We just wrapped up a very successful Maker Faire Bay Area at Mare Island with over 27,000 people coming over three days to experience 350 maker exhibits, presentations and performances. It was everything that Maker Faire can be – so many makers, so many creative communities, so many curious people — all came together to create an unforgettable experience.
I once explained to a friend that I was most proud that Make: magazine and Maker Faire had created a community of makers — how people came together through the magazine and events. They had their own projects that demonstrated their creative and technical talents and what they were capable of doing. Giving makers opportunities to share their work became the mission of the magazine and Maker Faire but it was also the best way to grow the community. I felt we really accomplished that this year at Maker Faire Bay Area.
Next year in February, we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first issue of Make: magazine. In this day and age, it is remarkable to be able to publish a magazine in print. It is possible only because the community values it, and there are some of you who have been subscribers since the first issue. I could not have imagined the impact that Make: combined with Maker Faire would have but I am grateful to see it.
I am happy hearing from young engineers and creative artists that Make: magazine and Maker Faire were an important influence on their lives. I’d like to think that makers showed them what was possible to do and how to do it. If you liked what they did, you might want to do something similar yourself. That’s how we created more makers. Becoming a maker was something anyone could profess to be based on what that person wanted to do. The real value of the term maker is not in how it is defined — I’ve said that you should define it any way that includes yourself — but in how it connects you to others, in particular, helping you find other makers.
This community doesn’t belong to anyone, nor is any one person or company at the center of it. Perhaps that is one of reasons it has a chance to endure. I find myself thinking about what endures because this 20 years of work reflects the efforts of one generation and I am thinking about how to pass it on to the next generation.
That’s all a way of explaining a new initiative, a community funding round for Make: and Maker Faire. Today I am the sole owner of Make and Maker Faire and I have supported the business when it needed help. I have no interest in selling the business to another entity, who may or may not understand the value of what we do. What I would like to see happen is that over time, the community itself, the community that has grown out of Make and Maker Faire, comes to own more and more of this organization.
As part of this initiative, we have just launched a community investment round, giving you the opportunity to own a stake in Make: and Maker Faire. For as little as $100, you can become a part-owner of Make: and participate in our future growth.
By investing in Make:, you’re not just supporting our company – you’re investing in the next generation of the maker movement.
Your investment will help us:
1. Continue producing Make: Magazine in print each quarter
2. Bring Maker Faire to more locations nationally and worldwide
3. Develop new online resources and tools for our community
4. Foster grassroots innovation and ingenuity in our local communities
5. Promote the power of play, hands-on learning and the practice of problem-solving in education.
To learn more about this unique opportunity, please visit:
Perks
We have just added a set of perks for our first group of investors from the maker community. (They will apply to all who have invested so far.)
Thank you for being an integral part of what we do for the maker community. Together, we can continue to build an organization that grows in partnership with its community and ensure that Make and Maker Faire are there for generations of makers to come.
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