My time at the Mozilla Drumbeat Festival is a three-part story about the supportive open-source community, the passion for free learning, and opportunities for change in the midst of extreme personal loss.

 
The steady beat of open source learning has called me to beautiful Barcelona this week for Mozilla’s 2010 Drumbeat Festival.

I'll be speaking about the methodology behind Switch Craft and the empowering possibilities of fashion-based projects as an entry point for igniting that tech spark! 

Mozilla’s Science Faire

On Wednesday, November 3, 8:30 - 11pm

Dr. Stephanie Lacour of the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge is working to make a “stretchable electronic skin.” Some may see this as a new form of wearable cellphone, but I see it as gateway to interchangeable mobile accessories. Imagine switching your service or generating content just by moving and/or exchanging a fashionable pair gloves.

Via: Ecouterre

One of the main topics of discussion here at SU is the concept of open source science and its affect on the future. You can now create and manipulate DNA in your garage or with your local community. This idea is generating excitement and fear. As the sciences become more accessible some people are reveling in the creativity of creating DNA art, while others are fearing a crazy viral outbreak or mutant rat take over. 

If you want to know more about what is happening in this area, The First Open Source Sciences Summit is shared online today. They are discussing how open source sciences push scientific exploration and innovation through open collaborative processes. The sciences included quantum computing, DIY biology, mathmatics, informatics, and much more. 

Watch the summit right NOW, here is the link!  http://fora.tv/live/open_science/open_science_summit_2010

After a full day of lectures and yoga I attended a talk by Scott Summit from http://www.summitid.com. I was wowed by the beautiful 3D printed prosthetics for amputees. The limbs are created by scanning a person's un-injured body part and then that data is used to print a highly personalized prosthetic limb. Talk about on-demand body parts! 

Published on Technorati, May 11, 2010

How many times have you used a pattern, a recipe, or done a craft and changed a couple of the ingredients or the materials to suit you needs? Well, it's no different with hardware.

This year I am honored to be presenting a workshop and talk at the Smart Fabrics conference in Miami, FL. Smart Fabrics is THE premier event for everyone interested in applications, marketing, design, development, curation, and manufacturing of smart or advanced textiles. Smart fabrics are textiles that are woven or embedded with advanced properties. Examples are sports bras that can detect your heart rate, solar energy gathering pants, and soft switches for controlling your MP3 player from your jacket. There are many more amazing sci-fi sounding applications being developed, who says we have to wait for the future? It seems to me the future is now. 

Smart Fabrics 2010

April 14 - 16 in Miami, Florida

Conrad Miami Hotel

Register Here

[Above: Syuzi and Alison meeting for the first time at Maker Faire in 2006]

After four years, Syuzi Pakhchyan and I were finally able to get together and host our own talk about girls in technology. The talk was called “Duh… Its Like Tech for Girls <3" and it was presented as a core converation at SXSW Interactive 2010. We were joined by many audience members, who were passionate about igniting that tech spark in girls, teens, and women.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science. Ada (seen above in a lovely lace gown) wrote the world’s first computer programs for the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine invented by, Charles Babbage - Way to go Ada!

I am celebrating this day by writing about one of my favorite women in technology, Jerrie Cobb (above posing next to the Mercury spaceship capsule) . Jerrie was the first woman picked to undergo the grueling astronautical space tests in 1960 to become an astronaut, but was never allowed to take flight into space simply because of her gender.

Wow, not only did Canada kick our butts on the ice, they are doing it in Fashion Technology too. Don’t believe me, take a look at these gorgeous lighted fabrics and this dress from Karma Chameleon.