I had a good response to my talk yesterday morning. The conference theme was a silly framing of DIY but I don’t think designers see it as a threat. I said that I like to cook but I’m not a professional chef. Nonetheless, we can learn from each other.
The best part of the talk is the Young Makers video showing kids getting hands on at Exploratorium.
“This is what the next generation is doing; they are making things.”
Dale Dougherty – Founding Editor and Publisher, MAKE Magazine
Sebastopol, CA
Makers are enthusiasts who explore and create-they play with technology to find out what it can do and what they themselves are capable of. They bend, tweak and hack. They personalize technology to make it their own. They are bridging the physical world and the digital world. The term “maker” has grown out of Make Magazine and its annual Maker Faire, two forums that bring together people who make cool things, merging disciplines and spanning interests. A good many are amateurs with a DIY mindset, which applies not just to what they do but how they learn. Some are becoming pros and creating their own businesses. Nearly all are using new tools, discovering new materials and creating new processes to make new things. Makers share what they do and how they do it, making connections with other makers, both online and in-person. They are forming communities such as hackerspaces to learn from and work with each other. This talk examines DIY from a cultural perspective, documenting the emerging maker community, and its values of openness, independence and above all, the participation of everyone in the process of creating, modifying and personalizing the world around us.
Dale Dougherty 