In-House Counsel

Maker Faire

By legalthing

I had one of those flashes of insight a few months ago. It occurred while I was fixing a go-kart with my youngest son. He was reinstalling the chain guard and as he did he stopped to ask me which way to turn the screw. I replied in my best Dad voice: "If you're tightening it, you want to turn it clockwise". His response floored me. He asked: "what do you mean by 'clockwise'"?

Now mind you this is a bright young lad with good grades in middle school. Yet, he didn't understand my reference to the movement of the hands of a clock. At first, I was astounded by this gap in his learning. But, then I realized that he and most of his friends don't wear watches (they use their cell phones or, more likely, given their age, are indifferent to the concept of time). And when they do wear watches, they are digital - not analog. It was then that I began to lament the advent of the digital age. My fear was that we are raising a world of children who have almost unlimited access to information, yet little ability to use this knowledge to create or repair the tangible. At this point in his life, my son is more familiar with on-line tools than the ones in our garage. And, I'm not sure this is entirely a good thing.

So, I was elated when we recently attended the Maker Faire in San Mateo, California. For those not familiar with the event, it is an outgrowth of Make Magazine, which I can only describe as Popular Science for this millennium. The Maker Faire represents the intersection of science + art + shared knowledge + "using your hands to make stuff". It has everything including incendiary Burning Man sculptures, Steampunk minibikes, astronomy experiments, a Tesla coil machine, demonstrations on how to retrofit your home for grey water usage, electric powered cupcake cars and, of course, the now ubiquitous Diet Coke + Mentos "experiment". We wandered around for hours, but next year will be there for the entire weekend.

And, my son even purchased a kit to build a solar powered toy car. It gave me a chance to teach him how to solder...and made me feel a little better.

Full post as published by The Legal Thing... on May 17, 2008 (boomark / email).