Distribution is a trend we’d all better get used to. Distributed computing, distributed manufacturing, distributed power generation — it seems that everything that can be distributed will.

It isn’t the same old-school put-stuff-in-trucks kind of distribution. Actual productive activities are being distributed.

Technologies like 3-D printing distribute the manufacture of goods much closer to the places where they will actually be used.

Distributed power generation — via wind, solar or microturbines — is producing electricity much closer to where it is actually used.