Maker Faire Kyoto 2020 Online and COVID-19 Makers Forum JP
Virtually Maker Faire 2020
May 22nd-23rd
Maker Faire Kyoto 2020 Online, held on May 2, 2020, was probably the first Maker Faire in the world to be held online. I consider that the best part of Maker Faire is that many Makers and visitors come together at the same venue to see what they've made, talk to each other, and spread the joy of making, and meet people they've never met before. The Maker Faire proved that this is also possible online, with 957 works from 394 Makers between 11 am and 4 pm and several thousands of related tweets from those. The Makers responded creatively to the situation that it had gone from onsite to online. For example, someone introduced the process of getting there in addition to the final products. Others attempted to broadcast from the field where the work was motivated initially. Also, some people exhibited works that are difficult to show in physical space in VR space. From these activities, I believe that online is not a poor version of onsite, but a hybrid of onsite and online is the future of Maker Faire. It has declared that Maker Faire Tokyo 2020, which will be held this October, will be a hybrid. As an organizer, I participated in the Maker Faire's session "What makers can contribute to the world since the COVID-19", and also started a forum called "COVID-19 Makers Forum JP" on Slack. With various media reporting on the tense situation in the medical field, schools being closed, and many people refraining from going out, many of we Makers were agonizing over whether they could do anything under the situation. Therefore, I wanted to show that there are other many fields where we Makers can contribute to the outside of the field that requires specialized knowledge such as medical. Because, under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, all people, including the Makers, are a part of it, and Makers are good at lateral thinking with matured technology. In this session, I will give a brief overview of Maker Faire Kyoto 2020 Online and share what I have learned from being involved with the session and the management of the forum.
