Knowledge Reuse for Customization: Metamodels in an Open Design Community for 3d Printing
This addresses how open design communities can enhance customization and innovation in 3D printing, though it is incremental to existing theories of knowledge reuse.
The study identified a new knowledge reuse process called reuse for customization, where designers adjust metamodel parameters to meet personal needs, and found that metamodels are reused more often than the models they generate, with reuse amplified by the creator's community experience.
Theories of knowledge reuse posit two distinct processes: reuse for replication and reuse for innovation. We identify another distinct process, reuse for customization. Reuse for customization is a process in which designers manipulate the parameters of metamodels to produce models that fulfill their personal needs. We test hypotheses about reuse for customization in Thingiverse, a community of designers that shares files for three-dimensional printing. 3D metamodels are reused more often than the 3D models they generate. The reuse of metamodels is amplified when the metamodels are created by designers with greater community experience. Metamodels make the community's design knowledge available for reuse for customization-or further extension of the metamodels, a kind of reuse for innovation.