1000 Days To Maker’s Faire
My personal road to the Maker Faire has actually taken me three years,
as last year at this time my son was born, and the year prior I had a
48 hour long trip to Sweden. But this year nothing shall stop me
(despite being in New York instead of San Francisco as I write this).
It’s an event I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time, and not
only am I attending, I’ll be participating the whole time.
My impressions of Makers Faire were formed from reading various
blog posts and hearing personal tales over the years. In my head I
picture a huge field covered with bits of silicon, oddly shaped
plastics, insanely huge gears and blowtorches. Not sure why the
blowtorches, but I picture many of them strewn about. It’s the place
the teenager in me would’ve hitchhiked just to get to. Then again,
back then my computer had no case and instead sat on a piece of foam
until the one fateful morning when I wiped it out by accidentally
touching the edge of my CGA card (yes, you read that right) and
shocking the heck out of it.
Part of why I’m excited about Makers is that it gives those of us
who look beyond the Web/computer as "the platform for innovation" a
chance to share. Living in San Francisco I feel heavily immersed in
online culture, and while there’s phenomenal creativity occurring in
that culture, I still believe there’s so much more to technology and
imagination. Last week I tried playing with Yahoo Pipes for the first
time and felt it was pretty impressive that I could so easily "mash up"
various feeds and services. Experimenting with their tools was
definitely dabbling in creation.
I look forward to this weekend where
I can have the chance to meet others who are taking their visions well
beyond the screen+keyboard+mouse.
