"Atoms are the new bits"

This is how Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine ended his talk at Stanford University this evening. He had started this talk by calling it "The next industrial revolution." They are both the same, given what he had to say. Here is a brief summary.

The Internet has democratized production and distribution.

We are all familiar with distribution - Amazon, Ebay, iPod apps, ... Anyone can sell anything on the Internet, without building their own infrastructure.

On the production side, it is easy to see how digital goods production has become democratized - all steps in music can be done in software; same for news.

Chris's contention is that same thing can now be done for physical goods. If you have an idea, you can get it made without ever leaving your house. Sites like Alibaba.com put you in touch with manufacturers in China that will make your items - from 1 unit to 1 million units. And, they even accept payment via PayPal. So, no building of factories, not supply chain, no letters of credit. Just take your idea online, and someone will make it for you.

Given that physical goods can be taken online, it also means there can be greater collaboration in physical goods. He talked about his own company that makes auto-pilot model planes. And, a company near Boston that has an open-source car - a car that was created by crowdsourcing. In fact, you can order your own custom car with them.

All this comes from the understanding that "the past decade was about finding new social and innovation models on the web," and "the next decade will be about applying them to the real world."

So, hang on to your seats - Chris believes that many concepts perfects for the web will see realization in real life.