Makeys

MAKE magazine is excited to announce the first annual MAKE Magazineย Industry Maker Awards, AKA โ€œThe Makeys.โ€ Over the course of the nextย 18 weeks, leading up to an award ceremony at Maker Faire New York 2011 (to beย webcast live from New York City), MAKE will nominate (and publishย online profiles of) 16 companies that have shown outstanding supportย for independent maker/hacker culture. Four companies/products will beย chosen in four categories. The categories are:

  • Most Repair Friendly
  • Most Hackable Gadget
  • Best Product Documentation
  • Best Education/Outreach Program

Winners in each category will be determined by open polling of theย MAKE readership at makezine.com.
Each year, the design of the physical award will be selected by openย contest. The first year this will be done in collaboration with Thingiverse.com (the 3D objectย sharing site), and manufactured by MakerBot Industries (3D printerย manufactures).

As part of the program launch, the “Mitch Altman Maker Hero” award isย also being announced, to be presented to individuals in the โ€œdo itย yourselfโ€ (DIY) and โ€œdo it with othersโ€ (DIWO) community who have madeย outstanding contributions to the cause of maker-related educationย and/or open access to technology. The first award will be presented toย Mitch Altman himself for his tireless work in building collaborativeย “hackerspaces” around the world and in teaching people the joys ofย hobby electronics and collaborative technologies.

The Makeys will be announced on the Maker Faire Bay Area episode of Make: Live, webcasting from theย pre-show kick-off party on Friday, May 20th at 6pm PDT/9pm EDT. Makerย Faire, celebrating its tenth event this year, is the world’s largestย DIY festival. As the DIY/DIWO movement grows, mainstream companies areย starting to take makers more seriously as a market segment. MAKE hopesย that profiling and celebrating companies that are โ€œgetting it,โ€ andย giving four of them awards of appreciation, will help fuel theirย adoption of more open, accessible, user-friendly, and modifiableย technology products.