Virtual designs into physical objects/Contract manufacturing facilities

A large group of people all wanting the same item to be made could get together and send the details of the design to a large-scale contract manufacturing and assembly company to make use of specialist facilities and economies of scale.

This might be a 'base item' and each individual then customises and finishes off the product according to their tastes. The item could be anything from a car, a mobile phone, a computer or an entirely new machine or device that has only recently been thought up...

See also Joy de vivre concept.

At some stage open-source systems will likely compete with this type of manufacturing too, bypassing the commercial aspect - however it makes some interesting large-scale things possible right now.

See also Wired article "In the Next industrial revolution, atoms are the new bits". (Accompanying video)