Shared Air

Richmond’s JB Fisher Mind Games team practicing. Give them a problem… Their solution? Sky tram!

Why do San Mateo and Austin have Maker Faires but the birthplace of Temple’s Toggle, home of Frank Sprague and Giles Jackson, the location of Tredegar Ironworks and the Manchester Old and Historic District does not?

What’s a Maker Faire? Wiki sez:

Maker Faire is an event created by Make Magazine to “celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset.”

Cool. For me, one of the many convergences of Richmond’s search for a compelling collective identity that serves many interests and forwards many goals is right under our noses. The guys mentioned above, Jackson, Sprague and Temple were innovators and inventors. They did real, meaningful stuff that impacted not just Richmond but the nation. That thing? They dedicated themselves to resourceful problem solving (click the links). They overcame obstacles. They made things that mattered and proved that achievement needs curiosity and opportunity, not a pedigree or elaborate infrastuctures. In fact, like the Maker movement, they almost prove that waiting for “permission” to enhance, improve or even challenge the expected way of doing things is the road to mediocrity and irrelevance.

Some facts:

San Mateo metro, pop: 701,895.

Austin metro pop: 1,652,602

Richmond metro, pop: 1,212,977

Look at this as a call for volunteers. I’ll raise my hand first. Who would like to help make the USA’s 3rd Maker Faire location…. here?