Maker Faire Detroit Town Hall
Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM (ET)

Detroit Public Library
5201 Woodward Avenue,
Detroit, MI 48202

Event Details: Dale, Sherry, Louise and Shauna will be hosting a Maker Faire Detroit Town Hall and Community Planning Meeting on Tuesday, March 22nd at The Detroit Public Library (Main Branch) in the the Old Fine Arts room and would like to invite you to attend. …Read more on EventBrite

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We hope you can make it!

See the EventBrite listing for full details.

Cheers,
The Maker Faire Team

2011: A Maker Space Odyssey — From Maker Space to Outer Space

Some highlights for 2011, so far, include:

Returning Favorites:
- MakerBot 3D printing area
- MakerShed Learn to Solder Area
- Arc Attack – Musical Tesla Coils
- Flaming Lotus Girls with Three Mutopia Pods
- Lil Ju Ju Pinball Museum
- FIRST Tech Challenge & FIRST Lego League
- R2 D2 Astromech Droids
- Land Sharks – RC controlled neon creatures
- Twin Towers 19′ Tesla Coils
- Young Maker Projects
- Make and Launch Compressed Air Rockets
- Interactive Sculpture Garden by Posables
- Makerspace and Hackerspace

Flaming Lotus Girls, Maker Fair Bay Area, 2010. Image by twelves.

New Makers and Activities:
- Chariot Races (organized by Madagascar Institute)
- DIY Kit makers, including:
       NASA/Make: Space challenge
       Open hardware electronic kits
       DIY Kits for kids, by kids
       Algae kits to grow your our spirulina superfood
       Cheese-making kits
- “Race and Shoot” games from SF Model Yacht club
- Stanford Solar Car Project
- Bug in a book workshop – From MAKE Volume 16, the Spy Tech issue
- Fresh-pressed Sunflower Oil

Want to learn more about Maker Faire? Meet the Maker Faire team and fellow makers? Learn about our volunteer program? Tour the new TechShop San Francisco? We are holding a Maker Faire Town Hall on Tuesday, 3/15 at 7pm at the new TechShop San Francisco location. This is a perfect chance to get your questions answered and prepare for Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. To register to attend, and get more information, check out our EventBrite announcement.

Applications are available at: Call For Makers (Extended to March 21st!)

We can’t wait for this always-inspiring event and we hope we’ll see you there!

Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, download Make: Live episode 02 in its entirety (m4v), or watch clips on YouTube.

Limor “Ladyada” Fried – Soldering demo with the Game of Life Kit
Solder sorceress and Adafruit Industries founder Limor Fried joins us in-studio for a soldering demo featuring the Game of Life kit.

Marc deVinck – Electronic Merit Badge
Maker Shed product developer Marc deVinck developed the popular learn-to-solder badge you may have seen at Maker Faire, where you can learn to solder for $1 in the Maker Shed, then show off your new skill.

Show notes:

• Call to makers for Maker Faire Bay Area
• Electronics archive on the Make: Online
• MAKE vol 01 soldering primer
• MAKE vol 16 SMD soldering primer
• Conway’s game of life kit
• Learn to solder merit badge: Maker Shed product and how-to on Make: Projects
• soldering section on Make: Projects
• Maker Shed discount: 10% off Deluxe Toolkit, check out with code MAKELIVE (valid through February 23, 2011)

Sandy Clark, a Missourian ("The Show Me State"), sent me a note recalling his 2006 visit to the first Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA.

I live in Springfield, Missouri and volunteer at the Discovery Center. Laurie Duncan is coming up there tomorrow to find out about Maker Faire. I have sent her a long letter outlining local resources and interested groups in our area, about three hours south. I'm hopping we can bus a load in and send some great hacks your way.

I wanted to share my impression of the first Maker Faire with you. I lived in Oakland at the time. It was life changing.

Oh the store of inquiry and wonder. When you love to hack and think of people as these vessels of unlimited potential, it is hard to find your place. In a button-down culture of rigid guidelines and expectations, enthusiasm and hacking are a threat. Don't be too passionate. Don't be too enthusiastic. Those become things you pursue alone.

Football fans will fill a stadium in an orgy of overexuberence, but hacking is done in isolation. It was a lonely proposition up until MAKE magazine launched the first Maker Faire in 2006.

Giant buoyant clouds of hydrogen bubbles rose up in a weightless column behind the entrance to the San Mateo Fairgrounds. Off to my right, a shiny red fire engine shot jets of flame into the sky.

That was my first impression of the very first Maker Faire.

Through the gate, I was confronted with hall after hall of nifty hacks and clever invention. A game of polo was being played with Segways on the green. Before I could decide what to do, a young man wearing an LCD screen on his chest shoved an Atari 2600 controller in my hand.

"Here," someone said. "Try my new videogame."

While I sorted that game out, he explained his quest to program the venerable 2600, the epic quest to learn to burn ROMS and 2600 programming quirks. I handed him the controller and he gave me a flyer with his website on it. Nobody has made 2600s or software for them in 20 years... Until now.

"Here," he said to the couple behind me, "Wanna try my videogame?"

The polo players were coming off the field and I realized one of them was Apple founder Steve Wozniak. I walked over and introduced myself. We chatted. I got a photo. Nobody came up or made a scene.

"You know," I said. "We are probably at the center of the largest gathering of geeks I've ever seen, and nobody is even making a fuss over you."

He grinned.

"I know, there is just too much cool stuff here."

Above us the hydrogen filled bubbles ripped an orange seam of ignition across the sky. Two thousand people cheered.

I had been at the first Maker Fair less than 30 minutes. I was home.

Sandy Clark is a writer and a self-described "worm coddler" and geek.

Sandy Clark, a Missourian ("The Show Me State"), sent me a note recalling his 2006 visit to the first Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA.

I live in Springfield, Missouri and volunteer at the Discovery Center. Laurie Duncan is coming up there tomorrow to find out about Maker Faire. I have sent her a long letter outlining local resources and interested groups in our area, about three hours south. I'm hopping we can bus a load in and send some great hacks your way.

I wanted to share my impression of the first Maker Faire with you. I lived in Oakland at the time. It was life changing.

Oh the store of inquiry and wonder. When you love to hack and think of people as these vessels of unlimited potential, it is hard to find your place. In a button-down culture of rigid guidelines and expectations, enthusiasm and hacking are a threat. Don't be too passionate. Don't be too enthusiastic. Those become things you pursue alone.

Football fans will fill a stadium in an orgy of overexuberence, but hacking is done in isolation. It was a lonely proposition up until Make Magazine launched the first Maker Faire in 2006.

Giant buoyant clouds of hydrogen bubbles rose up in a weightless column behind the entrance to the San Mateo Fairgrounds. Off to my right, a shiny red fire engine shot jets of flame into the sky.

That was my first impression of the very first Maker Faire.

Through the gate, I was confronted with hall after hall of nifty hacks and clever invention. A game of polo was being played with Segways on the green. Before I could decide what to do, a young man wearing an LCD screen on his chest shoved an Atari 2600 controller in my hand.

"Here," someone said. "Try my new videogame."

While I sorted that game out, he explained his quest to program the venerable 2600, the epic quest to learn to burn ROMS and 2600 programming quirks. I handed him the controller and he gave me a flyer with his website on it. Nobody has made 2600s or software for them in 20 years... Until now.

"Here," he said to the couple behind me, "Wanna try my videogame?"

The polo players were coming off the field and I realized one of them was Apple founder Steve Wozniak. I walked over and introduced myself. We chatted. I got a photo. Nobody came up or made a scene.

"You know," I said. "We are probably at the center of the largest gathering of geeks I've ever seen, and nobody is even making a fuss over you."

He grinned.

"I know, there is just too much cool stuff here."

Above us the hydrogen filled bubbles ripped an orange seam of ignition across the sky. Two thousand people cheered.

I had been at the first Maker Fair less than 30 minutes. I was home.

Sandy Clark is a writer and a self-described "worm coddler" and geek.

We got an email this morning from the fine folks who are organizing this year's Maker Faire: North Carolina. Here's a brief description of the event:

Maker Faire: North Carolina celebrates things people create themselves -- from James Bond-worthy electronic gizmos to Martha Stewart-quality "slow made" foods and homemade clothes. Inspiration is ubiquitous at the festival and there are surprises around every corner for people of all ages.

Maker Faire: NC is a fully sanctioned event but is planned and coordinated by Raleigh/Durham locals. Our goal is to bring together Makers, Crafters, Inventors, Evil Geniuses, Scientists, Artists, and everyone else for a day of fun and inspiration.

The also have put out the Call of Exhibitors.

After the jump is a letter from Faire-organizer Jon Danforth with further details on the event.

Nice video of the theatricality and carnage that is the Chariot Races at World Maker Faire NY by Sara Kinney. Swimming Cities and Madagascar Institute sure put on a good show! There's a great little audio clip of Nick Normal explaining ArcAttack!'s musical Tesla coils at the end. I sure hope that was on purpose, because it's awesome.

For everyone in the San Francisco Bay Area, don't forget about the East Bay Mini Maker Faire going on this Sunday, October 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Park Day School Campus in Oakland. This Mini Maker Faire was organized by a dedicated group of parents as a fundraiser for their school, and we at MAKE are thrilled to see folks organizing Maker Faires at the community level. There will be over 100 makers and crafters exhibiting, along with a whole day of workshops scheduled, including Maker Faire founder Dale Dougherty showing how to make cider with a cider press and speaking about the Young Makers program, as well as Tim O'Reilly teaching how to make his famous jam and scones. Check out the site for all the details, including an extensive list of makers, and of course how to get tickets.

If you are a teacher, check out the post on Make: Education on how to get discounted tickets.

The World Maker Faire episode of The Martha Stewart Show is now online! TV-less or just Hallmark Channel-less? Watch the video clips on Martha's site (sadly not embeddable here). We're ecstatic to see some of our favorite makers featured on the show yesterday. I was lucky enough to attend with Maker Faire director Sherry Huss, Nick Normal, Lish Dorset, and Nick Britsky. The studio is just amazing, and it was so inspiring to see the makers shine! Much love to the Martha Stewart team for supporting Maker Faire both onsite and in the studio.

Some techno-highlights:

• Eggbot drawing robot kit with Bruce Shapiro (video)
• Hydroponic Windowfarms with Britta Riley (video)
  
• USB Typewriter by Jack Zylkin, who managed to squeeze in a plug for open source hardware! (video)
• QuadroTapult and MechaniCards by Brad Litwin (video)

Really, if you only watch one episode of Martha ever, let it be this one.

Alita Edgar, Porter Fox, Orien McNeill, Michael O'Toole are just four of the 30+ names of makers and artists involved with the current incarnation of the collaborative project We Are Swimming Cities, whose overall installation at last month's inaugural World Maker Faire in NYC won an Editor's Choice award, and whose "caddywhampuss," the motorcycle-powered fish-boat (below), won Best in Show.