The Story of Detroit Added Some Significant Chapters in 2010; Here Are 10 of Them

just remember that a guy named Henry Ford was one. And we all know what happened in his garage. Well, hackerspaces like i3Detroit and OmniCorp Detroit are springing up all over the city with some crazy ideas that just might work.

Even the Ford Motor Co. is getting back into its roots in the maker space, partnering with TechShop to create a branch in the Detroit area. But it all came together in a weekend of full-blown tinkering last summer when the Maker Faire came to Dearborn, MI. 

Gov.-elect Rick Snyder

I first began writing about technology back in 2001, when the head of a new Ann Arbor VC firm called Ardesta started making investments in nanotechnology companies.

Part of this guy’s vision was to also create a news organization to cover the industry he was funding. So, he found a bunch of newspeople to do just that. I started writing and editing news about nanotechnology for Small Times Magazine, and the head of Ardesta went on to make some investments in the space.

The guy who hired me was Rick Snyder.

Fast-forward almost a decade, and he is now the governor-elect of the state of Michigan. Whether you agree with his politics and policies or not, there is one thing that Xconomy Detroit readers can be assured of — the new governor understands the language of entrepreneurship.

How this will translate to actual governing? Well, watch this space throughout 2011.

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Author: Howard Lovy

Howard Lovy is a veteran journalist who has focused primarily on technology, science and innovation during the past decade. In 2001, he helped launch Small Times Magazine, a nanotech publication based in Ann Arbor, MI, where he built the freelance team and worked closely with writers to set the tone and style for an emerging sector that had never before been covered from a business perspective. Lovy's work at Small Times, and on one of the first nanotechnology-themed blogs, helped him earn a reputation for making complex subjects understandable, interesting, and even entertaining for a broad audience. It also earned him the 2004 Prize in Communication from the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank. In his freelance work, Lovy covers nanotechnology in addition to technological innovation in Michigan with an emphasis on efforts to survive and retool in the state's post-automotive age. Lovy's work has appeared in many publications, including Wired News, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, The Scientist, the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, Michigan Messenger, and the Ann Arbor Chronicle.