In Chiang Mai on the last weekend of January, Thai makers gathered to share ideas and discuss how creativity can benefit local innovators and inventors in the digital era. The maker space movement is international; the term refers to groups of people who have a passion for innovation and creation through IT and digital tinkering — a high-tech DIY community, working on hardware or software, enabled by cheaper technology such as 3D printing, and home-grown enthusiasm.
In Thailand, Chiang Mai has emerged as a preferred location for makers to come together and push their creations forward (see related story on page 8).
Bangkok has had a maker space called Bangspace since 2009, there is Maker Zoo in Ekamai, and a maker space at Thailand Science Park near Rangsit. But Chiang Mai shines as a place for young artists, entrepreneurs and developers; the place has good connectivity, vibes and is still largely free from commercial pressure.
In January, the Chiang Mai Maker Club organised the Chiang Mai Maker Party, where 40 local and international companies came together. On show were drones and electronic boards as well as smart farm concepts. The key idea is that in the age of IT, Thailand should start producing makers, instead of just consumers.
Founded two years ago, Chiang Mai Maker Club is an example of a successful maker community that continually involves Thai creativity (maker spaces are usually made up of expats). The club, located near Nong Buak Hat Park, began as an amateur gathering but has since attracted attention of IT companies, which supported this year’s party. The club has showcased at least eight electronic boards that it says ready are to serve the Internet of Things (IoT) — a new buzzword referring to the idea that every electronic device can be hooked to the internet.
The club was initiated by Panutat Tejasen, better known as Dr Jimmy, a software developer who’s also interested in how hardware has become the hot topic of the IoT. He supports young innovators in the province by offering free space in his office for them as a meeting place where they can share ideas, learn and create objects.
Nat Weerawan, a website developer and computer programmer, was invited to chair the club, which started from a few people in 2014. The membership is getting larger, and now there are around 50 people. This maker space opens 24 hours a day where members can come and go whenever they want (the city also has Chiang Mai Maker Space, a different group located near Tha Pae Gate, serving as a co-working space for inventors).
Every Friday, the “Show & Tell” session at the Chiang Mai Maker Club opens the floor for members to share what they are working on. Workshops and training are available at the club; but it’s not a classroom-style feel, and the atmosphere is that of joint discussion among students and makers.
“We don’t teach them but give them textbooks or information, and they read by themselves. It’s learning by doing,” said Nat, adding that one concrete practice is that everyone must contribute by writing an article about what they have learned and done on their inventions.
Members have a variety of interests and some projects they have been working on include a remote control car and drones, which have been developed along with mobile applications.
According to Panutat, the founder, the new generation should have the freedom to pursue innovation and creativity without the constraint of time and money.
“It’s a matter of how to encourage inventors to do what they like and what they are good at,” he said.
“The new inventions require makers in different areas and fortunately there are people in different fields here — such as mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, software engineers, packaging designers and graphic designers — and when they come together and live together, they can develop a real passion to make products.”
The maker movement has gained ground in Thailand partly because of the momentum created by the rush to become a digital economy, the start-up phenomenon and the realisation that creativity and technology can come from anyone. Since every electronic part is made in China anyway, what determines the difference is the way those parts are used to create new ideas.
Wasin Wongkum, a club member and a lecturer at Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, spends most of his free time at the lab. He is a co-inventor of a drone which is controlled by an app on a smartphone. His team came up with the concept through trial and error. Prior to the app development, the earlier versions relied on Bluetooth control. The latest version of the drone is controlled by smartphone via a Wi-Fi network; it can run on both iOS and Android platforms.
“We designed it on a print circuit board embedded with sensors, with the help of a member who is a mechanic. We expect it to be available at a cheap market price, and we are now working on a kit set of drones and applications,” said Wasin.
Panutat points out that the maker space function is to bring those who have various capabilities to work together to create products. Next is to hold an event for them to show their inventions, and then to bring the inventions to the people; the maker space helps find marketing assistance. It is a matchmaking process, which will lead to an ecosystem, and this is what Chiang Mai Maker Party intended to facilitate.
On the manufacturing side, Gravitech, a Thai-owned US-based electronic firm who joined the Maker Party, has pledged to fully support the Thai makers. In the field of electronic board designs, it can offer both software and hardware.
Founder of Gravitech, Sharnon Tulabadi, was there in the first wave of the maker movement in America in 2006, and is now trying to drive the movement in Thailand. The company recently invested 20 million baht in a factory producing prototypes for makers at Science Park in Rangsit, in addition to a branch at Fortune Tower which serves makers with electronic devices, a maker space, a training centre and crowdfunding projects to raise cash for inventions by makers.
In the past, new inventions required corporate-level investment. Panutat believes that the maker ecosystem, though still new in Thailand, can enable innovation faster and cheaper. In the past, university students had to wait until they graduated and were working — but today all of the process can be done while they are still students. Besides Thai members, Chiang Mai Maker Club attracted foreign makers who live in the city to come and speak at the event. A German maker, who lives in Sankampang district, presented his small 3D printer.
Participants had a chance to attend the stage sessions by Thai and foreign speakers who shared their experiences. One of them who inspired the audience was Alvin Lee, a Singaporean maker who is an engineer by training and a businessman by profession. He and his family invented a construction set that is used to build sandcastles. His dream was that children around the world could build better sandcastles with better tools. His project got 25 rejections in Singapore, but in 1995, Lee got a partner and launched the product, Beachworks, in America. The family hobby project won the major toy award, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, at New York Toy Fair in 1998.
Lee shared his experience of the 20-year journey of Castle Can Fly, a corporate training company. He gave inspirational talks with emphasis on practical implementation.
“Thinking is important, doing is everything,” he said.
Wasin Wongkum, a university lecturer and Chiang Mai maker who has co-developed a drone.