Hackerspaces, innovation, and growth

A friend of mine just tipped me off to a blog post on over at adafruit industries that fits nicely in line with the education and innovation posts I’ve made this week. The post cites a talk given in Tokyo on Hackerspaces and Technology.

My favorite part:

As a designer, I can see that real product design is becoming more of a multi-domain task that requires a lot of different skills. There is also the whole tech industry complaining about the lack of innovation which is simply not true. If you look at the technology underground of today which includes open source hardware, open source software, and hackerspaces, there’s a convergence of technology with art, music, cooking, fashion, and many other domains. Combining diverse fields like this is leading to many interesting projects and I believe they’re providing the seeds for many innovative ideas and new spins on old products. Hackerspaces are central to this since they provide a project space, tools, a pool of knowledge, and a constant flow of ideas.

One of the most important things about hackerspaces, and an area that differentiates it from other areas in the tech industry, is that most of the ideas and projects aren’t designed for any type of financial return. And unlike academic research labs, hackerspaces are usually very hands-on and focused on practical implementation. In Tokyo Hackerspace, we have a lot of projects or project ideas that revolve around environmental or humanitarian applications of technology as well as art. These types of projects would rarely see the light of day in corporate scenarios (without government subisidies) but are often the types of projects that, when further refined, may turn into something that is financially viable or lay the groundwork for something much bigger.

As you may have inferred from yesterday’s post, I’m a member of CrashSpace here in LA, and based on my experiences there so far, this is pretty much on the money. We thrive on interdisciplinary skill sets, and by working on projects that distinctly aren’t financially motivated, we learn and discover new things that will help us in those projects that are.

So, if you’re in LA and interested in learning something new, come by CrashSpace this Saturday afternoon, where I’ll be teaching an informal workshop on PCB design using EAGLE.