Editor Chris Anderson leaves Wired for drones

Wired magazine’s long time editor, Chris Anderson has resigned to run his 3D robotics company fulltime. The renowned editor has been with the publication for more than 10 years.

In his leaving statement, Anderson calls the move an “opportunity for me to pursue an entrepreneurial dream.”

“I’m confident that Wired’s mission to influence and chronicle the digital revolution is stronger than ever and will continue to expand and evolve,” he adds.

The move comes only a few weeks after the release of his latest book, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. Anderson in the book talks about what has happened in the world of tech and what it is leading to — the generation of the makers.

“Wondrous as the Web is, it doesn’t compare to the real world. Not in economic size (online commerce is less than 10 percent of all sales) and not in its place in our lives. The digital revolution has been largely limited to screens,” writes the author.

Anderson wants to bring experiences back into the real world. He believes that we will all learn to build our own products using open source software and then bring them into the real world through 3D printers. “We are all designers now,” he writes. “It’s time to get good at it.”

Anderson tells the Atlantic Cities that his maker journey began some five years ago.

I started down the road of Making five years ago, beginning with projects with my kids and then going down the rabbit hole of open source electronics, robotics, and eventually drones (with the community site I set up, DIYDrones.com). That led to the creation of a company, 3D Robotics, with Jordi Munoz, who I had met online at DIY Drones, to make some of the technologies that the community was creating.

3D Robotics is a robotic manufacturing company that specialises in DIY projects. The company recently received a round of venture capital funding from Jon Callaghan at True Ventures and Bryce Roberts of O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.

“The aim of this ramp-up is simple: more cool stuff and a great customer and community experience. As part of this, we’ll be launching a new 3D Robotics site/store, new product sites, manuals and tech support communities and an expanded customer support team,” says Anderson.