There's something ironic about a "Maker Faire" that depends on a commercial organization with many employees.
Managing events is hard work.
Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
The culture has changed a lot. Geek originally described loners with unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword for capitalist cattle. It's the Big Bang Theory crowd that turned consumerism and brand loyalty into a point of pride: I wonder what Nietzsche would say about that.
I'd almost argue that we need to find a new word for it but at this point there's not much to it. I've had the discussion a few times about how Big Bang Theory is basically a minstrel show about smart people instead of your choice of minority group and while some folks get the comparison, most just glaze over.
"Yeast life" works for me. Mass consumerization of everything from neck tattoos and facial piercings to "geek culture" is covered by the phrase.
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#33It's a shame - in 2008/9/10 it was really something to see, but as a few other commenters have said, it's (and a lot of the maker movement for that matter) have declined a bit. I personally think this is due to the infantilization in part of a lot of media outlets, where the emphasis has been placed on getting the ideas into the most hands possible instead of folks who'd actually benefit. Focusing the faires around 3…
The culture has changed a lot. Geek originally described loners with unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword for capitalist cattle. It's the Big Bang Theory crowd that turned consumerism and brand loyalty into a point of pride: I wonder what Nietzsche would say about that.
> loners with unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword for capitalist cattle.
Reminds of open-source contributors doing it for the passion. People never made open-source software to make money back in the day...
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#34It's a shame - in 2008/9/10 it was really something to see, but as a few other commenters have said, it's (and a lot of the maker movement for that matter) have declined a bit. I personally think this is due to the infantilization in part of a lot of media outlets, where the emphasis has been placed on getting the ideas into the most hands possible instead of folks who'd actually benefit. Focusing the faires around 3…
The culture has changed a lot. Geek originally described loners with unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword for capitalist cattle. It's the Big Bang Theory crowd that turned consumerism and brand loyalty into a point of pride: I wonder what Nietzsche would say about that.
My favourite sketch show did something about this and he's spot on.
John Finnemore: You are not a geek - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thsRk9fuIdU
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Definitely a trend. There's also the TechShop bankruptcy and the subsequent "TheShop.build" clusterfuck, MotoGuild shutting down, etc.
Yes. Maker spaces in Silicon Valley are doing very badly. I was a TechShop member for most of a decade. They went bankrupt, in a very messy way. I'm currently a "TheShop.build" member, at least for a few more days. They closed their San Francisco location months ago, despite it still being listed on the web site. The San Jose location got a 3-day notice of eviction from their landlord, but they seem to have survived…
[deleted]
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#36I'm heartbroken that Halted closed. Is tinkering with physical stuff in the bay area dead? Or well, scaled back significantly in comparison to a decade ago.
Definitely a trend. There's also the TechShop bankruptcy and the subsequent "TheShop.build" clusterfuck, MotoGuild shutting down, etc.
Oh no, what happened to Moto Guild? The San Jose location is a treasure and has been expanding the space to include more service bays in the last year or so.
The SJ/SV and SF locations appear to be open recently looking at recent photos taken there and there’s recent posts by the owners on their Facebook pages.
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
The HP books didnt really start as a means of appealing to a mainstream crowd though...
They are young adult fiction, which is like saying that cars weren't built for driving. I'm not sure what you intend they were written as then, as they surely aren't literature.
The Harry Potter books are children’s literature. Not young adult. At least the first four or five are.
Notice how they’re almost all divided into very episodic chapters. That’s because children’s novels are generally built for reading maybe a chapter or two at a time. Maybe before bed or during reading time in a classroom.
Also those books are very much literature.
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#38It's a shame - in 2008/9/10 it was really something to see, but as a few other commenters have said, it's (and a lot of the maker movement for that matter) have declined a bit. I personally think this is due to the infantilization in part of a lot of media outlets, where the emphasis has been placed on getting the ideas into the most hands possible instead of folks who'd actually benefit. Focusing the faires around 3…
I was really sad to hear about NIMBY being pushed out of Oakland too, because it's another example of how areas get absorbed and change (and a little bit more of SF maker culture affected).
The trend of interesting innovation / culture / community starting as a movement and turning into a zoo (in the sense of people not part of it wanting to pay to have a look) is kind of how everything happens.
Settlements of humans that are now cities, gentrification within cities, hacker spaces and makerspaces ending up full of business people and less technical people...
I'm not saying this is a problem, although I know it's often sad when you're a part of the community, but that the cycle of interesting bits of culture kind of being absorbed and in some ways killed but in other ways captured into the world happen all the time.
It's really interesting to watch. I'm currently living in Amsterdam which is trying to reduce tourism (local politicians do things like remove the famous Amsterdam sign). I don't think it'll work. Too many people benefit from the money and the world wants a piece of it.
I think for some Brexit is a futile attempt at trying to hold on to British Club even though Britain will inevitably evolve and change with migration, technology, tourism, knowledge etc.
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
The culture has changed a lot. Geek originally described loners with unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword for capitalist cattle. It's the Big Bang Theory crowd that turned consumerism and brand loyalty into a point of pride: I wonder what Nietzsche would say about that.
> loners with unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword for capitalist cattle. Reminds of open-source contributors doing it for the passion. People never made open-source software to make money back in the day...
Just curious: these... people, who made open-source not for money but for something else, what was typically their means for livelihood? They were software engineers in their day jobs?
Man, some discipline these guys had, to juggle it all so well.
Re: Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are young adult fiction, which is like saying that cars weren't built for driving. I'm not sure what you intend they were written as then, as they surely aren't literature.
Surely they are literature in the broadest sense of the word.
I suspect the intended distinction is between literary fiction and genre fiction, which is a quirky socioeconomic split that seems to be particular to the realm of novels and their authors. Basically, authors of literary fiction are regarded as masters in pursuit of True Art rather than baser desires like popularity or commercial success.