[Edu-sig] Beyond CP4E

[Dethe Elza]

CP4E, Computer Programming for Everyone is a powerful idea, that 
programming can be accessible and useful for anyone motivated enough to 
want to learn it.

F4E, Fabbing for Everyone is a similar idea, but for the physical 
world.  A fab lab capable of building practically any physical object, 
including things like circuit boards, can be approximated for about 
US$25,000 and they're being installed in Ghana, rural India, inner-city 
Boston, etc.  Eight-year-olds can learn to use these tools to design 
3-D objects, build them, program the microcontroller, etc.  Even more, 
people are communicating their designs, teaching each other how to use 
the tools, posting CAD and wiring diagrams on their blogs, sharing 
ideas, and writing open-source software to make the whole process more 
integrated and accessible.

There's a discussion from ETech on ITConversations here:
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail460.html

The MIT Center for Bits and Atoms FabLab webpage is here:
http://cba.mit.edu/projects/fablab/

Make Magazine covers the fab lab in issue #1 and their blog keeps up 
with similar do-it-yourself projects:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/

The Hack-a-day blog covers similar ground:
http://www.hackaday.com/

My question to the list is, if you could build anything you wanted, 
what would you build?  And further: how would you have answered 10 
years ago?  How would you have answered when you were 8 years old?

--Dethe

"Ambiguity, calculated or generative, as a means of discontinuous 
organization, at first seems familiar to us"
-- Pain Not Bread, An introduction to Du Fu
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