Webmaker/Campaign
A global learning campaign
for anyone interested in tinkering with
and learning to make the web together
June 15 - September 15, 2013
The General Idea
From June - September, 2013 we're inviting you to join a campaign for web literacy, making, and connected learning. Hundreds of thousands of people will create things on the web, with hardware, and on paper - from schools and libraries to hackerspaces and kitchen tables.
We're doing this because we believe that more people will benefit from being web literate. That means understanding a range of skills, from knowing how to navigate a web page to other competencies like web privacy, security as well as online collaboration and openness.
The campaign will bring together organizations from the worlds of DIY, making, and learning to build the movement that will help foster a web literate world. This is an open, distributed campaign. Anyone can participate if you care about these themes.
What We're Going to Do
The three main aspects of the campaign:
Make something | Teach someone | Share your story |
---|---|---|
Try one of our starter projects or come up with your own hack. | Help someone make something on the web in 5min or less. | Tell the world what you did so others can celebrate and remix. |
In addition to these distributed activities, Mozilla will curate some "marquee" events with partners. These are big events in key cities which will serve as tent-poles for the campaign and demonstrate the ideas behind it. Let us know if you're interested in organizing or participating in a marquee event!
Lastly, we will offer training sessions and teaching guides to help you get started. If you have materials or ideas to include, please let us know. If you have a network where you can share these tools, that is also a valuable way to contribute.
What We're Going to Build
1. A Maker Kit: "Make something." To participate in the campaign, all you have to do is make something on the web and share it with others: web pages, videos, games, poems, robots, etc. These activities can already be part of existing programs, i.e. a public library summer reading session or a museum's learning exhibit. However, Mozilla will also offer a baseline set of activities that will allow anyone to get involved, regardless of whether they have access to the participating organizations. We will design, develop, and distribute a Maker Kit that provides the digital tools, learning content, and sharing and display features necessary to join the emerging community of digital makers. The kit will be distributed free of charge through the campaign web site.
2. A Mentor Kit: "Teach someone to make things." As with the Maker Kit, we will design, develop, and distribute a series of guides and a framework that allows educators, teachers, parents, and other volunteers to help people learn how to make things. The kit will contain suggested templates, activities, invitations, graphics, and calls-to-action that help would-be mentors engage makers in the campaign. Mentor kits were a key part of Mozilla's 2012 Summer Campaign, allowing volunteers to help organize and grow participation. The kit will be designed around the key themes of the umbrella campaign, including STEM volunteerism, connected learning, and digital citizenship.
3. Organizing Platform: "A GitHub for Campaign Contributors" The umbrella campaign will be coordinated from a central, online platform and web site. The web site will host standard elements including details of the campaign, information on participating organizations, and an events calendar. The underlying platform, however, will also serve as a nexus for sharing kits, collateral, tools, lessons, galleries, and other materials. Similar to the open source model of making code available for re-use, customization, and remix, the platform will extend beyond traditional 'resource libraries' and allow for two-way exchange: contributors will be able to access, build from, and give back to the shared library of material available across all the campaigns.
4. President's 'Maker' Badge System Mozilla, in partnership with MacArthur and many other organizations, is leading the development of Open Badges. Open Badges are a distributed, alternative means of assessment and accreditation for both formal and informal learning. Many of the partner organizations we hope to engage in the umbrella campaign are already designing badge systems around their learning and making programs. Our hope is to tie these badge systems together through the design and support of a 'President's Maker Badge'. The badge will be awarded to anyone completing a baseline of 'maker' activity within the campaign. Similar to the President's Fitness Challenge, the President's Maker Badge will serve to link the campaign activities together, motivate and reward participants, and provide a press narrative to help drive outreach and communications.
Upcoming Dates
- February 20: Publish campaign roadmap
- March 1: Confirm key partners
- March 15: Initial webpage online
- March 20: Save the Date. Dates, theme and key partners announced
- April 10: Test website + mentor flow
- April 25: Major public announcement of campaign
- April - May: Training events for facilitators and mentors
- April - May: Recruiting
- June 1: Kick off campaign
- June - August: events and activities worldwide
- August 31: Campaign winds down
- September: Convene partners and community leaders to debrief
- October: Mozfest
- December: groundwork for campaign 2014
Anticipated Participants
- MacArthur Foundation
- National Writing Project
- MIT Media Lab
- tent) White House
- tent) 10 Downing Street
- Nesta
- Nominet Trust
- Mozilla Reps
- CERN
- Hive Learning Networks in NYC, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Athens and the UK
- BlackGirlsCode
- Mozilla Japan
- ScratchEd
- Hackidemia
- Mozilla Uruguay / One Laptop Per Child
- Mozilla Ignite
- OpenNews
- LA Makerspace
- NAMLE
- Joplin Public Library
- Citizen Cyberscience Center
- Telecentre.org
- tent) iRights
- tent) Code.org
- tent) Wikimedia Germany
All helping their constituents learn to make the web.
Team
- Campaign Manager: TBD
- Hive Global Coordinator: Chris Lawrence
- Senior curator: Michelle Thorne
- Learning designers: Laura Hilliger, Leah Gilliam
- Press and marketing: Lainie Decoursey
- Campaign storytelling: Matt Thompson
- Community support: TBD
Event Guide + Website Improvements
- Host guide: Prompts for participants to get involved after the event. Host their own, document, localize, etc.
- Map for all events
- Write in #teachtheweb and #webmakerwin