Nate Angell

Wandering IQ. Raised by wolves. Friend to cheese. Working to bend the arc of justice.

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XOXO + MakerBot > MakerCart

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In the spirit of XOXO, MakerBot decided to give away the 3D printer showcasing at the festival to whoever tweeted the best idea for its use.

What would be more Portland than a mobile MakerBot? Thus MakerCart was born.

Best case: MakerCart will start out with a MakerBot, launch a Kickstarter to cart it and provide the other necessary infrastructure to take making to the people.

Worst case: MakerCart will start out without a MakerBot, launch a Kickstarter to get one, cart it and provide the other necessary infrastructure to take making to the people.

Either way, the next step would be for MakerCart to replicate itself around the world, bringing the making to the people.

I hope people will forgive the cheesy animation, made in haste in the wee hours. Not every made thing is a work of art.

XOXO: Not an Echo Chamber

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Plexus Engine report on XOXO
Plexus Engine report on XOXO

The XOXO festival opened last night in Portland with a party at Holocene, but in reality the crowd started to gather first on twitter, where following the #xoxofest tag showed attendees en route, finding each other on planes and trains, and generally setting a mood of giddy anticipation for the event. Even the sun showed up, tricking first-time visitors into thinking they had landed in nirvana (reality check next February).

A gathering for “disruptive creativity”, XOXO was in part conceived as an antidote for other events for creatives and technologists that have lost their intimacy and original flavor. XOXO sold out of tickets via Kickstarter in 50 hours and raised $175K—$50K more than their goal.

It’s looking like XOXO will be more than just a club for cool kids from the same clique, by bringing together a bunch of really interesting people that are not already connected. How do I know? Marshall Kirkpatrick showed me a report on people discussing XOXO from the remarkable Plexus Engine that he is developing with Tyler Gillies, Mikalina Kirkpatrick, and a growing team. While XOXO attendees are mostly deeply connected people (Tim O’Reilly tops the list of attendees with 1.5M+ twitter followers), Plexus Engine shows that even with the twitterati, XOXOfesters are mostly not (yet) fully connected to each other. I expect compelling things from so many vibrant people coming together who haven’t all already met.

For me, the highlight of the kickoff party was reconnecting with friends like Crystal Beasley, Kent Bye, Amber Case, Bill DeRouchey, Erin Jo Richey, and Ben Werdmuller, and making some new acquaintances like Brennan Novack and Phil Thompson. Most special by far was rediscovering Ezra Spier, a guy I knew last as a middle school student, who worked with me at OMSI on web development and interactives and has now gone on to an inspiring career using technology to change the game of international coffee production and distribution for the better with Sustainable Harvest. I’m proud Ezra so clearly managed to overcome any bad influence I might have had on him to evolve into such an engaged talent. Go Ezra!