Organized by the staff of MAKE and CRAFT magazines, Maker Faire is a newfangled fair that brings together science, art, craft, and engineering in a fun, energized, and exciting public forum. The aim is to inspire people of all ages to roll up their sleeves and become Makers. This family-friendly event showcases the amazing work of all kinds of makers–anyone who is embracing DIY and wants to share their accomplishments with an appreciative audience. Last year, we had 20,000 people at Maker Faire.
Maker Faire Bay Area will take place May 19-20, 2007 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. We are also adding Maker Faire Austin for October 20-21, 2007 at the Travis County Fairgrounds. This call is primarily for Maker Faire Bay Area but you can indicate if you are interested in participating in Maker Faire Austin.
We encourage you to join the fun and propose a maker exhibit, performance, or workshop. You can submit a proposal through the web using the link described below or you can come show us your work at a Maker Faire “audition” on Saturday, February 24 at TechShop in Menlo Park, Calif.
Proposals:
We invite proposals for Maker workbench exhibits, workshops, presentations, and performances for the Maker Faire. We are interested in proposals from individuals as well as from groups such as hobbyist clubs and schools.
Maker Workbench: Our standard setup for Makers is a six-foot-long workbench. You can use this workbench to display your work and/or demonstrate how you make something. Some Makers don’t need workbenches, typically because they have a large object or they set up outside. Please provide a short description of what you make and what you will bring to Maker Faire. Please link to photographs or videos of what you make. Let us know about any requirements you have, such as electricity, internet, ventilation, etc.
Interactive Performance: We’re seeking performances that will engage and entertain the attendees and enable them to interact in a fun way. The performances may be tied to a stage or roving through the fairgrounds as a kind of street theatre. Performances could be musical or theatrical, but they could also be a collaborative building process. For example, you might work with attendees to put something large together in an hour.
Presentation: These includes audio-visual presentations intended for showing a project (or process) that cannot be brought to the Faire, or a special project that requires AV resources. These presentations are limited to 20 minutes. Please describe the topic of your presentation and what kind of media (audio/video) that you will have. As a general rule, PowerPoint presentations are not appropriate for this event unless they are unusually entertaining.
Demonstration Workshop: A demonstration workshop is a show-and-tell session on how to make something. We’re looking for Makers who can demonstrate (and teach) particular skills, techniques, or processes. You should start off by explaining your materials and tools and then step-through a build process, sharing your knowledge and interacting with the audience. Sessions should be under 30 minutes in length and may be repeated on the program. Please describe the subject of your workshop and what kind of setup you need for it.
Application Form: Please go to the following URL and fill it out to apply for participation as a Maker.
All proposals will be reviewed and we will notify Makers of acceptance via email by March 19, 2007.
NOTE: Presenters whose talks are accepted will receive free registration to Maker Faire. We cannot pay for travel and accommodations. (We do make exceptions under some circumstances.)
If you have any questions about participating in Maker Faire, please contact Natalie Villalobos by email: info@makerfaire.com. Please let Natalie know if you plan to come to the audition at TechShop.
Key Points:
Maker Proposal Due: Midnight (PST): Feb. 27, 2007
Maker Faire Bay Area Audition: Saturday Feb. 24, 2007
Notification of Acceptance: March 19, 2006
Confirmation of Participation: April 2, 2007
Maker Faire Bay Area: May 19-20, 2007; Saturday 10-6 pm; Sunday 10-5pm.
Commercial Exhibitors
If you are a commercial maker or you work for a company that would like to exhibit at Maker Faire, please contact Sherry Huss sherry@oreilly.com.
Tim has a bit about his garbage bag and rice cooker alcohol still…
“A still has two parts, a boiler and a condenser.
A rice cooker/warmer makes a great boiler.
It’s got a rubber gasket so all the steam goes out the vent. It’s insulated so all the heat goes into the mash.
A plastic garbage bag makes a great condenser.
It’s got lots of surface area, cooling and condensing the vapor very quickly.
In my experiments it didn’t need to be vented and hardly puffed up at all.
I tested my still by distilling a gallon of “rice wine for cooking” which has salt added to it to keep people from using it as a beverage. I put the bag in a tub to keep it from rolling off the table when it got heavy, and in case the bag leaked.
The whole system works great!
Finally I was able to use up that gallon of salty wine, which I inherited from a friend who moved back to China.” – Link.
“Or.. a good demonstration of why throwing a radio into the bathtub will kill you. I’ll explain later.
This is a decent project that should cost you little or no money, depending on what you have laying around the house. The idea is to use electricity and salt water to etch an image into the top of an altoids tin. The same process can be used to actually cut the image all the way through if allowed to go long enough. I’ll explain the principles behind this as we go along.” – Link.
“Calling all writers, street artists, prankster, bikers, protesters, citizens and untouchables! The Graffiti Research Lab will be in Rotterdam from February 7th through the 10th. We’re taking control of the Renzo Piano KPN Telecom Building and turning the Kop Van Zuid into the People’s Revolutionary Green Laser Light District. We are turning the 37 x 72 meter screen into a place to display your uncurated animations and graphics. The back-side of the KPN is becoming a giant open wall you can write on with a BFL (big fucking laser). And throughout the week, the G.R.L. will venture outside the green zone on sorties to laser tag and projection bomb the city of Rotterdam on the BORF riot bike. Join us!” – Link.
Interesting, so PDF is going to be an open ISO standard…. The Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.7 specification for AIIM, the Enterprise Content Management Association, for the purpose of publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – there of course a lot of efforts going on with (open document format) too. MAKE sends out our PDFs over iTunes/RSS 2.0 so I feel a little bit better now that it’s going to open, we can’t send out Open Office docs in the same way (yet) – but this pretty good. Adobe’s announcement seems to be timed as Vista launches today (with included PDF-like XPS document Writer) – Link.
Here’s a video of our 3D PDF of how-to build a spun gun!
Related:
What is a 3D PDF? MAKE shows you! 3D PDF of Spud Gun – Link.
Window Clippings is a screenshot tool written by Kenny Kerr to exacting specs from Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths. Kenny’s put the tool out there for all to enjoy. It can do some great stuff: capture the Window’s drop shadow, include the parent window, and even cleans up whatever is behind translucent window borders. Link. (via The ADO Guy)
“I went on a creative jag this week, playing with fabricating earrings on the CNC mill. Milling a piece of aluminum flat to adhere the silver sheet to. 24 ga. (.019″) sterling silver sheet. I use 3M carpet tape to adhere the silver to the aluminum, after cleaning both surfaces with rubbing alcohol. Milling a pair of earrings. I first used a 60 degree engraving cutter to do the text, then a 1/32″ endmill to drill and profile the earrings.” – Link.
