Dale Dougherty and DD: I guess it’s my move now! So one of the big ^{Mark Frauenfelder look back surprises for me in MAKE’s first year is hearing} _{on MAKE’s first year.} from kids or from their parents. I got a note recently _{from a father who said he was saving back issues of}

MAKE to do projects with his son when he was old enough. I hope MAKE’s projects engage kids of all ages in science and technology.

Q: Now that MAKE is a year old, what have you learned?

MF: I agree. There’s a reason why we don’t label any of the projects as being for kids or for adults. If kids are interested in a complex project, they’ll rope in

Dale Dougherty: Someone once told me that you an adult to help them. I’m sure just as many adults
don’t create a magazine — you discover it. You will ask their kids to help them with the projects. My
discover an audience, if you’re lucky, and then you 8-year-old daughter is already teaching me how to
have to work hard to keep up with them. work the user interfaces on the technology around
our house.

Mark Frauenfelder: We hoped there would be an audience for MAKE. The surprising thing is how big DD: When you’re a kid and you see something cool, that audience is. The world has far more makers such as the soda-bottle rocket (which is a project than I would have dreamed. It makes me feel good in this issue, page 79), you don’t just want to watch about the human race. someone else launch it. You want to do it yourself.

You want to know how to build it yourself. That’s the
DD: I had an interviewer ask me, “Don’t you have to be maker spirit. It’s fun to meet makers and see what
pretty smart to do the projects in MAKE?” I answered, they do. It’s inspiring. I’m looking forward to our
“I think most people are pretty smart. It’s a matter of Maker Faire in April.
having the time to make things, and that’s true of
cooking, photography, electronics, and lots of areas.” MF: So am I. The best part of my job is meeting with
Often, there’s some technical knowledge you need to makers and hearing their stories. One of the things
acquire, but you learn as you go, and you can have we’ll be focusing on more in MAKE this year is
lots of fun. It’s like playing a game. the stories behind the projects we feature, and the
community of makers involved in them.
MF: The best games are ones that are easy to learn
but challenging to master, like chess. I think the DD: Finally, I’d like to thank all those readers who have
same thing can be said for great projects. The kite written us saying how much they love the magazine.
aerial photography project in our first issue was I’d also like to thank the team we’ve put together to
really simple, giving you a lot of bang for your buck. make the first year of MAKE such a success. We’re
But more importantly, it pointed the way to a looking forward to another exciting year.
community of photographers who are improving
on one another’s designs, and building remarkably
^{sophisticated systems.} Mark Frauenfelder is editor-in-chief and Dale Dougherty is
editor and publisher of MAKE.