From the Editor
Mike Hofman

A Tinkerers' Ball

 

Inventors and hobbyists and entrepreneurs from all over will gather at Maker Faire at the San Mateo Fairgrounds this weekend. The event, sponsored by Make Magazine, is sort of a massive show-and-tell program for the do-it-yourself set.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran this preview of the event. Most of the inventions mentioned in the article do not appear to be commercial in nature, at least not yet. But lots of businesses get their start at Maker Faire. Among them: TechShop, the Bay Area workshop space that provides members with access to lathes, CAD equipment, and other machinery that helps them build stuff or make prototypes of new products.

After the company's booth was mobbed at the 2006 and 2007 Bay Area Maker Faire, I wrote about them for Inc.'s annual Start-up Issue (here's the link to the article). Since that piece ran, the company has moved forward on plans to expand to nine new cities including Seattle, San Diego, Austin, and Orlando.

Mike Hofman was previously editor of Inc.com and a deputy editor at Inc. magazine, which he joined in 1996. The site was nominated for a National Magazine Award for Digital Media in 2010, and was named the best business website by Folio Magazine. In 2006, Hofman was part of a team of writers nominated for a Webby Award for best business blog. He lives in New York City. @mikehofman