Maker Faire

Press Coverage

Have you heard some buzz about Maker Faire?

Lifehacker by Adam Pash, Apr. 25, 2006

Hack Attack: Maker Faire Highlights

We like to preach from the pulpit of Life Hacks that technology is supposed to make us more productive. As our motto so eloquently puts it: Don’t live to geek; geek to live.

The thing is, even if you do “geek to live,” chances are you still might be a bit of a geek. After spending a weekend with the awesome DIYers, hackers, and artists at the first ever Maker Faire in San Mateo this weekend, living to geek has never seemed cooler.

TEDBlog by Tom Rielly, Apr. 24, 2006

Make: Magazine's First Ever Maker Faire Explodes

Where can you find a man riding a giant giraffe robot, a fire-spewing electric cart equipped with sheep's wool seats, a plug-in Prius that gets 100 mpg, teams playing Segway Polo, model rocket launches, fashion shows with inflatable dresses, and parents and children enjoying every minute of it? Why, at Make: magazine's first ever Maker Faire, held this weekend in San Mateo, CA, bien sûr. In the year since it bowed, Make: magazine has become the bible of a new Do It Yourself (DIY) movement whose ethos is "If you haven't built it, taken it apart, hacked or modded it, you don't really own it." Make:, from TEDster Tim O'Reilly's (we get each other's mail) media empire is one of the few successful independent magazine launches in a market where titles are folding like origami.

...Maker Faire buzzed with the kind of electricity you find at events that define the beginning of something new. It reminded me of the early days of the computer business when people's eyes gleamed with enthusiasm and true curiosity. The best part for me is that parents and kids were building robots (and myriad other projects) together.

News.com by CNET News.com Staff, Apr. 24, 2006

From the floor of the fair--Video

Get a glimpse of all the hacking wizardry with Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media.

Wired by Ryan Singe, Apr. 24, 2006

Ye Olde Geek Show Draws Thousands

A high-tech version of an old county fair brought hundreds of inventors out of their garages this weekend, to show off such innovations as an iPod jukebox, a power-sander-turned-race-car and a vegetable-oil-powered supercomputer.

redefiningcraft.com by Dennis Stevens, Apr. 23, 2006

Emerging: A New DIY Craft Magazine

I just returned from the Maker Faire in San Mateo, California and as I predicted in my previous post, there is in fact a new magazine on DIY Craft in the works.

In the Fall of this year, O'Reilly Media the publishers of Make intend to publish their first edition of Craft, a new magazine devoted to crafts and crafting.

The word on the street is that the new publication will follow a similar format to Make with features, project how-to's and crafter profiles.

Naturally, we all look forward to seeing it on the newsstand! See, I told you that all that this domestic creativity stuff is going mainstream. I guess we have to just let these two distinct cultures of "craft" sort themselves out...so much for my attempts at untangling the messy web of venacular misnomer. Things are only going to get messier from here, but it's a good thing, as Martha would say.

Bay City News Wire by , Apr. 23, 2006

MAKER FAIRE DRAWS BIG CROWDS IN SAN MATEO COUNTY

Sponsored by Make Magazine, the Maker Faire is a hands-on celebration of do-it-yourself inventions, Dale Dougherty, general manager of the Maker Faire and publisher of Make Magazine, said today.

A crowd of over 10,000 people flocked to the Maker Faire on Saturday and even more are expected today, as Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from the Discovery Channel's MythBusters will be on hand, Dougherty said.

San Francisco Chronicle by Carolyn Jones, Apr. 23, 2006

When pipe dreams come alive

Maker Faire lets amateur inventors strut their creations

It was a great day to be a geek in San Mateo on Saturday.

Thousands of them gathered at the Expo Center for the Maker Faire, a celebration of do-it-yourself technological innovation and creativity--in other words, robots you can make in your garage.

...The Maker Faire drew geeks from throughout the country, which was not surprising, said Jim Mason of San Francisco, whose power-tool drag-racing booth attracted a steady stream of visitors. "I think the Bay Area is the absolute center of innovation," he said. "It's part of the culture here, that the general public can and should innovate, build, fabricate, play. It's central to our economy and culture. Walk around this building and it's stunning what we have."

...Stefan Schaefer, who owns an Internet company in Seattle, said he was impressed by the array of participants at the Maker Faire.

"It's very cross-cultural," he said, while observing a demonstration in which sparks flew up wires attached to an ancient-looking transformer.

"You've got everyone from the Burning Man element, the freaky arts people, to the middle-age engineers who happen to build robots in their garage," he said. "I love that."

Boing Boing by David Pescovitz, Apr. 23, 2006

Maker Faire Photos

I was thrilled not only by the hundreds of projects and demonstrations but also the many thousands of people there of all ages walking around with wonder and delight in their eyes!

Scobelizer by Robert Scoble, Apr. 23, 2006

I saw the future of conferences today. It was the Maker Faire.

What was special about it? Well, first, it was low-cost. And my son got in for free. This totally changed the attendance model that we see at most geeky conferences. A lot more women. Families.

But, walking through the place I saw all sorts of bizarre things. A cofounder of Apple Computer playing polo with friends on Segways. Robots. Weird cars and other rideable contraptions. Wind-catching generators. Inside the main hall were all sorts of contraptions and screens. And something fun, the kids were encouraged to put their hands on and try them out!

This is the future of conferences. Can you give me an experience I've never had? Can you give me something to take pictures of? Will you educate me? (I learned how to weld, how to make a wind-powered generator, how to program computers, how to ride a Segway, some new things to do in Second Life, and more).

ZDNet News by Daniel Terdiman, Apr. 22, 2006

Maker Faire a geek's dream

...the crowd is a fantastic mix of Burners (Burning Man attendees), crafters and robotics geeks, Aaron Muszalski, a visual effects instructor at San Francisco's Academy of Art University suggested to me. He imagined Maker Faire, with a delighted gleam in his eye, as a breeding ground for the many kids here who he sees as the do-it-yourselfers and hackers of the future.

extremecraft.com by Garth Johnson, Apr. 21, 2006

Life is Unfaire!

If you're reading this from the San Francisco Bay Area, how come you're not in line for MAKE Magazine's Maker Faire? OH RIGHT--you are, but you're reading this from the WiFi enabled Roomba robot display that you hacked using some duct tape and the aluminum from a chewing gum wrapper. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish that I was there right now. Here is some of the goodness that MAKE's weblog promises:

Come see...a flying Pterosaur replica, a flock of whale blimps, a giant painting machine, DIY RFID implants, model rocketry, breadboarding, trailer-glass blowing, The Crucible's welding workshops off the back of fire truck, pinhole photography, soldering, spud gun building, bubble machines and a bubble guy that appeared on Johnny Carson in the 70's, Bunnie Huang, Joe Grand, William Gurstelle and his Backyard Ballistics, The Exploratorium, Zeum, The Lunar Society (rocket builders), Graffiti Research Lab, Squid Labs biodiesel, electric cars, a Linux supercomputer cluster running on veggie oil, neon art, circuit bending, VJs, slide rules, pinball restoration, the Phenomenauts, Satan's Calliope .... and much, much more. Quite an eclectic collection. That's not to mention Diana Eng of Bravo's Project Runway and the fifty craft booths in Bizarre Bazaar and the Swap-o-Rama-Rama.

San Francisco Chronicle by Eric Smillie, Apr. 20, 2006

HANDS-ON FUN

Maker Faire: This fair offers more than 100 craft, science and technology projects to create.

If only elementary school science fairs were this exciting. Promising rockets and robots, and boasting pavilions such as Weird Science and Ultimate Garage, the Maker Faire aims to take amateur experimentation out of the back room, dust it off and make it fun again.

A fantasy book for all those with the impulse to do something themselves, Make Magazine and its funky, illustrated ideas have recently given invention a veneer of hipness. With an eye to ratcheting up the appeal of hobby projects, the magazine's fair this weekend will host more than 100 exhibitions and hands-on activities designed to engage people in crafts, science and technology through participation.

Oakland Tribune by Tim Simmers, Apr. 19, 2006

Maker Faire to showcase home projects

Ever since there were garages and a few hours of spare time, American tinkerers and do-it-yourself nuts have created gizmos, gadgets and projects of all kinds.

They run from the serious to the goofy. And some are fascinating yet completely pointless. Indeed, there appears to be a resurgence of such hands-on, backyard-type activity. ABC now has a prime-time television show called "American Inventor" that showcases inventors of all types.

The new Make magazine exposed a growing underground community of inventors, hackers and geeks who thrive on tearing things apart and rebuilding them or making their own stuff from scratch.

The magazine is having a fair this weekend that features these grass-roots hobbyists and the wares they've made from old circuit boards, computers, scrap metal, discarded wood and other materials. The Maker Faire, which is open to the public, will take place Saturday and Sunday at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds in San Mateo.

At the fair, you can learn how to make a potato cannon that shoots a spud 200 yards. Or you can build a model rocket that launches into the air. There's also an electronics recycling center whose leaders will build a vegetable-oil powered super computer from computers and parts recycled at the fair.

treehugger by Jacob Gordon, Apr. 18, 2006

Hey Ma! Here Comes the Maker Faire!

It's on, kids. Coming up this weekend is the Maker Faire at the San Mateo Fairgrounds near San Francisco. Part science fair, part Burning Man reunion, anyone in the vicinity should really consider making their way to what is likely to be a completely wild and spectacular gathering of DIY wizards, mad geniuses, and grassroots tech-enthusiasts. Hosted by Make Magazine, this is the first Maker Faire ever, so there’s really no saying what’s going to happen, but take a look at who'll be there and you can start to get a mental picture.

Among the many wonders to be found at this family-friendly event will be: a real live Swap-O-Rama-Rama (as seen on TreeHugger TV), build your own wind power generator workshops, the Bio Ninja, the Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, and CalCars, who will be performing a plug-in hybrid conversion over the course of the weekend. We’ll even have a TreeHugger booth set up, so if you get over stimulated, Sean can stroke your head and sing to you. As if this wasn’t all enough, bring your old electronics to the Maker Faire to be recycled and they might just end up part of a veggie-oil powered parallel computing cluster. Bring your family, bring you camera, bring your helmet.

Santa Rosa Press Democrat by Steve Hart, Apr. 16, 2006

HIGH-TECH TINKERING: INVENTOR OF COMPUTER-CONNECTED CAT DOOR JUST ONE DO-IT-YOURSELFER TARGETED BY MAKE MAGAZINE

Call it the Mysterious Case of the Fallen Feline.

When Bob Blick's cat, Yum Yum, had a seizure one morning, the Santa Rosa man searched for the cause. Even the family vet was stumped. Fortunately, Blick didn't have far to look for clues. The amateur inventor had set up computer-controlled cat doors to keep skunks and raccoons from getting Yum Yum's food. The network also allowed him to track the cat's comings and goings. Blick's computer showed Yum Yum didn't go outside the night before the seizure.

Yum Yum's back on her feet, and Blick's investigation showed she may have had a brush with weed killer a few days earlier.

Blick typifies a new generation of high-tech tinkerers. Dissatisfied with off-the-shelf technology, they are making amazing gadgets in their basements and garages.

The growing movement is chronicled by O'Reilly Media's Make magazine, a year-old publication that has become the bible of the do-it-yourself technology set...

"I've always got something in my head," said Blick, an engineer who designs lasers for the building industry. Blick said he has no interest in commercializing his home inventions.

"I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm doing it as a hobby," he said. "I'm not going to make money off it, I'm just happy I've got my day job."

Make magazine, subtitled "technology on your time," features a variety of inventors and their projects. It takes a visual approach, using photos and diagrams to show how the gadgets are made.

"We care about how to make a water rocket in your back yard," said Make associate editor Phillip Torrone. "We say, 'try this at home.'"

...The craze has even reached TV, with shows like "American Inventor," which gives gadget-makers a chance to show their ideas to a panel of experts.

"We're a nation of inventors," said Torrone. "It's human nature to want to know how things work."

This week, O'Reilly will sponsor the first Maker Faire at San Mateo Fairgrounds in San Mateo. Thousands of do-it-yourselfers are expected to exhibit their projects at the big science fair Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23.

Sacrmento Bee by Allen O. Pierleon, Apr. 13, 2006

If you're a do-it-yourselfer, you've likely seen Make magazine. It was launched in February 2005 for "the massive underground community of inventors and hackers," according to a press release. It mixes "the toolshed mentality of yesteryear with the products, gadgets and technologies of today."...If you fit the reader profile, consider the upcoming Maker Faire, "the first-ever convention for backyard invention." It will be held April 22-23 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds, 2495 S. Delaware St., San Mateo.

Yarn Sushi by skamamawa, Mar. 7, 2006
The Happy Hooker does Makezine and the Fat Bottom Bag gets a shout out. Whoo hoo! I know that Shannon of Anezka Handmade will be at the Maker Faire, in April, representin' the Knitted Boombox Bag and her Knitgrrl Empire. I thought I heard that Debbie Stoller might be there as well. My mom and Scott will be heading down there, so I may send my copy of The Happy Hooker with them to get signed. Damn this knit and crochet trend ain't dying off any time soon, is it?

Power, Plugs and People by Felix Kramer, Mar. 1, 2006
CalCars' next project is quick: we'll convert a Prius in a weekend. This will be fun and important. Our partner is MAKE, the acclaimed year-old magazine from O'Reilly Media. The venue is MAKE's Inaugural Maker Faire at the San Mateo Fairgrounds, April 22-23.

Hack A Day by Eliot Phillips, Feb. 15, 2006
I’m going to be attending Make magazine’s Maker Faire April 22-23rd, San Mateo, CA. It should be a lot of fun.