Sharing tools and expertise, for technical training and creative collaboration.
Are you a hackerspace member? We want to know about cool projects you are working on, or have completed, tools you’re using, fun stories about your space and its members, best practices you’d like to share with other spaces, etc. Say you build a new CNC mill–we want to hear about it! Maybe a member […]
New Haven, CT’s MakeHaven look super cool! They just relaunched and are looking for members. If you’re in the area, be sure to check them out. Our current location in the arts district of downtown New Haven CT, roughly 2000 square feet, contains the start of: an electronics shop, wood shop and kitchen. We are […]
The following excerpt is taken from Paulo Blikstein’s essay, “Digital Fabrication and ‘Making’ in Education: The Democratization of Invention.” The essay comes from the recently published FabLab: Of Machines, Makers, and Inventors edited bu Julia Walter-Herrmann and Corine Buching. Blikstein’s project concerns the role of fablabs in the future of engineering eduction. It is one of four “vignettes” from Blikstein’s own experiences in conducting digital fabrication workshops with secondary school students around the world.
Hong Kong Mini Maker Faire organizers Mike Li and Andy Kong spotlighted today in the South China Morning Post, along with makers from HackJam and Dim Sum Labs.
This summer, SparkTruck is gearing up for its second road trip across the country, bringing hands-on learning back to to schools in their mobile makerspace. Want them to visit your town? Fill out an “Arrange a Visit” form now until June 18!
We think of the maker movement as a modern phenomena propelled by the internet, growth of makerspaces, and increasingly affordable digital technology. But making, of course, is anything but new. It’s part of what it means to be human. Dutch lutier Jan van Cappelle’s career as a maker began when he read a novel by Leonard de Vries called The Boys of the Hobby Club. Written under Nazi occupation and published in 1947, it’s essentially the story of a group of boys creating a makerspace before such a word existed. The book, which sadly is not available in English, had a lasting impact on Jan. “De Vries showed that you can make something yourself, in collaboration with others, instead of buying it of-the-rack.
Detroit is a modern wonder. You’d be hard pressed to find an American city that rose so high and fell so far. At the height of its stature as the Motor City in 1950s, Detroit had a population of about 2 million. White flight to suburbs, the decline of the automobile industry, and resulting loss of the city’s tax base and crumbling infrastructure have whittled the city’s population down to about 750,000. But Detroit is far from out. Cheap rents, readily available real estate, and an ingrained culture of making are contributing to a grass roots renaissance that’s truly exciting to behold. The city is being reborn in real time. Our friends at Dark Rye created an inspiring video about the remaking of Detroit that focuses on Nick Britsky and i3Detroit.
