People engage with the Maker Movement in many ways. Some read about it, some attend events, others watch it happen. Yet, gaining real access is simple once the premise of doing-it-yourself is implemented. You can easily join the Maker Movement just by making or modifying something, and even better as Mark Hatch would suggest, is to make something and give it to someone. The process of giving a personally crafted artifact to someone is significantly different from purchasing a gift as it’s tied to emotion and personal transformation (Mark Hatch).
You might be wondering how you can gain access to and/or join the Maker Movement. This list below gives you some options and resources for getting involved and sustaining the Maker Movement.
- Be present. Attend a Maker Faire to see the diverse communities, people, and varieties of artifacts from arts, crafts, and fashion, to robots and electronics. Vancouver is having it’s 5th Annual Mini Maker Faire on June 6 & 7. Consider joining a MakerSpace, Hackerspace, or connect with the community through a MeetUp.
- Get creative with design software. Some options include com and Autodesk
- Design prototypes and educational tools using 3D printers (complement this with design software)
- Remember your roots. Plant and grow something, create a community garden, design an open access biology laboratory. See org, Biology Hacklabs, and the Journal of Peer Production for more resources.
- Tinker with projects. For some interesting ideas see com. Click here for beginner projects, or see some thoughts for adults. Electronic projects can be found at Adafruit as well as SparkFun, and more complex projects can be created with Arduino open source controller systems
Have you thought about how your existing skills, knowledge, and talents can be used to ‘design, adapt, hack, and create’ (Bullock, 2014)’?
/AJS