A new TLA: MIY (Make it Yourself)

I continue to watch with fascination the overflow of concepts from the world of open source software into the manufacturing and consumer markets.  Latest confirmation that there is real force behind this cross pollination is the analyst group trendwatching.com has named “MIY: Make it Yourself” one of the top global consumer trends in 2008.  Nothing like a little free prognostication to get the year started off right.

With (in particular younger) consumers having come to expect to be able to create anything they want as long as it is digital, and to customize and personalize many physical goods, the next frontier will be digitally designing products from scratch, then having them turned into real physical goods as well. In fact, expect MIY | MAKE IT YOURSELF (and then SIY | SELL IT YOURSELF) ventures to become increasingly sophisticated in the next 12 months:

8 important consumer trends for 2008