Long busy day… with two interesting after work meetings.. both on the Maker front. First was a really nice ‘Maker Mixer’ that my friend John A hosted at his house.. It had folks from all over northern and central Vermont who were doing something around the maker movement.. The   room was packed with folks representing maker groups, makerspaces, makerfaire, the arts community, the state, the city…Here’s the agenda so you get a sense of all that is going on here..

PROGRAM

• Welcome – Curt Carter, GBIC; Doug Webster, CMF
• Renewing our Culture of Innovation – John Abele, Founder, Boston Scientific Corporation
• Champlain Maker Faire – Doug Webster, Executive Producer, Champlain Maker Faire
• Cool Things at the Maker Faire – Jan Herder, Johnson State College; Jon Bondy, Data Innovations, Champlain Maker Faire Program Directors
• Makers on the Move: Examples of Makers in our Community – Ken Howell, Champlain College, Emergent Media Center and Vermont Makers
• Robot Maker:  FIRST Robotics – Joe Chase and students, Essex High School and Center for Technology, Essex
• Renewing Vermont’s Culture of Innovation and Enterprise Development – Lawrence Miller, Secretary, Agency of Commerce
• Vermont Makers:  Creating Makers in Residence – Jenn Karson, Vermont Makers and Sesamedia, Inc.
• A New Maker Space:  Burlington’s Generator Maker Space – Michael Metz, Doreen Kraft, Burlington City Arts
• Vermont School Maker Spaces: Status – Doug Webster, Vermont Agency of Education
• National Perspective on Secondary Engineering Education – Vince Bertram, Project Lead The Way
• Next Generation Manufacturing College Pathways – Dr. Karen Birch, Connecticut College of Technology
• How You Can Help: Mentor, Sponsor, Volunteer, Outreach, Projects – Doug Webster, CMF

it was SO gratifying to see all of hthis energy around people workign with their hands and minds..

Two things I’d like to pass on to readers here from that meeting…..

1. We’re still looking for a few more makers for th Champlain makerfaire on Sept 28/29.. If you kow someone who makes cool stuff. please ask them to go sign up here.
2. Also.. we would also like folks from Vermont who are interested in Makerspaces to take this survey  about the Generator makerspace planned for Memorial auditorium

OK.. thanks for the help !

2nd meeting was about Lakecraft.. the project i’m part of that has mapped the Lake champlain basin to the online game Minecraft..The project idea came out to the ECHO lake summit earlier this summer.. and was brought (by Nina) to the Civic Day of Hacking ..   A pretty cool example of software activism !

Will, Nick and I met over at Nina’s.. and she made us yummy thai food.. We discussed soem of the additional features we need and heard abotu soem of Nina’s results around testing it on kids.. and so far, so good.if you dont count kids dumping hot lava on everything..

. here are a few screen shots..

OK.. thats it for tonight.. more tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-me