There is most certainly a hardware fabrication divide. When we speak of a digital divide we usually mean lack of access to computers to make more software. (ex. HTML, jpg, CSS, mp3, mov, avi, etc.) What about access to hardware, software, and materials to make more hardware devices? This is a question Neil Gershenfeld, the director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms Fab Lab, asked at the O’Reilly E-Tech (Emerging Technology) Conference. Go download and listen to his amazing speech from IT Conversations describing how they took labs consisting of gear to fabricate “Just about anything†to teens in urban Boston, Costa Rica, Ghana, and Pakistan. What does this have to do with Audio Activism? Imagine the ability not only to make your own media but the resources to MAKE WHAT EVER ELECTRONIC DEVICE YOU WANT? (well just about any) I’d make an audio recording device that would upload the audio file to the web immediately or somehow share it locally…fast. Gershenfeld has a book out called FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop–From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication that I plan to get soon.
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