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.

Go-To-Meeting Government

DealBook in the New York Times offers a portrait of Gary Gensler who is chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. I was inspired by Gensler's story. He moved from Wall Street to Washington to go into public service while raising three girls as a single father. His quest to "overhaul the murky $600 trillion derivatives market" is meeting with…

Teachers as Makers

Educators discover how hands-on learning can help teach writing.

When I began talking with folks from the National Writing Project last year, we hit on the idea that getting teachers to see themselves as makers was a great way to encourage making in schools.

Open sourcing space

The final frontier is now open to amateurs.

The space race has been reignited, but in a much different way. With off-the-shelf components and your own initiative, you can now launch a satellite or weather balloon. Dale Dougherty looks at this new wave of roll-your-own exploration.

Innovation, education and Makers

Thomas Kalil: What would education look like after a Maker make-over?

During a recent workshop, Thomas Kalil of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy explored the impact of the DIY mindset on education and industry. The full text of Kalil's talk is included in this post.

A World's Faire for Makers

A preview of Maker Faire New York.

The first Maker Faire on the east coast takes place this weekend on the grounds of the New York Hall of Science in Queens, the site of the 1964 World's Fair. Here's a preview of talks, events, and performances.

It's a time-sharing world

"The Mesh" author Lisa Gansky on the shift from ownership to sharing.

Why own when sharing will do? In this interview, "The Mesh" author Lisa Gansky discusses the rise of sharing goods and services and how companies are adapting.

The VC-free startup

The big-bet model works on occasion in Silicon Valley, but it seldom works elsewhere.

The big-bet venture capital model works on occasion in Silicon Valley, but it seldom works elsewhere. Dale Dougherty mulls the trajectory of non-VC startups: the small firms that don't need an exit strategy because the business creates its own type of fulfillment.

The Big Picture: What are we making in school?

Elliot Washor of Big Picture Learning organized an educational symposium during Maker Faire Detroit. The symposium brought together educators and practitioners who explored engaging the hands and minds of students, sometimes called thinkering. As a group, they experienced Maker Faire and then met to discuss “how making can be an integral part of how young people figure out who they are in the world.” This is a really key idea, I think: what we can learn by making is a process of discovering what we can do, and we begin to participate in making and changing the world around us.

Detroit 2.0: Motor City to Maker City

Maker Faire Detroit opens this coming weekend at The Henry Ford in Dearborn. Our goal is to create a fun, family-friendly event and showcase talented makers from Michigan and aroundthe Midwest. I also think the event gives us an opportunity to consider ways that makers can be part of re-inventing Detroit from the ground-up. This Thursday, just before Maker Faire…

Detroit Can Do Camp – July 29

As part of the week leading up to Maker Faire Detroit, we have organized Can Do Camp for Thursday, July 29 at Eastern Market in Detroit. Can Do Camp is an informal day for makers to meet each other and explore the DIY mindset. This mindset is a powerful and positive force for building hands-on communities as well as fostering innovation and developing a diverse, creative culture. Can Do Camp will bring together what President Obama called “the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things.”