TLDR version of this post:

• We’re getting ready to launch a new curated blog for the Webmaker project at blog.webmaker.org.
• The goal: tell the high-level Webmaker story in a crisp way, highlighting community and ways to get involved. In a more curated, less firehose-y way.
  
• The Webmaker blog will pull from the best of our weekly community calls and your Planet Webmaker posts, distilled into a shorter, more curated form.
• If you have ideas on how to make the new blog better, please share your feedback as comments here — or file a bug here.

What’s the GOAL?

Tell the Webmaker story in a crisp, curated and engaging way. Through 3 – 5 great posts each week. Don’t make people read too much — help them grok the high level story fast.

Key audiences

Key audiences for the blog over the next 6 months:

• Mentors. Techies, educators, teachers, parents, youth interested in teaching and helping people make stuff. Especially digital literacy and webmaking.
• Maker Party participants. People participating in Maker Party 2013. Partners, hosts, the high-level story. Celebrating diverse community around the world.
• Allies. Organizations and supporters in the same big tent as us.
• Lurkers. Casual and curious. Interested in what we’re doing — but not necessarily invested enough yet to sign up or dive in.
• Press — Not so much. blog.mozilla.org is the primary channel for us to reach press.

STRATEGY

• Highly curated. This is the drinking fountain, not the firehose. Planet Webmaker is where we write and post in a high-volume, wide open way about all things Webmaker. blog.webmaker.org will link to and pull from the those posts in a more synthesized form.
• Diversity of voices. The posts need to reflect a *community* of diverse people — not just one or two regular authors. Constantly celebrate and give voice to community. Make community the stars.
• Focused on ways to get involved. Ensure everything comes with great calls to action and easy ways to participate. That’s our secret sauce — an open story shaped by everyone.

CONTEXT

Where else do we blog right now?

1. blog.mozilla.org. Perrier. High-level press announcements. Just the really, really big stuff, alongside other Mozilla-wide announcements.
2. blog.webmaker.org (new). Drinking fountain. Best way to grok the Webmaker story.
3. Planet Webmaker. Firehose. Aggregated blog of the people making Webmaker. Includes everything under the Webmaker sun.

plus also:

• explorecreateshare.org. Focused on Hive NYC — but much of this content is relevant to Webmaker mentors as well. As a test-bed, source of stories and case studies, seeding webmaking networks around the world, etc. We want to re-purporse this content on blog.webmaker.org for a broad Webmaker audience.

KEY CATEGORIES

What are the key meta-stories we’ll be focusing on from now to October?

1. Teaching the web — stories and content relevant for mentors and educators. Digital literacy, broadly defined. Learning through making. Building our global network.
2. Maker Party 2013 — the high level campaign story. News, community, event highlights. Rolling into MozFest.
3. Case studies — stories from the field, highlights of teaching or people using our tools. Humanizing what we’re doing and showing it in action.
4. Best makes — pulling round-ups of the best things made from our gallery and highlighting them, with a call to remix.
5. Webmaker product and tools — announcements around Popcorn, Thimble, webmaker.org, etc. Stressing Webmaker as an open source project. Big leaps forward for our tools and web site and major announcements.
6. Awesome stuff on the web — The coolest creative stuff on the web. Have your mind blown or expanded regularly. Viral bait. Tasty yet smart. Mashable for webmakers.
7. the Mozilla mission — stuff that explicitly connects what we’re doing to the larger context and mission of Mozilla. Often linked to join / donate.

What type of content will we post on blog.webmaker.org?

• The best of Planet Webmaker. Snippets and curation from what other teams are already blogging. Curated, filtered and linking back to Planet.
• Community celebration. For Makers, Mentors and Builders.
• Maker Party and campaign news. In ways that can be served to partners through an RSS feed, etc.
• The Webmaker Hotlist. Our weekly list of the coolest things collected by the Webmaker community each week.
• Ways to get involved each week. Constantly highlight CTAs. End every post with “How to get involved.”
• Weekly updates. The top handful of stories coming out of our community call each week. Packaged as individual posts published over the week.
• Our best content from the Mozilla all-hands meeting. Presentations, etc.
• Product releases and news. Around things like product releases, etc.
• Project planning and strategy. (e.g., roadmaps, board slides, etc)
• Guest posts. From community and thought leaders.
• Best makes. Pulled from our gallery. In round-up form, top 10 lists, or with more supporting context and narrative than our gallery provides.
• Case studies. Highlighting our tools in the field.
• Maker Party report-backs. Photos, recaps, etc from Maker Party events. (Probably using a simple template like this.)

SAMPLE PUBLISHING SCHEDULE

Aiming for 2 – 5 short, quality posts per week.

• MONDAY: Top story #2. Coming out of the previous week’s Webmaker call. Focused on community celebration or CTAs. OR: A guest post, highlighting partners / thought leaders. (e.g., http://blog.webmaker.org/how-my-stem-project-led-me-to-the-white-house )
• TUESDAY: All-hands story or presentation. Could be a lightning talk, Popcorn video, or just text + CTAs (e.g., http://popcorn.webmadecontent.org/yah )
• WEDNESDAY: How to to get involved with Webmaker this week. Our top CTAs, brainstormed from the Webmaker call. (e.g., http://openmatt.org/2013/04/30/get_involved-2/ )
• THURSDAY: Top story #1. Coming out of the Webmaker call. Ideally focused on community. Or could be about planning for the future. (e.g., http://explorecreateshare.org/2013/05/01/new-hackable-teaching-kit-prototypes-for-webmaker/ )
• FRIDAY: Webmaker hotlist. A fun Friday treat. (e.g., http://openmatt.org/2013/05/02/hotlist-6/ )

FAQ

What’s the difference between the Webmaker blog and Planet Webmaker? 
Planet Webmaker is an aggregated blog, or “blog of blogs.” It has about 25+  different feeds pulling into it. blog.webmaker.org will be much more curated and intentional — less content, more concentrated, more “front of the mullet.”

How do I get my stuff on the Webmaker blog? The Webmaker blog will be managed by the communications team. We want to help tell your story! If you’ve got a high-level story you’d like to tell, here’s how to get something added to blog.webmaker.org:

1. Post it to Planet Webmaker. If you’re already on Planet Webmaker, we’ll see it look for ways to include it on the Webmaker blog. (If you’re writing regularly about Webmaker stuff, please make sure you feed gets added to Planet Webmaker. Here’s how.)
2. Share your story on a Webmaker call. Those calls feed directly into our story meetings each week.
3. Propose a guest post.  We want your ideas and stories! Pitch us one anytime. Easiest way: just go ahead and write it on your own blog, then let us know about it so we can  cross-post or link.
4. Got a big announcement or story coming up? File a Webmaker comms bug, to let us know and get the ball rolling.
5. If all else fails… get in touch with @OpenMatt, your friendly blog editor-at-large

What’s Planet Mozilla? How do I get added? Planet Mozilla is an aggregated blog of absolutely EVERYONE working on every aspect of the Mozilla project. It’s the biggest firehose in the Mozilla universe. If you’re working on Mozilla stuff, your feed should be there. Here’s how to get added.

Got more questions? Please add ’em as comments here.