Community Inventor Days: Scaffolding Grassroots Innovation with Maker Events

This paper describes a series of Inventor Days designed to support grassroots innovation in local communities. By appropriating core aspects of hackathons—particularity their focus on action and networking—Inventor Days were intended to scaffold relationships between residents in a community and makers from across the city. Over three events, makers and community members worked together to learn about the community, design novel ‘inventions’ that addressed local issues and prototype their ideas. We show evidence that these events created enthusiasm around use of technology to support the community, while developing ongoing relationships that enabled members of the community to continue building on their experiences beyond the events themselves.