I have a bit of an odd relationship with Maker Faire. I love the great people behind the Faire at Make Magazine/O’Reilly (and hope their recent troubles have been overcome), and the Makers themselves; am amazed by the tremendous community support as countless thousands attend Maker events, now around the world, with their children, the next generation of Maker, in tow. However I can’t help but be more than a little sad as the event has steadily retreated from the bastion of hard core independent geeks of the earliest event(s) to first become a little theatrical with burning man performance art and related trappings of steampunk and the like, followed by a shift toward children and education (but who can complain about that?), and most recently a huge shift from independent Makers presenting their research and project to corporations, and startups selling their brands or wares.
Over the years many fascinating Makers have either stopped returning or have dumbed down what they have brought. I am somewhat at fault myself having not hosted a booth for a second (third?) year after bringing one audio related interaction or another for the preceding three.
Complaints aside I did come away with a lot of new ideas, easily making the entry fee a great value even if I wasn’t able to see the entire show having spent half the day enjoying the Faire through my daugter’s fresh eyes.
Next postings will be about interesting people, companies, products or discoveries from Maker Faire 2016.
