Scratch Foundation Update: Spring 2017
Let’s take a walk down memory lane. What were you doing 10 years ago? I was marveling at the birth of my daughter Annalise who arrived a few weeks early, ready to say hello to the world. Maybe you were playing around with your first-edition iPhone, or reading the seventh (and final) book in the Harry Potter series. The team at the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab was working on something entirely different: the launch of the Scratch programming environment and online community.
This May, we are thrilled to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Scratch. We’ll be hosting a number of special Scratch Day events in the online community, including the launch of two new studios: “Create a Scratch Cat Birthday Card” and “Share Your Scratch Story.” Be on the lookout for a few surprises as well!
Our Community Continues to Grow
Whether you’re visiting the Scratch website for the first time, or you’re a long time Scratcher, you are part of a global community that creates, shares, and learns together. And that community is growing — last year the Scratch website had over 100 million unique visitors who shared more than 25 thousand new projects every day!
Global Gatherings
As our community grows, so do the ways people connect and collaborate. We’re trying something new for this year’s Scratch Conference: organizers from six countries will be planning and hosting individual events. I hope you can join us in one of these global locations to meet old friends and learn new things in Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, China, France, or Hungary. For more information, please check out the Scratch Conference website.
We’ve also added some new resources to the Scratch Day website. Scratch Day is a global network of events that celebrates Scratch. Scratch Day events bring together young people from the Scratch community to share projects, learn from each other, and welcome newcomers. You can browse the Scratch Day website to locate an event in your community, or post your own Scratch Day event!
Looking Ahead
The Scratch Team continues to move forward with development of the next generation of Scratch (which we’re calling Scratch 3.0), with a public alpha scheduled for January, 2018. With this next version of Scratch, we aim to meet kids where they are. Scratch 3.0 is built on web technologies that will be accessible via mobile and desktop devices on different connection speeds. The team is also working to improve the experience for people experiencing Scratch for the first time, by developing newcomer resources around themes such as art, music, and games.
Scratch in the News
As Scratch grows, so too does the number of people talking about Scratch! In recent months, Scratch has received exciting coverage in number of newsletters, blogs, and publications. Here’s a short list of notable mentions:
- Apps Playground: Scratch Coding Cards review: get your kids programming
- Business2Community: Top 20 Most Popular Programming Languages
- Forbes: Fostering the Next Generation of Girls that Create and Animate
- Getting Smart: Smart Review | Scratch Coding Cards
- KidScreen: Fun vs. Function: Cracking Code’s Cachet
- MIT Spectrum: Wide Open Spaces: Want creative thinkers? Help kids create, says Mitch Resnick
We are looking forward to a fabulous 2017 filled with creativity, collaboration, and coding.
Scratch On!
Lisa O’Brien
Scratch Foundation Executive Director
The Scratch Foundation serves as the steward of the Scratch project, enabling the Scratch Team to maintain the vibrancy and safety of the online community and develop the next generation of Scratch — Scratch 3.0. We’re able to do this because of the generosity of our donors and supporters. If you would like to support the Scratch project, please visit the Scratch Foundation website and make a donation today.
