Webmaker 2013 Context

Vision: A generation of webmakers.

Long term goal: Move tens of millions of people from using the web to making the web. These people understand, expect and delight in the creative and technical freedoms that only open technology can offer.

Core assumption: For this to happen, many more people need to learn how the web works -- technically and culturally. Making things on the web is the best and fastest way to learn how the web works.

Architecture: We need products and a movement that accelerate this learning. We will build both.

Product

[need to update this to reflect the 'three product' strategy -- webmaker.org, badges, mentors]

Rocket: Apps that make web pages that move: videos, slideshows, etc. Combining content and code from across the web. The tools solve a problem: they make it way easier than it is today to mix your phone, web and social media content together into a compelling, moving collage that you can share with friends. Also, the content that pops out the other end is magnetic, edgy, useful, new. It looks unlike anything people are making today because it's made by combining real, live and, sometimes, constantly changing content from across the web. People will love this stuff. And no one else has it (yet).

Payload: Ultimately, this gets people to expect a remix button for everything. People start by making videos, slideshows, etc. that could only be made with the open technology of web. The videos, etc. pull material via URLs + APIs. They pull from your phone, your social networks, everywhere. They make it easy to see, edit and drop in code. Over time, people realize Webmaker content is remixable, "view source-able," and can change as the web changes. Also, the tools and content you make show you how the web works as you make things. There are 'remix' and 'how to' buttons on every piece of content created using Webmaker tools.

Movement

Community: A global community of makers and mentors excited to show people what you can do using the creative and technical freedoms of the web (and open tech in general). They use open tech and a maker attitude to teach everything from art to science to citizenship. Sometimes, they use Webmaker tools. Sometimes they use Scratch. Sometimes they hack with toys and hardware from the junkyard. And everything in between.

Meme: Webmaker ties into the bigger maker movement explicitly. We want to both fuel and draft in the wind of the bigger movement, much as Firefox did with open source.

Audience

Makers: Creative-self starters with something to say or show. They already make and share content on the web -- blogs, video, slideshows, games. Or, they make things offline that they want to show online -- robots, models, drawings, Makie dolls. They like to tinker and try things. Over time, they become excited (and maybe even addicted) to the creative and technical possibilities only the open web can provide. This is the core audience for our tools.

Mentors: Enthusiastic teachers and techies who like to get other people's creative juices going using the web. They already understand the creative and technical freedoms the web offers -- at least at an intuitive level. They want to use these freedoms to teach, inspire and empower (young) people. This is the core audience for our mentor community.

We know we're winning if: more and more people use, expect and demand the technical and creative freedoms offered by open technologies. We want 5 million users, 1 million webmakers and 25,000 mentors by 2014.

Main changes in 2013

• We will focus on 'animating the web'. Popcorn-powered videos, slideshows, etc. have caught people's attention. We will make these our core differentiating feature.
• Thimble + Popcorn Maker + Xray Goggles will become more tightly integrated. Your Popcorn video will come wrapped in a Thimble paged editable with Goggles.
• Webmaker.org will become a) a showcase for best content people make, and b) a jumping-off point for remixing and learning.
• As part of this, we'll make flexible gallery tools for 'me, my friends and my themes.' The galleries themselves will be highly hackable.
• Also: we will start to look like a distributed social network, infecting Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, etc. with remixable Webmaker content that invites you to click the remix button (and pops you out onto Webmaker.org when you do).
• Hive + Code Party will merge into an ongoing global community of mentors with local roots. This will be core to the movement-building side of Webmaker.