![\"MozFest](\"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/MozFest-logo-copy.png\"){kind=logo}
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More than 1,600 educators, community-builders, technologists and creators met in London from October 24-26, 2014 for MozFest<\/a>, a collaborative festival dedicated to innovating for the open web. \n<\/p><\/div>\n \n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nOver the course of three days, attendees from 50+ countries participated in hundreds of hands-on sessions exploring topics ranging from opportunities for the mobile web and digital literacy; to journalism; science; arts, culture and music on the web.
\nFriendships were forged, ideas emerged, prototypes were hacked. Here’s a taste of what we worked on together at MozFest 2014:
\n<\/p>\nImagining Applications for BRCK<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"brick\"](\"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/brick-252x189.jpg\")
\nBRCK<\/strong><\/a> is a device that allows connectivity in places where it wouldn’t normally be\u2014it’s durable; portable; can be powered with, for example, solar cells; and uses the 3G network. It inspired a number of ideas at MozFest including:<\/p>\n\n
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Mozfest’s First Youth Zone<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
EPIK<\/a>![\"Youthzone\"](\"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Youthzone-252x141.jpg\")
<\/a> is a<\/span> digital literacy initiative designed for young people ages 8-25 that started in Kent, UK but is now taking their work global. The EPIK team setup and wrangled the first MozFest “Youth Zone” this year and it was a huge success:\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Brainstorming How to Use SAM Wireless Sensors
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\nSAM<\/strong><\/a> is a set of building blocks with sensors and motors that are connected wirelessly. The SAM app allows you to connect them in interesting ways, and helps you learn to code if you don’t already know how.\u00a0 MozFest participants played with SAM while learning about <\/span>its potential <\/span>applications including<\/span>:<\/p>\n\n\n
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Learning to Make Personal Apps with Appmaker<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Appmaker\"](\"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Appmaker-252x189.jpg\")
\nAppmaker<\/strong><\/a> is a free, open source tool developed by the Mozilla community for creating personal mobile apps, even if you\u00a0 don’t know code. Appmaker allows you to\u00a0 combine individual bricks to create and share custom mobile apps right in your web browser. During MozFest:<\/p>\n\n\n
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Rethinking the Browser<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n![\"firefox-bookmark-bandwidth-xl-200x300\"](\"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/firefox-bookmark-bandwidth-xl-200x300.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMatthew Willse, a developer & designer with Mozilla\u2019s Webmaker<\/a> project, facilitated a MozFest session called, Rethink the Browser<\/strong> to imagine new ways to peek beyond the surface of a web site to enable smarter, safer browsing on the mobile web. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nSession participants generated lots of ideas, in part focusing on data usage \u2014 a costly and limited resource for many people around the world. The problem: we don\u2019t know how much data we have used until after we use it. Session participants designed an intervention that gives users more information before they visit a site, and agency to preserve their bandwidth. <\/span>Using bookmarks and top sites listed in Firefox Mobile, they built a system to indicate whether each site is more or less resource intensive (red to green).<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIf you\u2019re interested in getting involved, the idea needs\u00a0 a bit more work to improve the indicators and interaction, and to map the relative scale of resources and bandwidth.\u00a0\u00a0 Contact Matthew on Twitter @mw<\/a> to help. More info in Matthew’s blog<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\nEncouraging Future Digital Leaders at the Maker Party<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"Maker](\"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Maker-Party-252x167.jpg\")
Saturday’s Maker Party was high-energy event with dozens of hands-on opportunities to learn new digital skills. It was open to makers and learners of all ages but one group stuck out: the Digital Leaders program from the Staplehurst School in the UK.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\nCreating Learning Guides for Community Makers<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"NAte\"](\"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/NAte-252x189.jpg\")
\nErhardt Graeff and Nathan Matias from the MIT Center for Civic Media co-facilitated this session with the goal of creating a learning guide for other community-focused makers.
\nThe group explored the question “What do we mean by civic and community-focused making?” and participants shared challenges based on their own experiences.
\nSeveral participants committed to refining a template meant to emphasize the community-focused goals and specific context of any initiative or workshop, evaluating the learning guides, and creating ways that organizers who try the guides can share back what they learn. To get involved, contact @erhardt<\/a> or @natematias<\/a>. Read more in Erhardt\u2019s blog<\/a>.
\n <\/p>\nEmpowering Local Communities with Snapp<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Hive](\"http:\/\/webmakerblog.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Hive-notes-252x336.jpg\")
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