You Are What You Make

Why make things, especially physical objects? The answer may be that we see something of ourselves in the things we make, and more importantly, an object becomes something we can share with others and create our own stories about. Making things is also more than mere manual labor. It is a way of thinking, exploring, and experimenting.

Make and Craft magazines are signs of a renewed interest in Do-It-Yourself projects. The results are often intensely personal, not necessary practical, but almost always engaging and fun. I’ll talk about the development of Make and Craft magazines, which also offer new ways to think about print in a digital age. I’ll also look at the rather unusual success of Maker Faire, which reinvents the county fair for a postmodern world. It’s where you might bring things you make to share them proudly with others.

Presenter(s)

Dale Dougherty is editor and publisher of Make and Craft magazines, both of which focus on DIY projects in print and online. He also organizes Maker Faire, which was held May 19-20 in the Bay Area at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. The next Maker Faire will be in Austin, TX October 20-21. The magazines and the events are part of the Maker Media division of O'Reilly Media.

Dale has been instrumental in many of O'Reilly's most important efforts, working closely with Tim O'Reilly to establish O'Reilly as a leading technical publisher. An early Web pioneer, Dale was the developer and publisher of Global Network Navigator (GNN), the first commercial Web site launched in 1993 and sold to America Online in 1995. Dale was developer and publisher of Web Review, the online magazine for Web designers from 1995-1999, which was sold to CMP in 1999. He developed the Hacks Series of books in 2003, which includes the bestselling Google Hacks and Excel Hacks.