Community Outreach

Knox Makers wants everyone to have a place where they can use new technology and the familiar tools we've always loved to experience the joy of actually making something real.

As new hardware and software tools for crafting, coding, digital design, and fabrication are emerging, we are working together to place those tools into the hands of our community. We are building the infrastructure necessary for more people in Knoxville to connect to a future in which they can personally change, modify, or create things that were nearly impossible to do on their own just a few years ago.

Knox Makers brings the excitement and energy of the hands-on global maker culture and makerspace communities to the Knoxville area, to provide a lifelong learning environment alongside a locally run workspace soaring with possibilities.

This page is dedicated to information and resources about our community outreach projects and partnerships.

If you have information you think should be on here, please reach out to board@knoxmakers.org.

Conventions, competitions, outreach programs, events and festivals

Here you will find information about conventions, competitions, and festivals where we have participated in some way. For many of these entries, we have had presentation booths or another active, informative, and often interactive presentation. For some of these entries, we were present as volunteers or merely attended as a group.

MakerFaires

Kingsport Mini-Maker Faire

2014 Kingsport Mini-Maker Faire

July 13, 2014, Kingsport, TN. Knox Makers arrived at the auditorium on Sunday with Pablo and three 3D printers, the first thing we saw was someone else's large polargraph (drawing on a whiteboard) and about half a dozen Makerbot 3D printers. We felt our thunder had been stolen, but we set up anyway.

We're glad we did. Our booth was in a high foot traffic area and remained busy all day. We met a couple of kindred spirits that we expect to see at a Tuesday workshop soon. We also got to talk to a lot of folks who had heard of 3D printing, but weren't really sure what it was and/or had never seen it in person.

We enjoyed explaining to folks that the other 3D printers on display were "store bought," while ours were lovingly handcrafted by local nerds. This attracted a lot of interest, as did Pablo's drawings that accumulated and got taped up as the day progressed. Many folks asked what business we were in, and seemed pleasantly surprised to discover that we were representing a non-profit hobby group and not trying to hawk anything. Issac gave out many KM-branded keychain trinkets, and Doug learned about the heartache of 3D printing with nylon live and in public.

Partway through the day, Bumblebee's extruder tension arm broke. Happily, Issac's (unnamed) printer was able to manufacture a replacement part on the spot, which Sam promptly installed. The tale of the one machine "repairing" the other captivated a number of folks, and the jaunty red tension arm stood out and served as a conversation piece for the rest of the day.

Toward the end, a couple of kids (about 8 and 14) from the FIRST robotics table next door came over with a laptop, having excitedly just designed a little 3D man (their ode to Minecraft's Steve) that they hoped we'd print for them. I wasn't "taking requests," but their earnest young faces were irresistible. I managed to slice it with support and get it printed just in time, and their reaction was totally worth it. It was a nice way to end the day.

Partners, collaborators, and project facilitators

We have kept our doors and minds open to partnerships that help to enhance local and global communities both digitally and in the real, physical world. Included in this section is a list of entities where we have formed partnerships with organizations or people from organizations. Also included are special projects we have engaged in using a collaborative approach. Details are included for each organization related to official partnerships, casual partnered efforts, and/or special projects we have participated in. Not all organizations in this section are official partners.

Additionally, we have worked hard to try to include everyone we have worked with in this list. This is not only for our benefit, we really like to give thanks where thanks is due. If you or someone you know has helped Knox Makers along, pass along a message to board@knoxmakers.org with a request to add their organization to this list.

Many organizations and events listed here are nonprofit organizations, and this is not a list of sponsors or paid advertising.

Knox Makers hack the media

OK, so Knox Makers has never illegally cracked a media outlet. And while we may offer a few members from time to time as two-bit journalism hacks, it would be a stretch to say we have somehow repurposed journalism. However, we have appeared in media from time to time and that is exactly what this section is about. Here you will find links to external media coverage of Knox Makers' collectively innovative and delightfully demented glory.

Other basic information and resources

This section is aimed at arming an interested newcomer, journalist, sponsor, partner, ally, or Vaudevillian foe with information related to Makerspaces, Hackerspaces, and topics directly related to our mission.

However, there really is no resource we can provide to prepare you for the sometimes erratic but friendly nature of our members and guests. Most are dues-paying members and our small, overworked Board is comprised of volunteers. Further, while we encourage the adoption of our progressive, respectful, and egalitarian Hackerspace ethos, some of our members may not desire to think twice about how they sound to you or if your sensibilities are offended by blunt truth, nerdy jokes, or oddball demeanors. Some of us can be anything from snarky to aloof, most of us are odd, and our President has described his position as mostly related to the herding of cats. If a casual but often chaotic environment that allows room to color outside the lines a little appeals to you, then all of that is part of our charm.

The main things you should know are: we are a registered nonprofit in the State of Tennessee and a registered 501(c)3 for educational purposes; we are registered as both a Makerspace and a Hackerspace; we have traditional IS&T hackers in our midst, but not all of our members and guests are hackers in that sense; however, we do not condone malicious security cracking or the illegal penetration of security and technology systems without permission; we also have artists, repurposers, experimenters, mad engineers, artists, artisans, crafters, makers and tinkerers in our midst that identify as a different, recently-colloquial and more liberal definition of the word "hacker;" and we are mostly harmless so don't panic.

Social Media

• Google+
• Facebook
• More listed at our Social Media wiki page

The best resource

The best resource we can offer for more information about who we are, what we are about, what we do, what we are capable of, why you should love and support us, and anything else you need to know is our practice of offering free public workshops. Come by and see us in person, get a tour, talk to us, and get a firsthand experience. That is actually a large part of what this is all about, learning by doing and making. Check out our calendar for more info.