Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The Case for a Campus Makerspace

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Here's my problem with the maker movement, 'makerspace' and all the rest of it: it's an advertising campaign for this magazine. As their own website states, "The launch of MAKE Magazine in 2005, followed by Maker Faire in 2006, jumpstarted a worldwide Maker Movement, which is transforming innovation, culture and education." The whole publication is used to sell 'getting started' kits and products. The entire operation is a branch of O'Reilly Media, which is doing for the word "make" much what it did for the term "web 2.0" - owning it. So while I encourage people to make things and create things, I caution writers like Audrey Watters against being unwitting press agents for O'Reilly. Let them pay for their own advertising.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 25, 2024 08:13 a.m.

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