Dorothy Jones-Davis, The 3D Printed Elephant in the Room: an Open Letter to the Maker Community #NationOfMakers #WeekofMaking @NationOfMakers
Dorothy Jones-Davis wrote this letter 6/19/2020 that was cosigned by Sherry Lassiter, Edun Sela, Molly Wenig Rubenstein, Emily McCann and Dale Dougherty.
As an African-American woman, and Executive Director of a national nonprofit that serves maker organizations, I am keenly aware of a fact that likely doesn’t surprise many – the mainstream maker movement and our Nation of Makers doesn’t have a whole lot of people of color represented in it. Simply put, as I attend maker events, visit makerspaces and organizations, and read about the mainstream maker movement, what is strikingly absent are the voices of people that look like me and share my identity. While this is my observation; the available data supports this perspective.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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