[Allan] Tear, an innovation consultant whose firm, Aptus Collaborative, organizes projects for the Business Innovation Factory, has launched a Web log [“Hackable City: Providence”] dedicated to exploring ways in which unlikely groups of people in the city are collaborating, forming social networks and seeking to participate in city planning and economic development.

As an example of the “hackable” culture being created in Providence, Tear cites artists and industrial designers from The Steel Yard teaming up with technology experts from Providence Geeks to purchase a 3-D printer and link it to a milling machine at the Steel Yard, enabling both groups to do personal fabrication and rapid prototyping from computer designs and drawings.

...an increasingly collaborative and innovative social environment is emerging in Providence, driven by artists, academics, students, entrepreneurs, technology geeks and members of the nonprofit sector, Tear said. The connections they are making may not be front-page news yet, but soon they may have major impacts on public policy and corporate innovation.