
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2111.04830
openalex publication_date 2021/11/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
With the continuous growth of online 3D printing community and the democratization of 3D printers, growing number of users start sharing their own 3D designs on open platforms, enabling a wide audience to search, download, and 3D print models for free. Although sharing is mostly for altruistic reasons at first, open platforms had also created potential job opportunities to compensate creative labors. This paper analyzes new job opportunities emerged in online 3D printing social platforms and patterns of seeking compensations, and reveals various motivations for posting creative content online. We find that offering exclusive membership through subscriptions, selling final products or printing services through web stores, and using affiliate links are primary means of earning profits, while there exist gaps between creators' expectations and realities. We show that various socio-economic promises emerged, leading to a win-win situation for both creators to gain extra income and audiences to have access to more quality content. We also discuss future challenges that need to be addressed, such as ethical use of opensource content.