Terrorism, cancer rate research, prosthetics, and election monitoring are topics often put out of the Maker movement's reach. But in many countries in the Middle East, these are central issues not addressed by the government or industry. Here, hackers setting up communities and project to deal with socially relevant problems themselves.

Amazing things can be done with local resources and tools at hand to solve major local problems and to contribute to political, social and economic change. The session will give examples of projects coming out from the hackerspaces in Beirut and Baghdad and will raise the question:"What will we make when we can make anything?" as a rallying cry highlighting what we can do with the new unlocked creative ability.

This session is part of the GLOBAL INNOVATION GATHERING programme.