There is clearly a vacuum that MAKE is filling via DARPA funding – our schools are crap. Military and religion have no place in education for youth outside of history classes.
I fully support people who wish to take a public (or private) stance against these associations.
My conscious, after much introspection and conversations with amazing people, dictates that I remain involved as a connector, to hopefully create an introduction to the ideals of mutual aid, transparency, adaptability, and emergence to these less-political communities. I want to increase the number of people who care about things like this, and to me that means being involved in the process.
I request that we continue this dialog until it is not necessary – I never want any morally questionable thing to go unnoticed.
I’ve been mulling this for a while and while my first reaction was “oh hell no!” I have come to very much the same place. I’ve been meaning to weigh in but it’s hard to be eloquent arguing shades of gray. Respect.
Will this dialog be continued on stage on Sunday at Maker Faire in the panel you are on with Make people on education?
@Al I’m on a panel? I didn’t sign up for one this year.. Happy to continue discussing in person or wherever. Tungle.me/willowbl00 if you want a one-on-one, or to set up a group thing.
I thought you were on the Sunday panel at Maker Faire on education with Dale that was mentioned elsewhere.
See Mitch Altman’s China trip de-briefing:
http://blog.noisebridge.net/2012/05/04/hacker-trip-to-china-2
“And there are 7 hackerspaces in China, with talk of lots more.” Our
government agencies are nothing if not reactionary. DARPA/MAKE HackerSpaces in High Schools is doubtless a reaction to China’s University HackerSpace mandate. “China has more honors students than we have students” — “The Social Network” (Paraphrased) Maybe we’ll be learning Ethical Hacking and Open-Source Hardware from China next. One can only hope.
A panel at maker faire would be interesting. There is going to be a panel (i believe) at HOPE 9 in NYC. I wont be on the panel but will be in audience at both venues. I’ll be at space camp thurs before MF too.