Hackers/Makers

Announcing Maker Librarian

I’d like to announce a new project, Maker Librarian.

The goal of Maker Librarian is to serve as the primary resource for librarians who want to learn about makers, hackerspaces, the participatory library and everything in between. Over the coming weeks and months you’ll find;

– Daily updates on the latest technologies, maker news and what librarians and libraries are up to
– Interviews with the movers and shakers in the maker and hacker movement
– Discussion of the difficult ethical and legal issues that libraries will have to face as technologies, like 3D printers, become readily available
– A wiki for librarians to gather the best of training materials and classes for their programs
– And a few exciting projects that will be revealed in the near future…

I’m currently seeking contributors for the site, so if you would like to participate drop me a line. To keep up on developments feel free to subscribe to the site’s feed or follow along on Twitter.

DARPA Funding for Hackerspaces and Education at HOPE 9

Back in July Mitch Altman invited me to be part of a panel at HOPE #9 on the military funding of hackerspaces. My specific interest was the partnership between Make Magazine and DARPA and you can read my original thoughts here and here, and find the surrounding background and conversation here. The full video of the panel is now available online.

DARPA Funding for Hackers, Hackerspaces, and Education: A Good Thing?
Mitch Altman, Psytek, Willow Brugh, Fiacre O’Duinn, Matt Joyce
Mitch Altman caused a stir this spring when he publicly announced that he would not be helping U.S. Maker Faires this year, after it was publicly announced that they received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). So, what’s the controversy? DARPA, an agency of the U.S. military, has funded many famous projects over the past several decades, including GPS and the Internet. People in DARPA are now making large amounts of grant funding available for hackers and hackerspaces to do projects of their choice, as well as funding for education through hands-on learning, which MAKE Magazine is using to help schools. Does it matter that DARPA is responsible for the development of new technology for the U.S. military with an annual budget of $3.2 billion? What are the ethics of using funds from people or organizations that may or may not be aligned with one’s own goals? What are the ramifications for the hacker/maker movement? Is DARPA funding overall a good thing? There is no simple answer. Explore the ethics and ramifications with Mitch, as moderator, and the panelists, as they give their perspectives on this complex set of issues.

Update: October 9

The panel from HOPE 9 was recently featured in an article in the New York Times discussing the issue of military funding and hackerspaces.

Worries Over Defense Department Money for ‘Hackerspaces’

Arduino Leonardo has arrived

The Leonardo differs from all preceding boards in that the ATmega32u4 has built-in USB communication, eliminating the need for a secondary processor. This allows the Leonardo to appear to a connected computer as a mouse and keyboard, in addition to a virtual (CDC) serial / COM port.

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