DIY--Do It Yourself--long the domain of the craft and hobby world, is now breaking through to be a meaningful part of the larger business world. Wired Magazine Editor Chris Anderson , who marked important shifts in the new economy in his books The Long Tail and Free , has an extensive cover story in the January edition of his magazine titled In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits . In it, he profiles some interesting new businesses that are able to bring out bold new products without having to build much significant infrastructure (like factories). Instead, they utilize digital tools and even some crowd sourcing to design products and efficiently connect with places that can build parts. As a result, according to Anderson, entrepreneurs and small businesses now have access to the same manufacturing capacity as do the largest corporations in the world. Anderson uses his own company, DIY Drones, as an example of how manufacturing can be "democratized" to allow the little guys to succeed. He explains how it works in this video: A model like this may just help US manufacturing matter in the coming years. Anderson writes: Although it’s shrinking, America’s manufacturing economy is still the world’s largest. But China’s growing production sector is predicted to take the number one spot in 2015, according to IHS Global Insight, an economic-forecasting firm. Not all US manufacturing is shrinking, however — just the large part. A Pease Group survey of small manufacturers (less than $25 million in annual sales) shows that most expect to grow this year, many by double digits. Indeed, analysts expect almost all new manufacturing jobs in the US will come from small companies. Ones just like ours. How big can these small enterprises get? Most of the companies I’ve described sell thousands of units — 10,000 is considered a breakout success. But one that has graduated to the big leagues is Aliph , which makes the Jawbone noise-canceling wireless headsets. Aliph was founded in 1999 by two Stanford graduates, Alex Asseily and Hosain Rahman, and it now sells millions of headsets each year. But it has no factories. It outsources all of its production. And though more than a thousand people help to create Jawbone headsets, Aliph has just over 80 employees. Everyone else works for its production partners. It’s the ultimate virtual manufacturing company: Aliph makes bits and its partners make atoms, and together they can take on Sony. Read the full article here .