NPR – Eric Westervelt
“We’ve always been a hands-on, DIY kind of nation. Ben Franklin didn’t just invent the lightning rod. His creations include bifocals, swim fins, the catheter, innovative stoves and more. Franklin, who was largely self-taught, may have been a genius, but he wasn’t really an outlier when it comes to American making and tinkering. The personal computing revolution and ethos of disruptive innovation of Silicon Valley grew, in part, out of the tinkerings of the Homebrew Computer Club, which was founded in a garage in Menlo Park, Calif., in the mid-1970s. Members — including guys named Jobs and Wozniak — started making and inventing things they couldn’t buy.”(more)