MakerFaire 2011

One of the best events I’ve attended is MakerFaire, an annual exhibition organized by Make:Magazine in major cities across the world. Started in San Mateo, California, it assembles some of the most creative, passionate and crazy mad scientists, and allows them to show off their inventions.

The Essence of Play

Children were everywhere – flying in the air, sprawling on the ground, underground (I wouldn’t be surprised), climbing into suspended aluminum containers that made for make-belief space travel, crawling inside metal structures, and playing inside the top of a large mechanized caravan. This wasn’t a Disneyland that designed the perfect dreamworld. This was raw and dirty. Makerfaire presented you only the primitive blocks, showed you the possibilities, and then gave you the chance to let your imagination take over. Kids were in awe, kids were learning through play, kids were asking questions, kids were experimenting and failing. There was so much I didn’t know, I felt like I was a kid again.

The Art of Make-Belief

Enter Steam Punk. The League of STEAM (Supernatural and Troublesome Ectoplasmic Apparition Management) paraded some sophisticated equipment for detecting paranormal activity – all beautifully finished with neo-Victorian detail: leather, wood, cast iron, lead and black paint. They even demoed an ornate steam-powered gun that would fire a zombie-catching net onto the unsuspecting walking dead. Kids gawked in awe, as the Steam-master rattled off specifications on leather-clad detection devices that would have had a fighting chance of working, had zombies existed. Too convincing!

More Magical Moments

Amongst the robots (Arduino and Android were a strong force this year), radio controlled devices, arts, crafts, jewelry, science experiments and food, the most effective demo was, if audience reaction was a measure, the van de graaf generator manned by a grey haired scientist in a lab coat. He smiled unflinchingly as he charged his generator, at which point his hair would stand up like a dandelion. He’d then invite members of the passing public to shake hands, at which point the static discharge would make touch guys squeal, toddlers laugh, children smile, and friends roar.

Also note-worthy was Fossil Fool who used to be a bike-powered electric guitar played by a single man, but now it’s an entire band, with drums, guitars and their own stage on the lawn.

But perhaps the most spectacular was the ArcAttack twin Tesla Coil coupled to an electric guitar. The guitar player (decked out like the Stig from Top Gear) used discharge from the tesla coils to emulate musical notes. One word: awesome.

The Power of a Generous Passionate Community

What struck me the most was the ease in which enthusiastic inventors wanted to share their creations. Everybody was welcome to touch, play, participate and ask questions, and nobody was allowed to leave unsatisfied. We learned that a jetpack does exist: it is powered by 93% Hydrogen Peroxide, is propelled by steam at 180 bar and propels you 3 meters into the air for 30 seconds (good luck finding a tree). But most importantly, when using a real jetpack, you don’t really look that cool: you’re lifted by your armpits and have your legs dangling below you in sympathy. Sadly we weren’t allowed to try the jetpack, but the scientist behind it was so enthusiastic, we might as well have!

Nurturing the next generation of Makers

It dawned on me how we are gradually losing this spirit of tinkering in Singapore, eroded by our rapid pace of progress. We now have trouble even fixing the simplest of things (guilty as charged). Well, solutions! Every parent can encourage their kids to make their own toys instead of buying one ready-made off the shelf. You’ll be surprised at how many nifty things one can make out of trash! For the bolder parents, I recommend fifty dangerous things you should let your children do (I heard there’s a sell-out Summercamp in the US on the same topic of guiding children to play with dangerous objects in a safe manner). For the educators reading this, one simple idea: dedicate a small corner in your school, make an announcement to accept old electric appliances and computers, throw in some tools for good measure. Let children play, take things apart, put things together, fail, get hurt, learn, and try again.

When touch screens becomes passe

Am a big fan of futuristic user interfaces. Here’s one of the most exciting ones from Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler. It’s a big claim that such remarkable technology can be commoditized in 5 years, I wonder how motion can be detected after removing the glove?

There are epic possibilities marrying spatial navigation to the cloud (see Ringo), but the web application layer is not yet prepared for such a transition. It leads me to think of a new call for a whole industry of 3D designers simply re-engineering and visualizing data. A field I that I think has yet to break the dawn of it’s time.

Imagine if classrooms were fitted with such technology, harnessing the power of visual explanation, simulation and collaboration for teachers and students to explore together. What do you think are some killer apps?

I have a feeling that the world in 10 years will be unlike anything we can imagine.

How Twitter Changed My Life

This is the twitter presentation I gave to the folks at NUSEA. 

My intent was not so much to convince, but to share how creativity and imagination has injected so much life and variety into a technology I once thought frivolous. It took me nearly two months to figure the real value in twitter and how to use it effectively, and my aim was to bridge that gap for others, under an hour. As we all know, converts are the greatest evangelists.

Twitter will be destructive. I have witnessed it’s influence in citizen reporting, collective behaviour, and in shifting the power back to the consumer as corporations struggle to keep up. They are afraid of this new viral monster, and until they learn how to manage it they have no choice, but to finally hear consumers out (yay!). It’s long due, and it brings literal meaning to the customer is king.  

And as far as I turn to Google for everything I need to know, I soon discovered the limitation in my results – they are all set in the past. Looking back at the recent crises, it appears that broadcast media typically break the news 15-30 minutes after it is first seen among the twitter chatter.  Who considers what’s newsworthy anyway?  We find value in news that affect us and the people we care about, and that comes through the tweets from our circle. It won’t be long before journalists begin monitoring what’s trending on twitter to report, and I sooner or later, I’m guessing Google will want a piece of the action too. Hello Twoogle!

(Edit) And now we have Google Buzz! Am really surprised at the traction this deck received, and it gave me a chance to present at one of the world mobile congress events in Barcelona! Don’t we all love the power of social media :)