Welcome to Maker Party!
We celebrate Maker Party once a year during July to September. Maker Party is a way to put the lessons we've been learning through #TeachTheWeb into action. It's an opportunity to make, connect, celebrate openness, use interest-driven, learner-centric activities and methods to teach web literacy skills, provide mentorship and empowerment to people, get feedback from our peers, and experiment.
You can teach and make the web anywhere, with anyone. There are people teaching in parks, in internet cafes, in libraries, in classrooms and around their kitchen tables. Maker Party is a way to connect and celebrate with other learners, makers and mentors. You can be part of it too! How do you want to teach people?
The only thing you have to do is ask people to participate. Chances are, once they understand your aim, they'll be excited about participating in some way. Just explain your goals, what you want to do, and ask for help. The worst that can happen is that someone says “no,” in which case, you can find someone else to ask.
A good place to start is by searching the directory of Mozilla volunteers and finding out if there are any in your area. You should also see what kinds of hacker spaces, maker clubs, digital literacy programs, community spaces, libraries, etc. are in your area. Get creative and use broad strokes; there are people out there, we know it!
Throwing a Maker Party doesn't have to be time intensive or difficult. You just have to decide how much time and energy you have to #TeachTheWeb and then organize something that fits your schedule. If you're already teaching digital skills in your classroom, running a Maker Club or otherwise gathering learners on a regular basis, you can participate by simply sharing with us what your learners are working on.
If you haven't yet gathered a group of participants to #TeachTheWeb to, Mozilla has developed three types of event formats that make it easy for anyone to get started:
- A small event is a very easy way to #TeachTheWeb – you don't need to plan much/anything, just invite people to meet at a particular day and time and start making things together. The How to Host a Small Maker Party Guide explains step-by-step how to run this easy event.
- A medium-sized event requires a bit of preparation and planning. You decide to organize an event where between 10 and 50 people come to learn about the web and make things. The How to Host a Medium Maker Party Guide can help you think about what to do in your event.
- Finally, a large event is for those who are looking to form real world networks in their local area. It's a good way to get your community excited about the types of offerings available. A large event can bring multiple organizations together for a day of hacking. Each organization sets up a station with a lightweight activity that participants can do in a short amount of time. The Large Maker Party Guide covers this format in detail and points to some great resources that will help you understand it.
To recap:
- It's easy to take the Webmaker methods, ideas and tools into your community
- Mozilla's volunteer network can help you identify your team and groups to work with
- We've got some snappy templates to help with face-to-face meetings :)