Making it together, locally: A making community learning ecology in the Southwest USA

This paper illustrates the spaces, tribes and experiences within the Maker community. Using a theoretical framework of learning ecology and communities of practice, we illustrate and provide the context of Making, Maker Faires and Mini-Maker Faires, and Makers' experiences. We contribute a proposed taxonomy by which makerspaces can be categorized. We begin to compare Makers in our Southwest region of the United States to information known about Makers throughout the United States.