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P2PU Sign-up Opens Today - Cycle 3

johndbritton — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:22:52 +0000

We just opened signups for the third cycle of courses at P2PU which are starting in September. This is our third, and largest cycle yet. We had 6 courses in the first, 16 in the second, and 23 so far for the third cycle. I'm organizing a course called "Web 200: The Anatomy of a Request" as part of the School of Webcraft. Here's the story from the P2PU blog:

The Peer 2 Peer University announced its third round of free and open online courses today, opening sign-ups for a growing list of courses dealing in su bject areas ranging from Collaborative Lesson Planning to Manifestations of Human Trafficking.

P2PU is also excited to announce the launch of the P2PU School of Webcraft, run in conjunction with the Mozilla Foundation. The School of Webcraft is a powerful new way to learn open, standards based web development in a collaborative environment. School of Webcraft courses include Beginning Python Webservices and HTML5.

All classes are globally accessible, free, and powered entirely by learners, mentors and contributors with the goal of creating a vibrant, peer-led system that helps people around the world easy access to build careers on open web technology.

The P2PU community is growing and excited to have these new courses and their organizers on board.

Since the last round of courses, a few changes have taken place at P2PU, most noticeably on the P2PU site which has seen a major overhaul, and is simpler and easier to use than ever before. However, the nature of the P2PU community remains the same, and all community generated content is open and shareable under CC BY-SA.

The P2PU community consists of a diverse group of people. They are writers, teachers, designers, doctoral and alternative grad students, artists, copyright specialists, scientists, and blues guitar players. Above all, they are learners–peers working together to learn from each other.

Sign-ups for all courses are available at http://p2pu.org/course/list. Deadlines for sign-ups are 8th September 2010. The courses will run until October 27th. Each course application may require additional information.

Vote for Mozilla and P2PU at the SXSW Interactive Festival

johndbritton — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:47:13 +0000

I put together a proposal for our Mozilla Drumbeat project, P2PU School of Webcraft, to go to SXSW Interactive and we need your help.

1. Please register for an account on the panel picker website: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/users/register
2. Confirm your email address
3. Vote up our proposal: http://bit.ly/sxsw_webcraft
4. Leave comments and start a discussion

Please pass this along to as many people as you can. If you tweet, RT this: http://twitter.com/johndbritton/status/20906260210

Mozilla School of Webcraft @P2PU

P2PU School of Webcraft: Web developer training that’s free, open and globally accessible. Mozilla and Peer 2 Peer University are creating the P2PU School of Webcraft, a new way to teach and learn web developer skills. Our classes are globally accessible, 100% free, and powered by learners, mentors and contributors like you. Our goal is to provide a free pathway to skills and certification to help people build careers on open web technology. Existing developer training is expensive, out of touch, and out of reach. We leverage peer learning powered by mentors and learners like you and self-organized study groups. We use existing open and free learning materials In this sixty minute session we'll briefly cover the inception of the Peer 2 Peer University along with details and success stories from the first three cycles of courses. We'll then dive into more detail about our collaboration with Mozilla Drumbeat including Mozilla's mission to engage the next million Mozillians. We'll present the P2PU School of Webcraft, and a case study of courses offered so far, including the first course, 'Mashing Up the Open Web.' Additionally, we'll introduce our plans to separate learning from assessment and our community driven credentialing system. At the end of the session we will invite the audience, and all of SXSW, to join a course on open web skills to be offered during the week of the event. Read more: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Drumbeat/p2pu/one_pager

P2PU Invterview on Udemy Blog

johndbritton — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:52:04 +0000

Udemy just posted a short interview with me about my experience with P2PU, check it out.

7 Tips for Demoing at the New York Tech Meetup

johndbritton — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:18:17 +0000

Here are 7 Tips for demoing at the New York Tech Meetup. This list is definitely not exhaustive, but it should help people out a bit. In the spirit of the advice I'm going to give, I'm going to get right to the tips.

1. Intro in Under 30 Seconds

No one cares who your partners are, they just want to see cool tech now.

2. Always be Demoing

This is the most important thing I can tell you. People don't give a damn about your Steve Jobs-esque Keynote deck, make sure everything you do shows off your product for real.

3. Make the Crowd Do Something

You want to avoid a distracted audience, the best way to do that is to have them do something that requires thinking and physical activity, even if it's just something small like raising a hand.

4. Play Off the Crowd

Sometimes things don't go as planned, take my little typo for example. Pay attention to the crowd and use their reactions to your advantage.

5. Be Unexpected

If the audience knows where you're going they may get bored. Also it's great to catch people off-guard and give them something to remember.

6. Do Magic

Literally. I have to thank Danielle for this tip because I tend to be a teacher. The crowd doesn't have to understand how things work to be amazed. The fact that they know it works is enough to get them to use your product.

7. Have a Damn Good Product

You're demoing to The New York Tech Meetup, your product better be good. If it's not, don't do a demo until it is. You've got more important things to do.

Why You Should Care

I gave a demo of Twilio at the August 2010 NYTM and it went over pretty well. See my summary blog post for a video and recap.

Live Coding Demo at New York Tech Meetup

johndbritton — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:10:01 +0000

Quick Recap

Tuesday night I gave a demo of Twilio to a crowd of around 850 people at the New York Tech Meetup. The event was a ton of fun and jam packed with great demos. I'd like to thank Brandon Diamond, Nate Westheimer, and the rest of the NYTM people for putting on such a great event. I can't wait to come back and demo some more cool stuff, these guys are awesome.

The demo went over really well. Here are a few of my favorite tweets from the evening. There were a lot more than I could list here, check out the Twitter search.

Some Press Coverage

Silicon Alley Insider called it "the best demo we've ever seen" and Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures featured it in a blog post called "How to Pitch a Product." Scott Heiferman, the guy who started NYTM, cited it as his reason for starting NYTM. Read Write Web, The Village Voice, and Technoverse blogs also covered the event.

Fred's blog post was picked up on Hacker News and then I posted it to Reddit. The article was on the front page of both sites for most of Wednesday night and Thursday. I eventually started an open conference call for anyone on the web who wanted to see the demo... I'll be calling everyone back later with a special message.

Other Stuff

I'd also like to congratulate Texai and Indaba on super-impressive demos. Philo, Eventros, Market Publique, and Turnto showed off some pretty cool stuff too. I don't know how I feel about Bing, but they had a great quote. Mike Lewis has a blog post summarizing all the demos, so I won't duplicate that here.

If you're interested in catching up about Twilio, check out our Meetup Everywhere page.

Peer 2 Peer University Call for Courses - Cycle 3

johndbritton — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:21:01 +0000

P2PU is going strong. We're getting ready to launch our third cycle of courses, but before we do that we need you to propose them! Join in on the fun, all the cool kids are doing it.

From the P2PU Blog:

The Peer 2 Peer University is gearing up to launch its third cycle of courses this coming September, and we’re looking for new faces to join the community. Do you have an idea for a six week course? Whether it’s Physics 101 or Poker and Strategic Thinking, all ideas are welcome. You can propose a course at http://wiki.p2pu.org/Create-a-Course (deadline is August 6, 2010).

If you’ve never designed or run a course before, that’s okay, too. P2PU is running a Course Organizers Orientation for newbies to introduce organizers to the practice of online facilitation and provide support while they build a new course. The orientation will be three weeks long and will enable future course organizers to:

Experience open social learning first-hand

Distinguish peer-2-peer learning from formal online teaching

Navigate the different features of the P2PU site

Design a course on a topic of their choice on the P2PU site

Learn how to use different synchronous/asynchronous platforms effectively

Review and provide feedback for others; revise and refine syllabi for their course

Weekly video conferences will be held to discuss important aspects of community building, course design, finding and creating course content, open educational resources (OER), and troubleshooting. Conferences will be recorded and posted for those unable to attend. The orientation leader will also post office hours to provide additional support.

Building on the feedback from participants and organizers in the last two cycles of courses, the P2PU community realised that many potential course organizers had reservations about some of the technological and pedagogical aspects of running courses online. This orientation aims to address these concerns, as well as help organizers become an active part of the P2PU community.

The P2PU community consists of a diverse group of people. They are writers, teachers, designers, doctoral and alternative grad students, artists, copyright specialists, scientists, and blues guitar players. Above all, they are learners–peers working together to learn from each other.

More information, including how and where to sign up, can be found on the P2PU wiki: http://wiki.p2pu.org/orientation

You can submit course proposals until August 6, 2010.

Mozilla Drumbeat NYC

johndbritton — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:39:14 +0000

August 7, 2010 - 12:00pm - 5:00pm
OpenPlans
148 Lafayette Street
New York, NY, 10013
http://www.drumbeat.org/events/drumbeat-new-york

Join us Saturday, August 7th for a look at some cool people and projects that are keeping the web open. Plus, free pizza and beer!

About Mozilla Drumbeat
Will the web still be open in 100 years? Mozilla thinks it can, and should, and must be. That's why we're starting Mozilla Drumbeat, an invitation to everyday internet users to imagine ideas and projects that build a more open web. We want you to get involved!

We are building a new community that includes teachers, artists, designers, filmmakers, writers, lawyers, and policymakers—not just open web geeks. Online, Drumbeat is catalyzing new open web projects that address critical needs and make the Web healthier. Check out current projects or initiate your own at www.drumbeat.org/projects.

About Drumbeat NYC
The Drumbeat NYC event will showcase cool projects and people that are keeping the web open. Come to Drumbeat NYC and learn how you can get involved, or show others what you've been working on.

Drumbeat events aren't just for geeks. We're here to weave together local networks of creative, Web-loving people and start new projects to make the web better.

Please RSVP at Facebook OR Eventbrite

Check out the agenda.

Open Video Conference, October 1-2, New York

johndbritton — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:21:24 +0000

I'll be at the Open Video Conference in NYC, if you're in town, you should definitely join. Here's a quick message from the organizer:

Open Video Conference
October 1-2, 2010
New York City
http://openvideoconference.org

Register by August 1st for early bird rates!
See a preview of confirmed OVC programming

About OVC

The Open Video Conference (OVC) is a multi-day summit of thought leaders in business, academia, art, and activism to explore the future of video on the web. Join us October 1-2 for two days of learning and inspiration. And stick around for the OVC hack labs, presented in partnership with NYU ITP.

Who's coming to OVC?

Connected creatives, technologists and businesspeople of all stripes. Over 100 open source projects. Innovative filmmakers. Visionaries like Tim Wu, cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch, former Obama adviser Susan Crawford, and Damian Kulash of OK Go.

OVC partner organizations include Creative Commons, the Workbook Project, Intelligent Television, Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and more.

Sponsor application deadline

If your company or organization is interested in supporting the Open Video Conference, please be in touch by August 13th.

Open Video Conference
Contact: Ben Moskowitz
conference@openvideoalliance.org

Mozilla Summit 2010 Recap

johndbritton — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:05:00 +0000

The Mozilla Summit far surpassed my expectations. The event was personal, technical, creative and inspiring all at once.

The Mozilla Summit is an invitation-only gathering of some of the most active contributors in the Mozilla community. This year's theme was "Be More Like the Web".

I was lucky enough to be among those who were invited, due to my involvement with the Drumbeat project. There were a total of around 600 Mozilla community members at the event: hackers, localizers, testers, marketers, and the individuals formerly known as 'users'.

Background

Mozilla is most well known for the open source browser, Firefox. In addition to Firefox, there are number of other software projects like Jetpack at Mozilla Labs. Although Mozilla has been incredibly successful with open source software, they're ambitious and ready for the next big challenge. As stewards of the open web, Mozillians around the world are banding together through Drumbeat: a collection of practical projects and local events that gather smart, creative people around big ideas that improve the open web. The Summit was our forum to share the project with the greater Mozilla community.

Day 0: Arrival & Reception

I flew in from Alaska, direct from my family vacation to Vancouver and then hopped on a bus to Whistler, BC. I arrived on Tuesday afternoon just in time to join the Mozilla Foundation meeting and presenter's workshop. I spent the better part of the afternoon working on a speed geek with my new partner in crime at P2PU, Pippa Buchanan. We rehearsed our talk a few times and got valuable feedback for the next day.

The rest of the attendees arrived in time for a reception, where we had a chance to get to know each other and kick off the event properly.

Day 1: Getting Started

The day started off early with a few inspiring keynote speakers and an extended lunch break to watch some of the World Cup. After lunch I headed to a session from Mozilla Messaging where they demoed experimental Thunderbird mail client features.

Photo CC-BY-NC-SA, Nathaniel James

The next session was "Drumbeat in 2100 Seconds," led by Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation. Mark took about four minutes to describe Drumbeat and why it is important to Mozilla before splitting the crowd into groups for the speed geek sessions. All three of the featured Drumbeat projects (P2PU School of Webcraft, Web Made Movies, &amp Universal Subtitles) were represented along with Drumbeat Events and a couple others. The speed geek session went really well; we got a few people to join the project.

Day 2: In the Groove

The second day was filled with more sessions, and some especially interesting HTML5 demos including WebGL and the <audio> and <video> tags. I had a chance to talk to Ben Moskowitz about open video and the upcoming Open Video Conference in New York City.

The Flight of the Navigator is a WebGL demo rendered in the browser that built by the Mozilla audio team. The demo pulls in live data and video from the web while rendering. Everyone in the crowd was awe-struck.

I spent the better part of the afternoon at the Summit Science Fair. There were around thirty individual booths showcasing all kinds of software. Everything from accessibility for the blind to a JavaScript framework for building Firefox extensions.

Photo CC-BY-NC-SA, Michael Morgan

We rounded out the day with the Summit World Expo and International Dinner, where representatives from the over forty countries in attendance showcased their local communities and cultures.

After dinner, there was a late night JetPack hackathon. I built a Firefox extension (more details in a later blog post) in just a few hours. The extension is called 'Clickable Phone Numbers' and it makes any number on the web into a click-to-call number using the Twilio API.

Day 3: Grand Finale

The final day of the conference was a bit more laid back, we talked about the Drumbeat event strategy and did a bit of planning for Drumbeat NYC (August 7th) and the Drumbeat Festival (November 3-5) which is going to be held in Barcelona. I attended a few more lightning talks and a session on the future of client-side debugging.

Pippa and I ran our session on the P2PU School of Webcraft. There was a 10 minute intro, and then we split the audience into four groups with tasks:

Design a course for P2PU School of Webcraft
Brainstorm a list of core web developer skills
Brainstorm a list of 'soft-skills' that employers look for in web developers
Come up with ways to legitimize P2PU School of Webcraft so that we have some 'street-cred'

The session went incredibly well, so well that we had a lineup of people to talk to for almost 30 minutes after it was over.

At the end of the day, we took a Gondola ride up to the peak for a farewell party of sorts. The views of Whistler were magnificent and the "Army of Awesome" was incredibly fun. We enjoyed a delicious dinner, cartoony mascots, toasts, and a dance party before calling it a night.

Day 4: Departure

We left Whistler by bus through the mountains, luckily unobstructed by rock slides. Now I'm on the ground in Seattle for the next week, followed by a trip to Portland for OSCON. Get in touch if you're nearby.

Crowd-sourced Coverage

P2PU is in 'The Hindu'

johndbritton — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:07:06 +0000

P2PU just got coverage in The Hindu, which, according to Wikipedia "is the second-largest circulated daily English newspaper in India." The author, Ajai Sreevatsan, quoted me and mentioned my course "Mashing Up the Open Web."

Video discussions

John Britton, course organiser of 'Mashing up the Open Web,' says time zones are a problem while attempting to simulate a "sit around the fire and learn by discussion" environment virtually. "But lively weekly video discussions (using a combination of Skype and IRC) to review materials and work through the questions presented by the peers still happen."

The 'class' is very diverse, he says. "We have peers from Korea, Japan, India, Spain, the U.S. and Canada. They're artists, technologists, environmentalists, and traditional students."

Aside: This blog post was posted while on a moving bus from Vancouver to Seattle. The wonders of modern technology.