Quick Thoughts to the Webmaker Club Roll Out Plan

These are just quick unorganized thoughts as my reaction to the webmaker club roll out plan

If you asked the next billion web users who come online do you want them to say, "I am a webmaker" or "I am a Mozillian?"

Both goals are fine, both are united by the same values, but the latter pushes a brand before learning. If that is the goal then the new name Mozilla Academy works.

I understand Mozilla's need for brand awareness. I also know that I serve in formal education spots in a developed nation and this is two areas where the Mozilla Foundation is making a deliberate depature. The beaucracies and brand saturation of Chrome and iOS are strong.

So I am torn.

I love the name webmaker. Not even sure exactly how the brand became established but when I think of the Mozilla Foundation efforts of webl iteracy I think of two things: #teachtheweb and  the webmaker brand.

I don't want to be seen as a company shill. Going into GLAMs and asking, "Hey do you want to start a webmaker club?" or asking "Hey do you want to start a Mozilla Academy?"....

I see the first conversation going easier. Mozilla=Firefox which means Mozilla Academy means you are pushing firefox (especailly as the webmaker tools start to evolve in makerfox tools). I know Firefox is just one part of the Mozilla Foundation but the public sees them as synonomous.

Maybe Mozilla has deper brand recognition in the rest of the world and webmaker is meaningless. I do not know.

This is a little hypocritical I push iPad and Chromium tools all the time (even have an iPad tab on my website). Since the US went to Smarter Balanced and PARCC testing schools chose ChromeOS or iOS for their mobile platforms. I write tutorials that teachers want and thus offer implicit endorsements.

Would Mozilla Academy be any different?

I like webmaker clubs and I like the name Hive. I like the idea of having samll events eveolve into clubs and cities full of clubs evolving into hives. I don't see these all being different versions of the Mozilla Academy.

Why can't we have different names and then have a common byline and a common branding effort across the web products:

Webmaker clubs: brought to you by Mozilla Learning 

or

Hive: A Mozilla Learning Production

or some common tagline across all the products. Then there could be a common graphic or logo across all of the proucts

 

On Academy

Seems too formal to me. I like clubs gets at informal learning spaces. Academy is used a lot right. Kahn Academy, Code Academy, Star Fleet Academy.