The We in DIY

  • Posted by Evan
  • May 13, 2008

Today, the New York Times published two articles about Maker Faire, an annual festival organized by Make Magazine as a celebration of the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ethos. This year’s Maker Faire featured presentations by more than 500 Makers and attracted more than 65,000 people to the San Mateo Fairgrounds in Silicon Valley over a weekend earlier this month.

As Maker Faire demonstrates, DIY is often as much about We as it is about You.

The New York Times article This, From That features a quote from a presenter that I think captures an important part of the spirit of DIY:

“We’ve been told by corporate America that we cannot fix the things we own,” says Mr. O’Hare, who goes by Major Catastrophe and works as a fabricator for the stage and businesses. “All we can do is buy their stuff and like it.” Cars have become too complex to work on under a shade tree, and people have no idea what is inside their cellphones and cameras. “All this technology, and it’s not ours. It’s somebody else’s,” Mr. O’Hare says. “Make is about taking that back off and making it yours.”

The process of reclaiming the tools that we use everyday, whether teaching a cell phone to do a new trick that its designers never intended or making a Prius into a plug-in hybrid (a project that Luscious Garage worked on at Maker Faire), is often a highly social process. When one person on his or her own can figure out how to modify a tool in an unexpected way, there can be a strong incentive to share that knowledge with others who would appreciate it. The web provides ample opportunities to do so through personal blogs, YouTube, Instructables.com, and other sites. But letting others know about an amazing modification is often just the beginning. Making such knowledge public enables others to contribute their own techniques and enhancements. From this process can emerge a tight-knit community of people who advance their capabilities as they share knowledge.

It is no surprise that Make Magazine is published by O’Reilly Media, a company that has contributed to and profited from the world of open source software. The company’s founder, Tim O’Reilly related the DIY spirit at work at Maker Faire to what motivated earlier generations of innovators in Silicon Valley.

“We’ve ridden this wave before,” Mr. O’Reilly said. “We see hackers first, and then we see entrepreneurs and then we see it become part of the mainstream. And we’re still in that early hacker-enthusiast phase, but I’m really convinced that there is a manufacturing revolution on its way as part of what we’re seeing here.”

If you’re interested in Maker Faire, the Times also features another article by the same author on his experience getting struck by lightning there as well as audio and photos from the event. Another Maker Faire is also planned for Austin, Texas.

Evan

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May 13th, 2008
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