Cory Doctorow on Making
Bob Kryczko
Relevant to some discussions at last night's Open Lab at SBPL.
Cory Doctorow on Making
Prolific author Cory Doctorow envisioned a makerspace revolution in his 2009 novel, Makers. American Libraries Editor and Publisher Laurie D. Borman caught up with him during his cross-country tour to promote his new book, Pirate Cinema.
American Libraries: In Makers, one of your characters says, “Every industry that required a factory yesterday only needs a garage today. It’s a real return to fundamentals.” Do you think this is what library makerspaces are—a return to fundamentals?
Doctorow: One of the things that I hope makerspaces can do in libraries is show people how the information works at the bare metal and to understand what is going on underneath all those abstraction layers with the technology that they use, and to take ownership of the devices and technology around them.
One of your characters says makers are like 5-year-old kids. Is that the way libraries should encourage making—unleashing the 5-year-old in you?Absolutely. That’s the gateway drug to it. Being able to go in and take a tool and make it suited to your own hand is a thing that we’ve been doing since we started creating axes.
How do you want to influence the development of makerspaces? Makerspaces do a very good job of being welcoming to people who are of a technical bent. But they have yet to figure out a way of sorting out how to appeal to nontraditional audiences. I think that [librarians should be] actively pursuing ways to help people who are from nontraditional audiences in your hackerspaces, find the thing that they need to do and show them how to do it.
What would you say are essential elements of a library makerspace? Throwing smart, enthusiastic kids—who have received a little bit of mentorship—at a mountain of e-waste is the best way to get going, I think. Particularly if you can partner up with places that need computers. If you can get started turning e-waste into functional computers, your problem isn’t going to be making computers run; it is going to be getting rid of them fast enough.
What are some likely businesses or organizations that could serve as fruitful partners in a library makerspace endeavor? Apart from the obvious, open-source hardware manufacturers would be one. Another good source would be whoever is in charge of your local e-waste recycling. Make magazine, of course, is another. Local vocational programs, local shops, and local unions, particularly trade unions. Also, parents who are freaked out that their kids go to schools where the chemistry [class] just allows them to make crystals from supersaturated solutions and actually want them to be curious about the world—they would make natural volunteers.