GEORGE TOWN, Jan 30 — Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo has called on all states to set up makerspaces similar to the Penang Island City Council’s (MBPP) MakerSpace Balik Pulau and make it accessible to all levels of society.
He said every state must work with Putrajaya to allow the public to benefit from technology through educational and training programmes.
“We are preparing the infrastructure for a high-technology nation so next we must prepare the people so that they can benefit from the technology,” he said while attending a ceremony on the upgrading of the MBPP MakerSpace Balik Pulau into a Digital Maker Hub (DMH).
A “makerspace”, also called a “hackerspace” or “hackerlab”, is a collaborative workspace open to the public for making, learning and exploring.
He said the main focus on digital making may be for students, but it should also be expanded to all levels of society as technology affects everyone.
“State governments can work with the federal government to ensure that there are opportunities for all levels of society to learn digital making and benefit from the technology that we bring in,” he said.
He hoped that all state governments will set up more makerspaces with programmes that include people of all ages.
He commended MBPP and Penang for setting up its MakerSpace Balik Pulau which has been highly successful and has trained over 2,000 students since it was opened last year.
He said other states should follow suit by creating similar workspaces to train students and the public in digital making.
Gobind said the DMH programme is a successful programme and it will be expanded to all states in stages.
“We are discussing with the Education Ministry and giving them our proposals on digital making that can be used on school modules,” he said.
He said the DMH is a platform using existing modules to train students in digital making and that his ministry is working closely with the Education Ministry to expand it to schools nationwide.
Currently, there are 79 DMH in the country with eight in Penang including the MBPP MakerSpace Balik Pulau.
The DMH are collaborations between Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and various state governments, universities, schools, educational tech companies and non-governmental organisations.
The DMH are physical spaces that served as platforms to provide training and activities on digital making and to cultivate interest in computational thinking, computer science and coding.
