The Creative economy.

I sat down the other day, and realized that the Creative Economy that Richard Florida spoke about, is generally correct.

The one exception is that creativity may draw others into a city from around the country and world, but the internet means that this is not necessarily required. We can email, we can ask questions, we can deliberate in an open forum of posts, and we can stay connected via video chat or just plain old text message. People will still migrate to the city center where creativity is, just to be around other creatives and to absorb that atmosphere. But that's now how the creatives are being enabled.

Ponoko.com allows you to custom cut different materials in their stock, from a laser cutter, build it, and then sell it on their website.
Shapeways.com allows you to create 3D objects that they in turn manufacture from a 3D printer, allowing you to sell these objects on their website.
Cafepress.com gives you the opportunity to create graphic designs for various materials (such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and calendars, etc) that you can then sell on their website.
99designs.com is a marketplace for people to post design competitions for all sorts of graphic-related items including website design, letterhead, logos, etc. From there, designers can compete with each other to win money for their designs.
Etsy.com allows you to sell your handmade goods online.

It used to be that you had to be near a city to enable certain opportunities to sell and create; the internet now enables you to move to Wyoming and perform the same act of buying and selling, as if you lived in San Francisco.

What's missing? An internet-based salesforce that'll do the on-the-ground marketing for your products in every city. I bet that'll be coming soon.