Dale Dougherty Returns as CEO of Make:

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Dale Dougherty Returns as CEO of Make:

By Dale Dougherty

Dale Dougherty

DALE DOUGHERTY is the leading advocate of the Maker Movement. He founded Make: Magazine 2005, which first used the term “makers” to describe people who enjoyed “hands-on” work and play. He started Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2006, and this event has spread to nearly 200 locations in 40 countries, with over 1.5M attendees annually. He is President of Make:Community, which produces Make: and Maker Faire.

In 2011 Dougherty was honored at the White House as a “Champion of Change” through an initiative that honors Americans who are “doing extraordinary things in their communities to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world.” At the 2014 White House Maker Faire he was introduced by President Obama as an American innovator making significant contributions to the fields of education and business. He believes that the Maker Movement has the potential to transform the educational experience of students and introduce them to the practice of innovation through play and tinkering.

Dougherty is the author of “Free to Make: How the Maker Movement Is Changing our Jobs, Schools and Minds” with Adriane Conrad. He is co-author of "Maker City: A Practical Guide for Reinventing American Cities" with Peter Hirshberg and Marcia Kadanoff.

View more articles by Dale Dougherty

In the last week, I have taken a new leadership role for Maker Media as CEO. I am excited again to have the opportunity to lead the company I founded. I’m extremely proud of what we do at Maker Media and believe that we have helped to catalyze a global Maker Movement.

The mission of Maker Media is to serve the maker community and expand it to include everybody. As I have said, we are all makers and we hope to inspire everybody to participate in the Maker Movement. Last year, we had over 150 Maker Faires around the world and we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the first Maker Faire Bay Area. We are about to publish Volume 50 of Make: magazine, which has been publishing tech DIY projects in print and here online since 2005. We publish books from maker-authors such as Charles Platt, Kathy Ceceri, and Massimo Banzi. I was particularly proud to publish Windell Oskay’s “Annotated Build It Yourself Science Laboratory.”

I’ve had more than a few people say that I am lucky to have the best job in the world. I get to meet enthusiastic makers, young and old. I get to talk with passionate educators who want to introduce more children to the practices of making as well as parents who recognize that making can be fun for the whole family. I try to stay in touch with maker professionals who are creating products and starting businesses. I also get to see for myself how a wide range of communities are creating makerspaces and organizing Maker Faires. Indeed, I am lucky to experience the wonder, creativity, and inventiveness shared by makers around the world.

The maker community continues to change and grow, and so does Maker Media. Sometimes it comes with growing pains and rough patches. We have experienced them recently. I am devoted to building a company that remains focused on its mission and dedicated to makers of all ages and all backgrounds. There is so much that we can do together.

I look forward to seeing many of you at Maker Faires this year. Feel free to write to me via email if you want to share your story as a Maker with me or if you have ideas about what we are doing at Maker Media.

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By Dale Dougherty

Dale Dougherty

DALE DOUGHERTY is the leading advocate of the Maker Movement. He founded Make: Magazine 2005, which first used the term “makers” to describe people who enjoyed “hands-on” work and play. He started Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2006, and this event has spread to nearly 200 locations in 40 countries, with over 1.5M attendees annually. He is President of Make:Community, which produces Make: and Maker Faire.

In 2011 Dougherty was honored at the White House as a “Champion of Change” through an initiative that honors Americans who are “doing extraordinary things in their communities to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world.” At the 2014 White House Maker Faire he was introduced by President Obama as an American innovator making significant contributions to the fields of education and business. He believes that the Maker Movement has the potential to transform the educational experience of students and introduce them to the practice of innovation through play and tinkering.

Dougherty is the author of “Free to Make: How the Maker Movement Is Changing our Jobs, Schools and Minds” with Adriane Conrad. He is co-author of "Maker City: A Practical Guide for Reinventing American Cities" with Peter Hirshberg and Marcia Kadanoff.

View more articles by Dale Dougherty
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