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Press and other articles

You can find RepRap's entry in Wikipedia at this link.

High-resolution pictures for use in press articles about RepRap (or for anything else) are available here.

The following press and web articles are in rough chronological order of their appearance, most recent first:

Why I put out a press release at the start of the project

Some academics get a research grant and the next day put out a press release saying how their improved mousetrap is going to change the world. It almost invariably doesn't.

This is not something I (AB) would normally do; I like to finish a project, publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal, then tell everyone. Smug, or what? But that way I only look like the idiot I am, as opposed to a flash showman with no substance, as well as an idiot.

However - as the RepRap project has the potential to make a significant impact on society worldwide - it seemed to me that the only moral course when I started it was to put out a press release. You might reasonably ask why, given that potential impact, I didn't start a debate and only proceed with the project if the consensus was favourable. The answer is that that would only make sense if the project was something needing gargantuan resources like building a nuclear power station. That sort of project is tolerably easy to control and to restrain, just because of the enormous human, financial, and geographical stuff it needs. RepRap isn't like that: once the idea is out there, any individual with a workshop and a modest amount of cash can do it. So it would not be possible to stop the thing, even if the debate went against it. As RepRap seemed to me on balance to be good, my only rational course was to tell people and see what happened.

If it all goes Horribly Wrong, it's my fault...

Anyway, the press picked up the release with the articles above. The publicity also had the wonderful effect of bringing on board the group of tireless and selfless volunteers you see on the project's People Page.

AdrianBowyer