Dale Dougherty

Dale Dougherty is founder and executive chairman of Maker Media, founder and publisher of Make: magazine, and co-founder of Maker Faire. Dale has been honored by the White House as a "Champion of Change." He's been instrumental in many of O'Reilly's most important efforts, including founding O'Reilly Media, Inc. with Tim O'Reilly. Prior to Make, he was the developer of Global Network Navigator (GNN), the first commercial website, launched in 1993 and sold to America Online in 1995. He was also developer and publisher of Web Review, the online magazine for Web designers from 1995-1999. Dale was publisher of the O'Reilly Network and he developed the Hacks series of books. He is the author of sed & awk.

A NY state of hardware

The next Hardware Innovation Workshop from Maker Media will be September 18 in NYC at the Hall of Science.

This post was co-authored by Travis Good and Dale Dougherty

Every major trend was once a fringe curiosity embraced by the few with a sense of mission. The current surge of hardware innovation is no exception. A relatively small group of makers are taking advantage of inexpensive embeddable technology and new, powerful tools that are making the physical world smarter by connecting it to digital computing. Add to that the open-source sharing of code and design files, and we’re experiencing a new state of mind regarding hardware development. Rapid prototyping of new hardware ideas has never been easier or cheaper.

As more people catch on, ideas and ambitions spread. We’ve seen makerspaces grow from only a handful to now approaching 1,000 in eight years. We’ve seen funding of new hardware products go from small, rare and obscure to large, frequent and regularly capturing the limelight. As the community of modern makers expands, a professional class has emerged with ambitions of taking products to market. In many cases, these “maker pros” are able to act on their own to develop their ideas, rather than needing the material resources of a larger company to get to market. However, the road to market is not an easy one, and transitioning from prototype to a shipped product is a challenging path often wrought with difficulties.

New York has its own hardware development scene, reflected in the popularity of hardware startup Meetups, the NYC EDC’s Next Top Makers competition, and the newly announced RGA Accelerator program for connected devices. New York City (in Queens) will also be the location for the next Hardware Innovation Workshop from Maker Media on September 18 at New York’s Hall of Science, just before World Maker Faire. Read more…

The makers of hardware innovation

Hardware is back and makers are driving it. Here are some of the signals.

Chris Anderson wrote Makers and went from editor-in-chief of Wired to CEO of 3D Robotics, making his hobby his side job and then making it his main job.

A new executive at Motorola Mobility, a division of Google, said that Google seeks to “googlify” hardware. By that he meant that devices would be inexpensive, if not free, and that the data created or accessed by them would be open. Motorola wants to build a truly hackable cellphone, one that makers might have ideas about what to do with it.

Regular hardware startup meetups, which started in San Francisco and New York, are now held in Boston, Pittsburgh, Austin, Chicago, Dallas and Detroit. I’m sure there are other American cities. Melbourne, Stockholm and Toronto are also organizing hardware meetups. Hardware entrepreneurs want to find each other and learn from each other.

Hardware-oriented incubators and accelerators are launching on both coasts in America, and in China.

The market for personal 3D printers and 3D printing services has really taken off. 3D printer startups continue to launch, and all of them seem to have trouble keeping up with demand. MakerBot is out raising money. Shapeways raised $30 million in a new round of financing announced this week.

Makers are discovering that the Raspberry PI, developed for educational uses, can fit into some interesting commercial niches. Read more…

Making innovation: Open hardware, personal fab and collaborative design

MAKE's Hardware Innovation Workshop is coming May 15-16 at PARC.

Being held May 15-16, MAKE's Hardware Innovation Workshop is an intensive introduction to the business of making and the makers who are creating these businesses.

Announcing Make's Hardware Innovation Workshop

The Hardware Innovation Workshop will be held May 15-16.

We're announcing the Hardware Innovation Workshop, a new business conference being held during the week of Maker Faire.

Creating Maker-friendly cities

Cities should encourage homebrew innovation and inspiration.

Governments, particularly local governments, need to do more to understand and adapt to what might be called DIY citizenship.

The long slow make

How will a "long, slow make" transform our society?

I sat down with Anil Dash to get some long-term thinking on the Maker movement.

Maker Faire Detroit this weekend

Maker Faire Detroit will be held July 30 and 31

In our second Detroit Maker Faire we're able to see all kinds of examples of how makers have become resources for the community, contributing in Detroit and the region.

School district first to permit cell phone use during standardized tests

Teaching to the txt

(Green Onion News Network) The Harper Valley School Board recently adopted a policy that allows students to use their cell phones to search for answers on state-mandated standardized tests.

Ignite Education

The Ignite format can connect schools and students to their communities.

As was on display during Ignite Petaluma, the Ignite format offers a great way to bring together students, faculty and members of a community.

The NASA Make Challenge

The first challenge: create kits that can be built in a classroom and sent on-board suborbital flights.

If you are fascinated by space, it's a great time for you to be able to do something as a maker and make a real contribution. Makers can now participate in a new kind of space program, one that expands beyond NASA to include commercial space collaboration.