Maker Spaces Popping Up Around Tarrant County
August 11,2014
Reposted from the Star-Telegram
Photo by Star-Telegram Max Faulkner
BY SANDRA BAKER
sabaker@star-telegram.com
When Heather Mason read an item in a Benbrook newsletter about the new maker space at the public library, she raced over to see what it was all about.
Mason, active in the PTA, had been wanting to create a Benbrook Bulldogs school logo to put on a wooden pen holder for the teachers lounge at the Benbrook Middle School. The newsletter item mentioned that the maker space has a laser cutter.
“That’s exactly what I need,” she said. In the end, it cost 90 cents to have the machine cut two round bulldogs emblems.
“That is impressive,” Mason said after taking the small wood piece from the cutter.
The Benbrook Library is among a growing number of places in Tarrant County putting in maker spaces. Maker spaces are growing in awareness and popularity not only here, but also across the nation and around the world.
Maker spaces are described as places where people gather to create and collaborate. The movement is being spurred by new technologies and a nation of tinkerers who take things apart and put them back together — only better. Now business and government are looking on the movement a way to foster innovation and entrepreneurship.
Maker spaces make available such things as laser cutters, 3D printers and other electronics and materials.
In June, President Barack Obama hosted the first White House Maker Faire, where 30 “makers” gathered at the White House for a day to share their interests and why “making” is important to them.
“The rise of the maker movement represents a huge opportunity for the United States,” the White House said. “America has always been a nation of tinkerers, inventors, and entrepreneurs.”
Fort Worth-based RadioShack, which has a history of serving electronics tinkerers, has hooked into the growing maker movement, and its CEO, Joseph Magnacca, attended the White House Maker Faire.
In May 2013, the company expanded its partnership with Maker Media, the movement’s support group, to collaborate on a do-it-yourself line of products carried at RadioShack and Maker Shed, including kits, robotics and tools. In June, RadioShack and PCH International launched RadioShack Labs, a collaboration to support inventors and startups and help get their products into RadioShack stores.
Most of the local maker spaces are in libraries. Benbrook opened its maker space in January after receiving a $30,000 grant from the Ladd & Katherine Hancher Library Foundation to buy equipment, including a 3D printer and a laser cutter/engraver. The maker space features items selected for all ages and includes kits, software, equipment and accessories. These items are intended for in-house use and for self-guided exploration, practice and production.
There are various circuit board kits and Lego Mindstorm robotics kits for young children to design and put together.
There’s something for every age group, library director Steve Clegg said He sought the maker space to foster a community of makers. Some materials are available for use for a small fee. Items made on the 3D printer will cost 10 cents a gram.
“We want people to interact with it,” Clegg said. “Quite frankly, I’ll be learning from them.”
In September, the North Richland Hills library will embark on a 4,800-square-foot maker space after receiving a $74,000 grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, with plans for a spring opening. And the University of Texas at Arlington will have one in the fall of 2015, called CXI Space, a 24-hour lab on the first floor of the campus library. It will feature 3D printers, 3D scanners and laser cutters, software, hardware and robotics in a hands-on environment.
Downtown Fort Worth Inc., a nonprofit advocacy organization, included creation of a maker space downtown as a goal in its 10-year strategic action plan released this year. Many cities the size of Fort Worth have maker spaces to help make them more innovative and competitive, Downtown Fort Worth Prtesident Andy Taft said.
“It didn’t take long for all of us in the office to understand the potential that they represent,” Taft said. “We would love for that to happen in downtown. Good things happen when smart people talk to each other.”
A maker space summit called Fab Now is in the works for this year or early 2015, Taft said.
The Tarrant County Maker Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has been evolving for nearly two years, would also like to see a maker space downtown, but for now, the organization is set up to develop partnerships and serve as a resource. It’s hoping to put its efforts behind science, technology, engineering and math education programs as well as science, technology, engineering arts and math, or STEAM, education programs, among others.