>We've been using make-me to power all of our 3D printing needs including decorating our office with various prints and making useful trinkets.
Pardon my ignorance, but is this really necessary? It seems like an office toy.
Pardon my ignorance, but is this really necessary? It seems like an office toy.
Have we, to date, printed anything in our 3D printer that helps us deliver Git repositories in a quick and timely manner? No.
Have we built something that kept 140 employees happy and excited in the company because they're exploring technology they hadn't used before? Yes.
Have we built something that helps everyone at the office learn and understand a major technological shift that might be useful in the event we'd like to build a product around this in the future? Yes.
Is it fun to print cool shit? Yes.
So yeah, I'd say it's necessary, at least for us. It makes the company a better place, both from a cultural and a business perspective. Your mileage may vary, naturally.
It's quite shocking how little you _have_ to give employees, but in the end people will not be very happy if you only care about the number of hours spend at the office and not about the person spending them there. Also; things like this are a great way to encourage your employees to think differently and get their creative juices flowing.
Something like a 3D printer is ridiculous in the context of most office buildings, but the people at GitHub having one might lead to an interesting side project that becomes something valuable, or helps to consolidate 3D printing repos like they did for code. Never know when a toy might become something useful (see the Aeropress people, made boomerang toys, fiddled about with another concept, ta-da Aeropress).
Let them have a bit of fun at the office.
Plus, that kind of money could get you a nice espresso machine. Try to print that.