Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of "The Long Tail", speaks during the Seoul Digital Forum 2007 in Seoul May 30, 2007.
Former Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson has become one of the most visible leaders of the emerging “maker” movement, which aims to bring manufacturing out of its traditional factory context, and into the realm of the personal desktop computer. Anderson’s 2012 book, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, describes how technology has “democratized the means of production,” making it possible for anyone to be a builder or “maker.” For over a decade, Anderson was the editor-in-chief of Wired, which he helped make one of the most influential publications in the United States. Under Anderson’s tenure, Wired won several national magazine awards, and in 2009, it was named Magazine of the Decade by the editors of Adweek.
(MORE: How the ‘Maker’ Movement Plans to Transform the U.S. Economy)
Anderson left Wired in 2012 to devote his attention to 3D Robotics, a drone manufacturing company that he founded. 3D Robotics now has two factories with more than 30 workers producing consumer drones, one in San Diego, the other in Tijuana. In 2007, Anderson almost prompted a minor national security scare after launching a camera-equipped radio-controlled airplane into a tree 60-feet above the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. “I promise not to fly over secure national labs anymore,” Anderson pledged at the time.