MAKER TECH CAMP GWALIOR

Mozilla

WEB MAKER

v  The Initiation

·         It all started when with shear curiosity I attended Webmaker party at my college Symbiosis Pune. From there I come to know about what Webmaker is and how to use its various tools such as THIMBLE, POPCORN as well as about X-Ray Goggles. I found it really very amazing and instantly got connected with it, I had played around making various page through Thimble and remixing of webpage by X-ray goggles.

·         Then in the next maker party event I decided to volunteer, met with Mozilla Rep Ankit Gadgil. I explained my curiosity about the open web and spreading it out to the masses. He told me about various phases of events and from there I started thinking about this Maker-tech Camp Gwalior. I put forth an idea of a maker party in Gwalior my hometown where people were not much aware about the open source and the web. Had a talk with Ankit about making this maker party Gwalior a success. He was truly helpful, made me understand all the aspects of organizing this event and spreading the word about it, what should be the format and how we could effectively do it. I was really excited to meet Gauthamraj Elango as he had also accepted to come to Gwalior and teach the web there.

·         With all good and fine with the mentors attending and event logistics initiated, I then came to Gwalior  I met with Public Relations Officer (PRO) of ITM Universe (Mr.Anil Mathur), I told him about Mozilla.  Gave a small presentation about mozilla and its achievements and I told them about WEBMAKER to make the goal clearer. They found it interesting and we decided upon the hosting of the maker party.

v  EVENT DAY

With all in place and decided to be executed we started out with the event. The attendees were really excited to lay their hands on the webmaker tools and create something exciting with it. Some were already clicking pictures with the Firefox Logo on the banner. With excitement in the air, we started with our first activity for the day.

Ø  The PAPER PROTOTYPING

·         Ankit started the Event with Introduction about Open source and the Open web. Soon we divided all participants in different groups. We were following the ideology of making with learning in groups, where various ideas flourish and combine to make something amazing.  All the groups were given chart papers, sketch pens, sticky notes to express their views i.e, to write down what they would like to make on the internet. Some of them had written about Gwalior, Friendship, Education, Internet & Firefox and Open web. There were three people in a group so we divided three sections on a chart paper and made them use sections individually and combine it so that they have some combined theme.
The outcome of the combination was amazing. Example someone had written about the education in Gwalior and other from his group wrote about internet and open web so they combined it to make Learning through intyernet in Gwalior. Paper prototyping where people has learned something new and they made it as well. It was really nice to see ideas fly on the paper and on to the screen.

Ø  WEBMAKING

·         After that we taught them how to use of Thimble and then they made their ID’s on persona. We all hacked the postcard project which was so well documented that the participants hacked it by themselves. They remixed various projects and publish it as well. Ankit then told the attendees about xray goggles and how to use them. Gauthamraj pitched in and explained about the difference between Hacking and Remixing using the example of xray goggles..

·         With remixing and paper prototyping, we called in each group to share their work with every one. Pictures with everybody and we congratulation for the work followed. We Distributed Swags to them and with smiles ended the event.

Ø  The MOZILLA CHAPTER

We Met with PRO, he told us that he was interested in creating a Chapter for mozilla where the point of contact would be me. This chapter will function as a Firefox club with student ambassadors spreading the mozilla mission throught.

v  My Next Development

We will be creating a Mozilla club in Gwalior. This club will be active to work on the open tools, share knowledge. Organizing another event with more number of participants to create a better club is the next goal.
We hope that we will have a webmaker community and a mozilla community with more then a big of this event pretty soon.