The 3D printing market is going through its novelty phase. So, a lot of very important people will task creatives to work on really trivial projects. For the record, it happens with all techno-economic change. You could even say that it’s a part of the creative destruction process. On the other hand, makerspace developers should avoid these kinds of requests like the plague because they can destroy credibility with creatives (i.e. members of the creative class).
Creatives may be willing to work for money and allow their employers to waste their time in their professional life. However, they will not react very kindly to someone making the same kinds of demands of their personal time. Creatives tend to be highly unreasonable people, which means that want to reduce the timeframe for real social and techno-economic change. You could also make case that unreasonable people drive makerspace development.
If you ask creatives to reinvent the wheel, you will be able to almost hear the creative veil snapping into place. The creative veil is the cone of silence that creatives use to protect their creative energy. It’s also the reason that the most creative people in any given environment generally won’t commit to joining any effort to solve a collective problem. Creatives abhor any activity that could be considered a time-suck or filled with bureaucratic hoops.
Zachary Alexander