Maker Faire Bay Area (@makerfaire) is coming up quickly, May 17 and 18, and we’re excited to be participating.
Here’s the backstory on why. Ultan (@ultan) and Justin (@kestelyn) spoke at Maker Faire 2012 (video), and the Java (@java) team is a major sponsor of the Maker Faire.
Unfortunately for him, Ultan won’t be around to attend, so when the Java team came looking for ideas for this year’s Faire, he asked if we’d help. Noel (@noelportugal), a longtime maker as well as a past Maker Faire attendee, jumped at the chance to represent Java and Applications User Experience at this year’s installment.
But wait, there’s more. This year, on May 13 and 14, there will be a conference the week before the Maker Faire, aptly named, MakerCon. This two-day conference focuses on the business of making and will be hosted at the Oracle Conference Center.
Our fearless leader, Jeremy Ashley (@jrwashley), himself an avid maker and tinkerer, will be delivering a keynote on May 13 to kick off the event.
So, for us at least, next week is Maker Week.
Noel has been feverishly assembling a DIY activity for the Java Embedded Playground at the Maker Faire involving some Internet of Things things and a bunch of Raspis. He teased these pictures to give a taste.
Not to spoil the fun entirely, but what he’s building is a set of triggers and results (a la IFTTT), all automated. Visitors will choose an input (e.g. a sensor), a condition (e.g. keyword, hashtag) and an output (e.g. robot arm, Sphero) and watch the magic of IoT happen.
I’m excited to try this myself, especially the Sphero, which looks like outrageous fun, h/t to Tony for that one.
If you’ll be attending the Bay Area Maker Faire next week, stop by, say hi and try out Noel’s activity. Bonus, we’ll be hanging w Hinkmond Wong (@hinkmond), he of tweeting turkey fame.
Update: Worth noting that longtime friend and honorary member of the ‘Lab, David Haimes (@dhaimes) will be joining us in the Maker Faire tent to help over the weekend. Come by and see us in all our IRL glory.
I’ve attended the Maker Faire for years now, it’s one of the best days out and my kids love it too. I cannot recommend it highly enough for kids of all ages.
I will be helping out Noel and the crew with DIY activity.
Love to be there, but on outreach in Israel! http://www.iloug.org.il/Event_Page.php?EventID=194 However, will be at MakerCon in Israel, so psyched to hear Jeremy Ashley and others speaking: http://makercon.com/ Great events all.
@Daivd: We’re thankful for your help. Haven’t seen the activity live yet, but it sounds cool.
@Ultan: We’ll miss you. Next year, maybe we can all do a thing.
Sweet… I’ll look for you dudes.
@Rich: Definitely, we need to catch up, and the activity Noel has cooked up is fun. Text me.