Whether you came by to check out the Open Hardware Exhibition, made your name light up by building paper circuits, or visited us in our co-working space, your attendance and generous contributions made the makerspace a little more special this year.
Our nineteen workshops ran as planned, with eleven remarkable Speakers/Makers arriving fresh from all across the global south to tell us about their latest discoveries and creative ways to use AI and Technology to help their communities, and tens arriving from around europe. Workshops were full with people rounded up at the makerspace table to learn about what was being shared.
Makers from Brazil, Singapore, Iraq, and India, to name a few, met with their counterparts in Europe. We are always fascinated by how Global Makers simply speak the same language. It is this mix of technical knowledge combined with the belief that the state of the art can change the world just if we change our technological approach and perspective. For example, we could learn to repair our devices and produce less digital waste or even create biodegradable plastic in our home kitchens. Maybe Connect IO in an easy-to-use, node-based PLC programming, where logic and math expressions and operations are represented in the form of blocks connected logically to produce a visual algorithm of automation? Okay, that's a tad more complicated!
We are happy to have spread our wings not only at the makerspace but at the comfort of rp´s Home Base and the banks of the Spree. Whether it was discussing Law Tech, the future of Decentralized Production or Civic Tech, it was precisely at the Meetups that re:publica's intimate networking spirit manifested.
If you feel you have missed out, we recommend you watch these amazing talks from our community members Andrés Arauz, with the panel "Barroque Innovation: Cryptocurrency Policy in Latin America" and Gilberto Vieira's "Hacking Data for a Better Life"!
The makerspace at re:publica this year was possible to a great partnership between Distributed Design Platform and Global Innovation Gathering. The Distributed Design Platform acts as an exchange and networking hub for the emerging field of distributed design. The initiative aims at developing and promoting the connection between designers, maker and emerging digital and local marketsGlobal Innovation Gathering (GIG) is a vibrant, diverse community of innovation hubs, makerspaces, hackerspaces, and other grassroot innovation community spaces and initiatives, as well as individual innovators, makers, technologists, and changemakers. GIG is pursuing a new vision for global cooperation based on equality, openness and sharing. We aim to enable more diversity in the production of technology and global innovation processes, and support open and sustainable solutions.
This year the Makerspace was being presented by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung / BIBB):
How is vocational education and training in Germany currently positioning itself, what answers is vocational education and training finding to megatrends such as digitalisation and the challenges of socio-ecological change? With experiments and interactive stations at large tables, the participants got to talk.
Acting independently, getting things done, overcoming difficulties and seizing opportunities with heart, hand and mind....any way the wind blows. And that is precisely why Vocational Education 2022 was in the right place here at the Makerspace.
See you next year!