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3-D Model Support Comes To MediaGoblin

Posted by timothy on from the oh-it's-about-yea-big dept.

paroneayea writes "MediaGoblin and LulzBot have teamed up to bring 3-D model support to MediaGoblin! The announcement shows off a live demo of the new feature... it uses Blender on the backend to render stills and thingiview.js to show realtime WebGL previews. This means MediaGoblin is becoming more useful for 3-D artists and people interested in 3-D printing, especially those looking for a free-as-in-freedom alternative to Thingiverse."

13 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Alternatives to Thingiverse by Guano_Jim · · Score: 4, Interesting

    About a month ago there was a kerfuffle on Thingiverse coinciding with MakerBot's announcement of the Replicator 2 and a perceived change to the Thingiverse Terms of Service. It resulted in an "Occupy Thingiverse" movement where users uploaded protest models to the site.

    It seems to have died down, but since then a few folks started their own free-as-in-freedom alternatives to Thingiverse-- it'll be interesting to see if MediaGoblin can gain more traction than they did.

    --
    3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
    1. Re:Alternatives to Thingiverse by paroneayea · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yep, that's definitely part of what drove this, and why Jeff Moe of Lulzbot offered the bounty to add 3d model support. We've wanted it for a long time, but didn't expect it so soon!

      --
      http://mediagoblin.org/
  2. What is MediaGoblin? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I understand news messages should be kept short, but that does not imply the lack of essential information.

    1. Re:What is MediaGoblin? by paroneayea · · Score: 4, Informative

      Heya, You're right actually, I missed submitting that. MediaGoblin is basically what you can think of as a free software, decentralized replacement to media publishing systems like YouTube/Flickr/SoundCloud... and now moving into the Thingiverse space. :)

      --
      http://mediagoblin.org/
    2. Re:What is MediaGoblin? by compro01 · · Score: 4, Informative

      From context, it appears to be a media sharing website for images and now, 3d objects.

      Not quite. MediaGoblin is a free open source software suite developed by the GNU project for creating your own media sharing site.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    3. Re:What is MediaGoblin? by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Ok, the real advantage of Youtube,Flickr, et all is that they *are* centralized. I trust a link going to those sites.

      I don't trust these highlighted example sites running mediagoblin:

      http://wiki.mediagoblin.org/Live_instances

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    4. Re:What is MediaGoblin? by Applekid · · Score: 2

      Ok, the real advantage of Youtube,Flickr, et all is that they *are* centralized. I trust a link going to those sites.

      I don't trust these highlighted example sites running mediagoblin:

      http://wiki.mediagoblin.org/Live_instances

      There are two issues here, trusting those that own the servers flinging bits around and the codes that actually describes how the bit flinging should happen. You may trust Google and Yahoo to use their servers in supporting Youtube and Flickr, but can you really trust the code? You might trust it, but your trust is not based on anything observable since their back ends are not open source.

      So the missing part here is that, well, ok, Mediagoblin supports 3D objects, that's cool, but who is going to run the repository? That Lulzbot (Aleph Objects) invested in it leads me to believe they want to run a repository. And, unlike Makerbot, those guys are* seriously open about their stuff. Release early, release often, release when designed and not after collecting XXXX dollars in preorders. They've even been sponsoring releases of Slic3r, a open-source GCode generator for 3D printing. I'm pretty pleased to have spent money with them, actually, considering they're giving back in big ways.

      * well, right now anyway. Makerbot used to be a champion of open hardware, too, once upon a time. But, right now, nothing about AO seems to indicate they're going to quit being open.

      --
      More Twoson than Cupertino
    5. Re:What is MediaGoblin? by jwandborg · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Hey, I'm the owner of http://gobblin.se/. The thing I think most users are afraid of is the CACert certificate that shows a big "WARNING, THIS SITE MAY KILL THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE THE MOST"-style message.

      I like SSL, but I don't want to pay a gazillion dollars for it, or anything at all - I'm already paying the bills for the server. That is why CACert is used.

      CACert validates domain ownership via an email to a typical admin e-mail such as info@gobblin.se, so you should be able to trust them for such things as media storage and serving.

      If you don't want to let CACert in your approved-ca-bucket, just use http://gobblin.se/.

      Also, no guarantees for anything on that server, if you want reliability you should either find someone to pay money for the service or set up your own instance.

      --
      I'm new here.
    6. Re:What is MediaGoblin? by Yeb · · Score: 2

      Jeff Moe from LulzBot here (aka jebba). Thanks for your nice comments. :)

      We actually don't have an interest in *running* a free/open/libre repository, but we'd sure like to see one exist. Ideally, there should be a thingiverse-like site that is run more like the Wikipedia Foundation. A "neutral" non-profit, with no ads, run by donations. The donations can come from various 3D printer companies and end users.

      Also note, some folks think MediaGoblin is the hosting site. They are just the makers of the web software. Anyone can set up a MediaGoblin site on their own servers. With luck, many will do so.

  3. Okay.... by Minwee · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So I read the summary, followed the links, wandered around the MediaGoblin web page, and I still have no clue what MediaGoblin is supposed to be.

    Apparently it's free software, built with awesome technology, and anyone can improve it, but it would help if one of those anyones could improve it by adding some kind of description.

    1. Re:Okay.... by mounthood · · Score: 3, Informative

      Video support is already here, and soon you'll be able to add plugins for almost any type of media publishing... including presentations or 3d model files. And we're planning for federation with OStatus so we can build a decentralized yet cohesive media hosting future.

      (emp. mine, found here) Amazing that so many projects can't get this most basic communication right. A one sentence description should be a priority for any project, otherwise how do you know what you're making?

      --
      tomorrow who's gonna fuss
    2. Re:Okay.... by Fnord666 · · Score: 2
      Did you try the home page?

      MediaGoblin is a free software media publishing platform that anyone can run. You can think of it as a decentralized alternative to Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.

      How about wikipedia?

      GNU MediaGoblin (also MediaGoblin) is a free web platform for hosting and sharing digital media,[7][8] aimed to provide an extensible, adaptive, decentralized and freedom-respectful software alternative to current art-and-media-related major internet services such as Flickr, deviantArt, YouTube, etc.[9][10]

      Those both seem pretty concise to me.

      --
      'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
  4. Summary by benjfowler · · Score: 2

    I learned absolutely nothing from that summary. And from what little I could gauge from it, I've got absolutely no idea why Slashdot would find this newsworthy (as opposed, to say, Freecode).