A place to learn, share and create
Print
WHITEWATER — Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited with saying, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” But Emerson was misquoted. His original statement was this: “If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.”
One can only imagine what Emerson would think of people beating a path to the Apple Store for a high-tech wristwatch. With technology racing ahead, it's easy to see that many skill sets are being left behind. This is the void Whitewater Makerspace is trying to fill — bringing people together who not only want to learn, but also teach, and collaborate on ideas new and old.
Makerspaces (also called hackerspaces) are just that, a place where people can come make something from someone who teaches them how.
“My ideal vision is on any particular day one-third (of participants) are teaching, the other two-thirds learning and then the next time, you reverse that,” said David Buggs, Whitewater Makerspace president.
The center in Whitewater has heavy-duty equipment such as you would find in a good machine shop: laser etcher, drill press, bandsaw, lathe and more. Members pay dues, and after receiving training on the equipment, can bring their ideas to life.
Read the complete story HERE.