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Democratizing the Maker Movement
aarondubrow writes: To its advocates and participants, the Maker Movement resonates with those characteristics that we believe makes America great: independence and ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness. But as impressive as today's tools are, they're not accessible to many Americans simply because of their cost and high technological barrier to entry. An article in the Huffington Post describes efforts supported by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies to create new tools, technologies and approaches to make the Maker movement more inclusive and democratic.
The first thing you can do is stop using the cringe inducing term "maker" and trying to make it into a way of life instead of something you just do.
All it has done is make a new line of trendy hipsters calling themselves "makers" who buy kits to make an LED blink for $10.99.
Not to mention "Maker Faire" is trademarked and if you want to hold one you need to apply for a license and pay royalties to Maker Media, Inc.
It's less about learning and more about an untapped cash cow.
The maker movement desperately needs federal government support.
That's the only way women and minorities will get access to makerspaces and creative tools.
Why, women make up half of all people, and the fact that they're under-represented in hackerspace memberships is clear evidence of pervasive prejudice and the "rape culture".
Just as there are few women coders, there are also few women hackers.
We only need to consider scientific research to see how this would work: before federal involvement, scientific inquiry was haphazard, capricious, and discretionary. Nowadays we have an organized inquiry into the frontiers of science at every direction of inquiry - eliminating duplication of effort, guiding lines of inquiry for best results, and generally eliminating risk.
This same model could bring the maker movement into the 21st century, bestowing the benefits of government bureaucracy on hackers across the country!