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Over the years, we have had the dubious honor of bidding farewell to many companies that held a special place in the hearts of hackers and policy makers. We've seen the demise of Radio Shack, TechShop and PrintrBot, and we even shed a tear or two when Toys "R" Us closed. But as painful as seeing these companies disappear, nothing is comparable. to that. We learned today that Maker Media had ceased operations.
Between the first issue of Make magazine in 2005 and the first Maker Make a year later, Maker Media has cleverly cultivated the public face of the "manufacturers movement" for more than ten years. They did not create the culture of the manufacturers, but there is no doubt that they have brought to light this part of the larger technological world. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that filming Maker Media could have serious consequences that we will not fully understand for years.
While this news will surely be a blow to many community members, Maker Media's founder and CEO, Dale Dougherty, said they were still trying to bring the elements together. "I launched the magazine and I intend to keep it because it means something to many people and to me. " At this point, Dale tells us that Maker Media is officially in a state of insolvency. This distinction is important and means that the company still has a chance to recover the ship before being forced to declare bankruptcy.
In simple terms, the fate of Make magazine and Make Maker is currently uncertain. The intention is to restructure the organization and recruit enough people to keep the brand alive, but it may be necessary to rethink their business model. Although they are not looking at crowdsource for the resurrection of MakeDale said he felt the community's response to financial help could be the answer: "My question is: can we possibly rely on the community to support what we do? so that we have not asked in the past? Ideas under discussion include the type of annual membership and pledge campaigns used by public broadcasting.
It is impossible to overestimate the positive influence that Make public perception of DIY by the public. He put on a world pedestal the kind of projects that would otherwise never have been seen outside the workshops or basement garages in which they were built. Through their events and outreach programs, Make showed a whole generation of young people that building something just for the joy of building it was something to be proud of. Make proved that nerds could be cool in a way that had never been done before and, worryingly, could never happen again. Let's take a look at this legacy.
Explosive growth
When the first issue of Make in kiosks almost 15 years ago, Maker Media did not exist yet. At that time, the magazine was run by a division of O'Reilly Media founded by Dale. In the first year, Make have become so popular that they have decided to materialize the magazine's "see and tell" concept with the very first Making Maker that's held at San Mateo Fairgrounds in California.
From there, the Make The brand seemed unstoppable. It spawned a whole series of books that explored specific facets of the manufacturing community. After a few years, there was even a derivative magazine, more artistic, called Crafts. Many will remember that there was even a short duration Brand: Television program broadcast on PBS in 2009.
Make Maker has also experienced incredible growth. Approximately 22,000 people attended the first edition of Maker Faire in 2006, but in 2011, the number of attendees at major events held in New York and California had climbed to 175,000. The following year, "Mini Maker Faires "began to appear throughout the United States to meet the needs of those who could not go to coastal events. All in all, Maker Faire events quickly welcomed more than half a million visitors a year.
It seemed like the world could not get enough Make content. Some argue that the surge in do-it-yourself culture before 2010 was due to a plummeting economy: high unemployment and low disposable incomes drove people to build something for themselves or repair what they already owned rather than buying new property. Whatever the reason, Make was clearly in the vanguard of something huge.
Create a brand for creators
In 2013, the decision was made to run the Make empire in his own business, Media Maker, with Dale at the helm. The new company would not only oversee the magazine, books and live events, but would also develop new products and services as part of what was already known as the "Creators' Movement". O'Reilly Media founder Tim O'Reilly said it was time to Make to move beyond his enthusiastic roots and become the cornerstone of a whole new market: "A movement that started with pbadionate people has become an entrepreneurial revolution. As an independent company, Maker Media will be able to accelerate its growth and develop new services for the manufacturing community. "
The new CEO of Maker Media also felt that it was time to recognize that the movement had grown beyond its humble beginnings. "While MAKE started with geek lovers, the audience now includes families looking for fun and educational projects to do together," said Dale in a post on the Make website. "This also includes manufacturers who develop new products and services for other manufacturers and other audiences. It includes engineers and industrial designers. "
Investors seemed to agree that Maker Media had secured $ 10 million in two rounds of financing between 2013 and 2015. The same year, with events as far apart as Cairo and Hong Kong, attendance at Maker Faire has exceeded 1.2 million. From all points of view, Maker Media seemed well placed to be the de facto leader of the DIY movement that had become a global phenomenon.
High tide
With so much dynamism and only four years after the last influx of investor funds, how is it possible that Maker Media is on the brink of bankruptcy? Looking back, we can see that 2015 was a record year for Maker Media: while the cumulative make-up events exceeded 1.5 million visitors in 2017, the number of visitors to New York's flagship events and California . The company was forced to fire some of its staff earlier in the year and last month we reported the possibility that the flagship project, Maker Faires, is about to end.
It is difficult to determine what is wrong, but it could also be that the "Craftsmen's Movement" is content to remain an underground niche. The glitz and glamor offered by Maker Media was just not what they were looking for. In his announcement on Maker Media, Tim O 's Reilly made a comment that today seems simply prophetic: "The problem is that, as we have often said about the fact. IA, as soon as something slips into the world of consumption, is no longer considered a "doer".
In Fear and hatred in Las VegasHunter S. Thompson questions the failure of the counterculture of the 1960s, despite the incredible momentum he seemed to have at the time, stating: "with the good look, one can almost see the high water mark – this place where the wave finally broke out and backed off. This moment could be considered the breaking point of the wave for the Creators Movement, but we still have a chance to decide how far back it will come.
[Main image source: Make magazine collection listing on Gumbtree]Source link
