Leigh, the kids and I recently took a tour of a place in Raleigh called the TechShop (TechShopRDU.com). It is an amazing place described as a do-it-yourself workshop. It has a complete metal shop (everything from lathes to CNC milling machines), a complete woodworking shop, a welding shop, a 5×8 Shopbot, a nice 3-D printer, a laser cutter, a sewing area, classrooms, offices, etc. It would be possible to fabricate nearly anything in this facility.
One of the most interesting comments that Scott (the founder) made during the tour was about community – how a real, interconnected community of Makers is forming at the TechShop and they are helping each other in myriad ways. It is a great example of the power of community to help human beings reach a higher level.
The comment also reminded me of this post by Anil Dash:
Particularly this paragraph:
And if we put the making movement in the context of other social and political movements, it’s had amazing success. In city after city, year after year, tens of thousands of people pay money to show up and learn about taking control of their media, learning, consumption and communications. In contrast to groups like the Tea Party, the crowd at Maker Faire is diverse, includes children and adults of all ages, and never finds itself in conflict with other groups based on identity or politics. More importantly, the jobs that many of us have in 2030 will be determined by young people who attended a Maker Faire, in industries that they’ve created. There is no other political movement in America today with a credible claim at creating the jobs of the future.
I hope that one day people have reason to praise these same attributes in DecidingToBeBetter: freedom from conflict, inclusivity, creating jobs.