The 4th annual Maker Faire UK is coming right up this weekend, April 27 and 28, at the Centre for Life in Newcastle. They have a robust array of makers who will be exhibiting their projects as well as a solid lineup of speakers and performers sure to inspire. Our very own Dale Dougherty (pictured above), founder of MAKE and Maker Faire and president of Maker Media, will be offering his unique perspective on the Maker Movement at 11am followed by a list of notables including Raspberry Pi’s Rob Bishop, author and activist Cory Doctorow, and hacker and inventor Mitch Altman. Check out the full schedule for details.
From the Maker Faire UK site, here are some details on a few of the speakers:
Cory Doctorow is a journalist, science-fiction author, and writes for the successful blog BoingBoing (which we’ve lost many an hour perusing!). His talk, which he’ll be giving at 4pm, is titled ‘The Internet Is Not a Waffle Iron Connected to a Fax Machine’. On his talk, he says:
Parliament treats the internet like it’s telephone 2.0, the Second Coming of Video on Demand, or the World’s Number One Porn Distribution Service, but it’s really the nervous system of the 21st Century. Unless we stop the trend toward depraved indifference in Internet law, making – and freedom – will die.
Rob Bishop, an engineer and evangelist with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, will be giving a talk at 11.30am on hacking with the Raspberry Pi, the credit-card-sized computer which is taking the tech world by storm. It can play 1080p HD video files and 3d games, and comes bundled with every programming language and tool that a child might need to become an expert programmer. He’ll also be opening the floor to questions.
If you follow us on Twitter, or have liked us on Facebook, you’ll already be acquainted with Mitch Altman’s work – he invented the famous Trip glasses! The San-Francisco-based hacker and inventor Mitch Altman is a pioneer of Virtual Reality, and will be giving a talk on Saturday only at 12pm. He’ll be advising you on how to ‘make a living doing what you love’ – making!
Genspace, the world’s first community biolab, are one of the many DIY biohackers who’ll be attending Maker Faire UK this year. DIY biology is a movement which aims to bring the tools of biotechnology into homes, garages and new spaces called ‘community labs.’ At 1pm, Daniel Grushkin & Dr. Oliver Medvedik [pictured speaking above], cofounders of Genspace, will be discussing the great opportunities and potential risks this growing movement poses to society and the future of biotechnology.
These are just a few of the talks and presentations which we’ll be hosting over the weekend. For a fuller schedule, including dance from Unraveled which utilizes manipulated body date, and Alice Taylor [pictured above] presenting her fun customisable, 3D-printed dolls ‘Makies‘, click here.
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