Introducing Maker Party 2013

This week we were proud to partcipate in the White House Science Fair—and have President Obama help us kick off our new Maker Party 2013. This June to September, people will get together at thousands of community-led events around the world. Together we’ll celebrate the amazing things we can make and learn through the open, collaborative power of the web.

• Join the party. Sign up at webmaker.org/party. Make something, share it, or teach others what you know.
• Learn more. Read the official Mozilla blog post.
• Get training and support. Our new “Teach the Web” open online course is like “Boot Camp” for Maker Party. Join in discussions and hands-on learning with other techies, educators and mentors around the world.
• Spread the word. By re-tweeting sample tweets like these.
  • Join @Mozilla for a global #MakerParty from June 15 – Sept 15. President Obama just kicked it off at the #whsciencefair: http://mzl.la/party

Join me for “Teach the Web:” a free online course from Mozilla

Read this great story and invitation from Ankit Gadgil, Mozilla community member and Mozilla Rep, inviting you to take part in “Teach the Web“ a new free and open online course from Mozilla starting May 2. Learn more or get started here.

Toward Webmaker 2.0

Building Webmaker as a popular way to make and learn on the web. Mark Surman lays out a crisp five-part vision for what we’re building together between now and June:

1. Rebooting the brand to focus on makers of all ages
2. Building a gallery to show all the awesome makes
3. Creating a Make API so anyone can make a gallery
4. Deepening learning w/ challenges + badges
5. Making it easy to create hackable teaching kits with Thimble

How to get involved:

• 5 great things about Webmaker v2. Read Mark’s full post.
• Check out the April 2013 Mozilla Board Slide presentation
• Webmaker v2 product vision. New features and improvements will roll out weekly over the course of the summer, starting June 15.
• Track progress on Webmaker v2 through this scrumbug and Tumblr
  

Planet Webmaker round-up:

• Mozilla’s Web Literacy standard: first draft released!

• 7 ways to get involved with Webmaker this week

• Hive at the White House Science Fair

• Summary of the Webmaker Mentor Team work week

• Badge system design

• Easy open source workflow

• Thought experiment: letting git normalize whitespace

• #freebassel

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

• Watch Brett and Jess’s presentation on key challenges, prototypes and ways to get involved.
• Read Brett’s blog post: 2013 Webmaker roadmap 0.1.
• How do we create “Make-First” Interaction Design? Jess Klein’s protoypes, design thinking and next steps.
• Add your feedback to this active discussion thread on the Webmaker list.

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…

• Carla’s weekly update: “Webmaker badges are headed toward integration with the larger maker world.”
• “The Open Badges Resume.” “Online College’s” review of the most
  “covet-worthy” badges out there.
• @ZoeRoss19, a UK teacher’s experiences implementing badges for her Grade 7 class.

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 
  • David | “One of the discussions happening right now in the Mozilla Foundation software team is whether mandatory code reviews are a good thing.”
    
  • 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.