Join WikiSeat at the Oakland Public Library, this Sunday, March 22 from 2pm to celebrate the Oakland Library’s lending of WikiSeat catalysts. We’ll talk open source furniture design, DIY culture, and the awesome power of the library, while you use your library card to check out a catalyst!

Now, you might be thinking, “What on earth does furniture design have to do with the library?”

It’s an great fit, once you think about it. Libraries are great places to look for information. Libraries lend out books, music, and video games, and while visiting the library you can get help with your taxes, learn to speak a new language, or make high-tech origami. Some libraries even lend out construction tools and let you borrow seeds to plant in your garden. You could say that libraries help people develop new literacies.

WikiSeat doesn’t provide tangible resources like libraries do. Instead, this open source furniture project provides a starting place for learning new skills. While building seats, most people learn new carpentry, textile, or metal working skills. This is just the start though. You can explore pretty much any subject area imaginable with your WikiSeat.



One group used WikiSeat to experience Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance. Students in Shanghai learned about business and marketing. I have made one seat that talks to satellites, and one that can water plants. One person made a Game Of Thrones seat. Someone made a puppet theater. And one 5th grade class auctioned their seats to help buy a tractor for a village in Zambia! Whatever it is you want to learn about – anything in the whole world! – you can learn while building a seat.

Join us!

Oakland Public Library Main Branch

125 14th Street in downtown Oakland

Sunday, March 22 from 2-3 pm

Be sure to bring your library card so you can check out a WikiSeat Catalyst.