Webmaker TLDR: 2013 roadmap, credit for badges and more

TLDR = your summary of what’s happening with Mozilla Webmaker this week, focused on mentors and builders — aka, “the community making Webmaker”


Recording of the Jan 15 Webmaker community call

Webmaker.org’s 2013 roadmap: gathering your input

“How do we create a ‘make-first’ user experience for Webmaker.org?”

The idea here is that from the moment you land on Webmaker.org, you are given the call to action to tinker and interact with content in a very real way. –Jess Klein

Meet these (adorable) young Webmakers from the Philipines

…from a code party organized by super-star Moz Rep Jean Austin:

Get academic credit for digital badges

U.S. high school students will soon be able to get credit for badges they earn through Mozilla’s Open Badges software, reports Education Week:

High School Credit Awarded for Anytime, Anywhere Learning

High school students in Providence, R.I., will now receive school credit for learning experiences outside the classroom through a new digital badging initiative launched by the Providence After School Alliance (PASA) and the Mozilla Foundation.

This makes it the first school district in the U.S. to give academic credit for digital badges. The badges can be earned for work ranging from participating in an urban debate league to taking a studio-arts course at a local museum.

Also in badges this week, check out…

This has been one of the best projects I have ever taught in terms of the positive reaction from the pupils and the ongoing benefits…. The process has encouraged them to work together, obtaining regular feedback and striving to improve their work…. –@ZoeRoss19, UK Grade 7 teacher

 

Badges created by UK Grade 7 students

Lots happening in the Webmaker web dev and software team:

  • To 2013 and beyond… Ross | Last year web dev launched *eight* (yes eight) new web sites. This year’s focus: “workload, external contributions, and outreach.”
  • On code review 
    • Andrew | “When I ask someone to review my code, I’m really trying to find out if it makes sense, if it’s eloquent and approachable.”
  • Design Open Badges | Seeking visual designers to to help create cool digital badge designs, for new Webmaker Web Dev community contributors.

The Mozilla Manifesto and Mozilla’s 15th anniversary

Why Mozilla?  Lyre | Does the Mozilla manifesto need revising? How do we make the most of Mozilla’s upcoming 15th anniversary? What will the next 15 years hold?

When I read the Manifesto today, I feel like it is just as relevant now as when it was first published.. but perhaps some of the language could be touched up to add emphasis on how the principles manifest in Mozilla’s efforts to tackle contemporary challenges that didn’t exist just a few short years ago.

Webmaker TLDR: what’s up with Webmaker this week?

TLDR = your handy micro-summary of what’s happening with Mozilla Webmaker this week, and how to get involved

Webmaker in 2013

What’s the plan for Webmaker this year? Make it a product loved by makers and mentors. Check out Mark Surman’s slide presentation:

New Webmaker prototypes: video editing in the cloud, Thimble + Popcorn integration, killer slide shows + more

Brett Gaylor’s mega-post show off some exciting early ideas and exciting new prototypes for webmakers:

  1. Video editing with Popcorn Maker: think video editing in the cloud. Paste in any You Yube, HTML5 or Soundcloud media. Slice and dice it on the Popcorn Maker timeline. Then publish as one seamless playback. Make videos on the web — without having to download, compress, edit in a desktop app, re-upload, etc. Hot!
  2. Integrating Thimble + Popcorn: Thimble and Popcorn brought together in a single interface. Learn to code while making cool interactive movies and sounds.
  3. Popcorn slide shows: Create cool slide shows with website- type “pages” or sections. Make interactive narratives, choose-your-own-adventure, hackable comics, visual novel non-linear story telling, etc.
  4. Webmaker “save for later.” Like a “gimme bar” for Webmaker. A clipping add-on that lets you grab image, text, video or html as you’re browsing the web, then pull it into a gallery and remix it with Webmaker. Shows how we could incorporate Webmaker right into Firefox.
  5. Turbo You Tube upload. Directly upload video from your camera to You Tube, all within Popcorn Maker. Makes it frictionless, rather than recording locally and uploading, or recording at You Tube and copy/pasting the URL.

Links and source code in Brett’s post. Or get more involved here.

What do Webmaker mentors need?

We want to 10x our community of instructors and mentors this year. Where do you think we should start? Here’s what 80+ interviews with current mentors told us.

Global Game Jam: Jan 25 – 27

Get excited and make games. Make games with other game designers, developers and enthusiasts around the world in a Global Game Jam spread across more than 300 locations in 63 countries.

Mozilla’s Game On Competition is sponsoring several of the events. Game On now has 39 entries in the competition and counting — from Robocybe to Slime Volley. Submit your own game entry before the Feb 24 deadline.

“Generation Open:” creating a global open source project by and for youth

“If you could make anything on the web, what would it be?”

That’s the question Moz Reps like Emma Irwin and others have been putting to kids around the world. The goal: create one of the world’s first open source projects run entirely by youth. Webmaker Mentors will help guide youth and teach them about open source contribution, with the youth defining how and what will be created. Learn more and get involved through the “GenOpen” wiki page.

More from Planet Webmaker

EOY and Yearly FR Totals

OpenNews on-boarding, ITU campaign de-brief + more.

There’s great notes and links on these in the Jan 15 Webmaker community call etherpad. Join us for next week’s call.

MTLDR

Get excited and make games: Global Game Jam, Jan 25-27

Game jam events happening around the world, 63 countries and counting…

Global Game Jam! Make games with other game designers, developers and enthusiasts around the world. The Global Game Jam (#ggj13) is happening the weekend of Jan 25-27, spread across more than 300 locations in 63 countries.

Mozilla’s Game On Competition is sponsoring several of the events. And there’s more Game Jams coming in February, including during Indiecade East, a Bocoup Youth Game Jam in Boston, the NYU Games & Innovation Lab, and another jam planned for Kenya.

Enter the Game On Competition — before Feb 24

There are now 39 entries in the Mozilla Game On Competition, from Robocybe to Slime Volley.

You can also check out interviews with our illustrious panel of judges on the Game On blog, including Alice Taylor (Makie.me), Lisa Long (Zombies Run), Daniel Cook (Spry Fox) and a new craffty video for Web-Only Games.

Get involved

Building with makers and mentors: Webmaker in 2013

What’s the plan for Webmaker in 2013? Make it a product loved by makers and mentors. Working in the open with you.

Mark Surman’s slide presentation (from the Dec 2012 Mozilla Foundation board meeting) explains.

With roadmapping season now in full swing for Q1 and beyond, I’m finding Mark Surman’s last board slide presentation really helpful as a guide. Check it out:

What is Webmaker?

Webmaker teaches the art 
and craft of webmaking to anyone who wants to make something on the web. It starts with projects: users make (amazing) things, 
learning about the technology and culture of the web as they go.

  • In 2012 we built the Webmaker brand, product and community.
  • In 2013 we’ll refine, recruit and get more people using it.

Big picture goal: Turn our basic Webmaker offering into 
a product people love. Refine it, recruit mentors and get more people 
using it.

A product loved by who?

  1. Makers: creative self starters with something to say or show.
    • target: 250k in 2013, 1M in 2014
  2. Mentors: enthusiastic teachers and techies w/ a maker spirit
    • target: 10k in 2013, 25k in 2014

Dec 2012 - Webmaker Strategy from MoFo Board Slides.003

What have we built so far?

A year ago, we set out to move people from using the web to making the web. Our belief: people need skills and inspiration to build the web we want. What did we accomplish?

1) We shipped new products. Going from prototype / alpha to public release for

  1. Webmaker.org
  2. Popcorn Maker 
  3. Thimble
  4. Webmaker Badges
  5. Open Badges

2) We built a core community. Approximately 1000 instructors and mentors around the world, showing people how to make things on the web.

Our Hive NYC project is now also a model for emerging instructor networks in Toronto, London, Athens and SF.

3) We built Mozilla partnerships and leadership: Mozilla is now established as a 
key player in digital making and learning. Our Summer Code Party, Mozilla Festival, UK campaign, and efforts around SOPA/PIPA have brought partners and attention to our cause.

http://openmatt.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Mozilla-Summer-Code-Party-map.jpg

What’s next?

  • Goal #1: make Webmaker a popular way to make, animate and remix content from across the web. Secret weapon: Popcorn as core feature, + Thimble and the X-Ray Goggles.
    • metric: 1M users / 250k makers
  • Goal #2: build better ways to level up skills, craft and code as you make. New feature: badges tied to social tools to encourage mentorship and critique.
    • metric: 1M badges in 2013
  • Goal #3: grow our global community of mentors to power Webmaker. How: merge Summer Code Party with Hive, 
add to new geographies + run year-round
    • metric: 10x mentors / instructors

Core to our strategy: find, promote and 
build content to show off 
unique features of our tools. This moves beyond our current idea of projects. It starts with things people want to share, then bakes in learning.

The three most important things for our tools:

  1. Consolidate Webmaker tools, 
putting Popcorn at the center
  2. Scale our web literacy vision, put our badges everywhere
  3. Infect social networks with remixable content

If we succeed in 2013: Webmaker will be a well-known tool for making a new kind of content. We will see traction amongst 
makers (250k) and mentors (10k). And we’ll have a better picture of where people learn and how we can disrupt.