Webmaker/2013plans

DRAFT January 10, 2012: Please do not edit this page without permission. Your feedback and comments are welcomed on the Webmaker mailing list.

Roadmaps

• Product
• Badges (coming soon)
• Mentors (coming soon)

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

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.

Top level 2013 goals

Overarching:

• Grow Mozilla Webmaker into both a product that people love and a vibrant global community.

Product goals:

In 2013, we want Mozilla Webmaker to become:

• 1. a popular way to make, animate and remix web content
  
• 2. that levels up your skills, craft and code as you make things
  
• 3. and is powered by a global community of makers and mentors
  

Organizational goals:

For this vision of Webmaker to succeed, MoFo needs to:

• 4. establish a regular flow of new product ideas and features
  
• 5. create a culture of excellence (process + outcomes)
  
• 6. tee up solid long-term funding and resource base
  

Product goals w/ detailed objectives

objectives = short term things we will do to pursue a goal, last less than a year

1. Turn Webmaker into popular way to make, animate and remix web content

1.1 Turn users into makers (more than two 'makes' post sign up)
1.2 Add gallery + social media: sharing happens on Webmaker.org + across the (social) web
1.3 Build in tools that let you pull in *your own* content from mobile and social networks
1.4 Create starter content you can't resist being part of: you want to remix and remake
1.5 Evolve webmaker.org into a way to find, celebrate and remix the best 'makes'

Metric: # of makers
Target: 250,000 in 2013, 1M in 2014
Math: 10M uniques => 1M users => 250k makers
<-this is a strawman that needs alot of work

2. Build features to level up skills, craft and code as you make things

2.1 Create a complete set of Webmaker badges covering all the skills we care about
2.2 Add playlists, 
badge pathways and user dashboards making learning easier
2.3 Build ways to encourage users to mentorship, critique, collaboration and forking
2.4 Work with partners to build our tools and badges into their sites
2.5 Add JavaScript to Webmaker to help people learn more advanced web skills

Metric: # of badges
Target: 1M in 2013, 5M in 2014
Math: 250k makers earning 4 'major' badges each
<-this is a strawman that needs alot of work

3. Create a global community of makers and mentors that power Webmaker

3.1 Find mentors with a maker attitude (upload a learning resource or organize an event)
3.2 Merge Hive + Code Party to create a global instructor community w/ local roots
3.3 Build tools that make it easy to find local instructors / events / clubs online
3.4 Create more + better mentor resources: step by step guides for teaching
3.5 Build basis for 'L10N Everywhere': tools, starter content and 'makes' should all eventually be translatable

Metric: # of mentors
Target: 10,000 active mentors, 500 lead mentors (like ReMos)
Math: 10x current mentors, varying level of engagement
<-this is a strawman that needs alot of work

Organizational goals w/ detailed objectives

objectives = short term things we will do to pursue a goal, last less than a year

4. Establish a regular flow of new product ideas and features

4.1 Establish a method for doing product exploration (aka following hunches)
4.2 Refine our 'open lab' model around Hive, Open News and Open Science initiatives
4.3 Specifically: Hive, Open News, etc. feed new kinds of content and tools into Webmaker
4.4 Explore the idea of 'hackable games' as part of our Webmaker offering
4.5 Find a way to build mobile into our Webmaker experience

Metric: answers to product 'hunches' in less than 60 days

5. Create a culture of excellence (process + outcomes)

5.1 Build a fun, compelling product that sets the high bar for learning and making.
5.2 Be the best in the world at engaging and sustaining community contribution.
5.3 Create a rigorous culture of testing, iteration and refinement based on metrics.
5.4 Bake design and design thinking into our product development culture.
< 5.5 Dogfood. The Webmaker team and community uses Webmaker tools, daily.

Metric: better conversions and user stickyness
Ties to: 1M webmakers numbers above

6. Tee up solid long term funding and resource base

6.1 Make Webmaker message successful w/ individual donors, $1M/in 2013
6.2 Explore major gifts, do on small scale tied to Hive in London and NYC
6.3 Balance our grants portfolio with unrestricted dollars from a diversity of funders

Metric: ratio of restricted to unrestricted funds

Planning Schedule

• Nov 20: Outline process / top goals on Webmaker call
• Nov 21: Call with expanded management team
• Nov 26: 1st review of straw man budget
• Nov 27-28: Management team work sprint (Toronto)
• Nov 30: Updated goals / key hires added to budget / 2nd budget review
• Dec 4 : Share proposed plans w/ Webmaker call for feedback
• Dec 5: Lock board presentation content re: goals and budget
  • Detailed Webmaker product vision document being developed in parallel
• Dec 10: Ship strategy deck and budget to board
• Dec 12: Board meeting
• Dec 18: Share outcomes of board meeting on Webmaker call, refine roadmaps