Why you should care about your local hackerspace
I had the good fortune to be able to attend Maker Faire North Carolina this weekend in Raleigh, N.C. Maker Faires are amazing events that bring together representatives from all parts of the Maker culture, DIY culture, and the hackerspaces movement. At this local Maker Faire, I was struck by the number of hackerspaces represented. The energy, buzz, and activity around their booths was captivating.
Our local hackerspace from Durham, N.C., Splat Space, was in the middle of the activity, with volunteers doing everything from teaching children to program in Scratch to demoing cool Raspberry Pi projects to showing off DIY sand-casting techniques for casting metal objects in your backyard to, of course, showing off the now ubiquitous, ultimate DIY machine, a 3D printer.
Amid all this buzz, it dawned on me that everyone should be excited about hackerspaces and what they represent, both for their local communities and the world. Although the hackerspace movement is growing rapidly, many people are still not familiar with them, where they are located, or what they do. So let's examine the hackerspace world and explore why you should give a crap about it.
