1000 Days To Maker's Faire

My personal road to the Maker Faire has actually taken me three years, as last year at this time my son was born, and the year prior I had a 48 hour long trip to Sweden.  But this year nothing shall stop me (despite being in New York instead of San Francisco as I write this). It's an event I've been looking forward to for quite some time, and not only am I attending, I'll be participating the whole time.

My impressions of Makers Faire were formed from reading various blog posts and hearing personal tales over the years.  In my head I picture a huge field covered with bits of silicon, oddly shaped plastics, insanely huge gears and blowtorches.  Not sure why the blowtorches, but I picture many of them strewn about.  It's the place the teenager in me would've hitchhiked just to get to.  Then again, back then my computer had no case and instead  sat on a piece of foam until the one fateful morning when I wiped it out by accidentally touching the edge of my CGA card (yes, you read that right) and shocking the heck out of it.

Part of why I'm excited about Makers is that it gives those of us who look beyond the Web/computer as "the platform for innovation" a chance to share.  Living in San Francisco I feel heavily immersed in online culture, and while there's phenomenal creativity occurring in that culture, I still believe there's so much more to technology and imagination.  Last week I tried playing with Yahoo Pipes for the first time and felt it was pretty impressive that I could so easily "mash up" various feeds and services.  Experimenting with their tools was definitely dabbling in creation. 

I look forward to this weekend where I can have the chance to meet others who are taking their visions well beyond the screen+keyboard+mouse.