5 ms·

Mozilla Webmaker

34 points by potomak 14y ago

sparknlaunch12 14y ago
Looks promising. Mozilla seem to be following similar lines to google with events and tools. Hopefully they are creating compatible ecosystems.
acqq 14y ago
Did they actually make anything or is this just a "feel good" web page? I didn't understand.
micheljansen 14y ago
As good as their intentions are, they do a terrible job at explaining them. It took me a few clicks to get to the meat [1]: > "Mozilla Webmaker is a new program to help people everywhere make, learn and play using the open building blocks  of the web." So it's not a piece of software, technology or service. It's an effort to wrap existing tools and projects into a common program and get communities involved. [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmaker https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmaker
- sp332 14y ago
  On the first page, in bold all-caps text: TOOLS, PROJECTS, and EVENTS. The projects are on the right under the heading "Webmaker projects" and the events are linked at the bottom "Find a Summer Code Party event near you. Or start your own."
julianz 14y ago
I've read this page 3 times and I don't know what it is or does. Clues?
Angostura 14y ago
And what is "Thimble"? It's not linked and a Google search seems to suggest no one is quite sure what it is.
DaveChild 14y ago
It doesn't bode well for accessibility when even browser makers like Mozilla can't get the most basic elements right - links with only colour to differentiate them, images without alt text, missing form labels ...
DigitalSea 14y ago
Mozilla used to be regarded as web innovators, but it's more than obvious bureaucracy has got the better of them and the decisions are being made by suits and not web geeks. I mean seriously? I'm a programmer who has been working with the web for 7 years now and I cannot understand what it is Webmaker does, going by the comments here on HN nobody else does either.
sequoia 14y ago
I don't understand what is confusing people. As sp332 pointed out, it says plenty about the goal on the front page. Yes, Mozilla does seem to have a sprawling, amorphous, and somewhat bewildering product catalog, but that doesn't mean the this project is bewildering. For those who still can't make heads or tails of the home page, I've created an enhanced version that will hopefully aid understanding: http://screencast.com/t/pnIFbr2sDRn http://screencast.com/t/pnIFbr2sDRn tl;dr: they are encouraging people to put together local web-hacker-learner-etc. events this summer on a particular date, and providing some resources to support those events.
benjaminsimon 14y ago
To add a bit more clarity: Thimble is a tool that will launch in a couple of weeks, and will tie a bunch of this stuff together (and hopefully allay some concerns). The primary "actually new" things that launched yesterday were: -The events platform at webmaker.org (this is trying to bring distributed organizing to webmaking events; not really been done before) -The "Mozilla Webmaker" brand/site to tie some previously separate pieces/tools together into a more user-friendly package -Explanatory video to try and drive home what a webmaker is and why it's important The biggest missing piece to this is Thimble, which will launch well before the Summer Code Party (https://webmaker.org/en-US/events/about/summer_campaign/ https://webmaker.org/en-US/events/about/summer_campaign/) kicks off on June 23rd.

34 points by potomak 14y ago

Looks promising. Mozilla seem to be following similar lines to google with events and tools. Hopefully they are creating compatible ecosystems.

acqq 14y ago

Did they actually make anything or is this just a "feel good" web page? I didn't understand.

micheljansen 14y ago

As good as their intentions are, they do a terrible job at explaining them. It took me a few clicks to get to the meat [1]: > "Mozilla Webmaker is a new program to help people everywhere make, learn and play using the open building blocks  of the web." So it's not a piece of software, technology or service. It's an effort to wrap existing tools and projects into a common program and get communities involved. [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmaker https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmaker

sp332 14y ago
On the first page, in bold all-caps text: TOOLS, PROJECTS, and EVENTS. The projects are on the right under the heading "Webmaker projects" and the events are linked at the bottom "Find a Summer Code Party event near you. Or start your own."

julianz 14y ago

I've read this page 3 times and I don't know what it is or does. Clues?

Angostura 14y ago

And what is "Thimble"? It's not linked and a Google search seems to suggest no one is quite sure what it is.

DaveChild 14y ago

It doesn't bode well for accessibility when even browser makers like Mozilla can't get the most basic elements right - links with only colour to differentiate them, images without alt text, missing form labels ...

DigitalSea 14y ago

Mozilla used to be regarded as web innovators, but it's more than obvious bureaucracy has got the better of them and the decisions are being made by suits and not web geeks. I mean seriously? I'm a programmer who has been working with the web for 7 years now and I cannot understand what it is Webmaker does, going by the comments here on HN nobody else does either.

sequoia 14y ago

I don't understand what is confusing people. As sp332 pointed out, it says plenty about the goal on the front page. Yes, Mozilla does seem to have a sprawling, amorphous, and somewhat bewildering product catalog, but that doesn't mean the this project is bewildering. For those who still can't make heads or tails of the home page, I've created an enhanced version that will hopefully aid understanding: http://screencast.com/t/pnIFbr2sDRn http://screencast.com/t/pnIFbr2sDRn tl;dr: they are encouraging people to put together local web-hacker-learner-etc. events this summer on a particular date, and providing some resources to support those events.

benjaminsimon 14y ago

To add a bit more clarity: Thimble is a tool that will launch in a couple of weeks, and will tie a bunch of this stuff together (and hopefully allay some concerns). The primary "actually new" things that launched yesterday were: -The events platform at webmaker.org (this is trying to bring distributed organizing to webmaking events; not really been done before) -The "Mozilla Webmaker" brand/site to tie some previously separate pieces/tools together into a more user-friendly package -Explanatory video to try and drive home what a webmaker is and why it's important The biggest missing piece to this is Thimble, which will launch well before the Summer Code Party (https://webmaker.org/en-US/events/about/summer_campaign/ https://webmaker.org/en-US/events/about/summer_campaign/) kicks off on June 23rd.