A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with the sister of a best friend of mine when we got on the topic of quilting. Growing up my mother has always been the quilter in my life. Regardless of if I wanted to quilt or not, I learned a lot about how to actually quilt.
Emily with the help of an online community has actually built a pretty good living out of the hobby of quilting. She attends conferences on quilting and sells patterns that she has come up with over the years. During our conversation, Emily handed me a book that she said she had been given at a gathering of quilters. The book just happened to be Makers: The New Industrial Revolution By Chris Anderson. At the top of this hardback book was a piece of duct tape with the word Makers carved out. Emily said that she tried to read it but it wasn't her cup of tea.
I started to read it and found it was more than my cup of tea. It was my favorite drink.
This isn't intended to be a book review. I just wanted to share something about it that has motivated me to change my local community and provide a resource and environment that encourages creativity and learning.
A simple on Makerspaces will yield limited results. What I recommend is going to makezine.com to get more info. I will save you the click and give you a quick run down of what it is.
A Makerspace is a bit like an open source workshop. What you will find is a place where ideas become reality through the use of several different tools. Some of the tools you might find in a Makerspace are: 3D printers, Laser cutting devices, CNC machines, Arduino Boards, Computers for programming, and depending where you are a number of other heavy equipment like band saws and the like.
In this environment any one from the community can come and participate in some classes on how to write PHP for programming an Arduino or how to work with Autodesk's open source software computer aided drafting
So it is a workshop, right? Or maybe a Hackerspace? Well kind of, but not exactly. The difference is that you don't have to be a person that writes code just someone with an idea and you can connect yourself with others who may have more knowledge that can help you bring your idea to life.
The main function of the Makerspace is to provide for the community and surrounding cities with access to tools that are generally reserved for students at the local university. In these university labs, usually there are large outdated pieces of equipment with little to no instruction. What a Makerspace offers is not just equipment, but a community of volunteers that are there to help you get what you need.
There is a catch though. If you want to work on a project that is proprietary, you have to pay to play. That is you pay membership fees, storage costs, and usage fees to take pieces of equipment out of use for the rest of the people there.
Ever seen a Pebble watch? or had your card swiped by a Square credit card reader? Would it surprise you to know that both of these wildly successful devices were created in Makerspaces?
I am not telling you that you will build the next big device in a Makerspace that will be bought up by Google or some of the other big players in technology. I am telling you that now more than ever more people are being given the chance to make something that could change the world.
There is a little boy or girl in your community that has an idea rattling in their head and Makerspaces are the way to get that out and make it a reality.
If you have the chance to get involved with one in your , do it. There is someone out there looking to learn what you can teach them. If there isn't one, maybe it is time to help to open a Makerspace. This is something I have found is the case and I don't think I'll stop until we have one here.
Credit to Makezine.com for the picture (http://makezine.com/2014/05/08/learn-how-to-make-a-makerspace-with-gui-cavalcanti/)
Posted by:
Brian Keller Hill
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