500,000 Projects on Scratch: A Programming Platform for Kids

There's a number of different platforms that enable people to build websites on the web without any programming knowledge. Drupal is one of them. However, there are still challenges and the platform can only get you so far without diving in deeper. This is obviously changing and MIT's Media Lab is proving that it'll become increasingly easier for any consumer to build websites or applications on the web. Their project, "Scratch", is creating a new experience that even 6 year olds can use to program on the web.

Scratch enables anyone to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art on the web. MIT is calling it "interactive content," that enables even a 6 year old to pull together images around the web, animate through various controls, and produce a final product that resembles a basic application or game. Much like Drupal uses a module system, Scratch enables users to snap together different types of blocks for integrating various features.

It's not only for 8-15 year olds, which is their primary target market. Introductory computer science classes at Harvard and Berkeley are choosing to use the software to teach students basic concepts and application design instead of starting students out with Java. Teachers on all different levels are interested in using the application to teach various different types of concepts. These forward looking teachers are realizing that education is moving in a more interactive direction. Textbooks will eventually die because learning isn't efficient when you simply memorize and spit back information.

Scratch is taking off, too. There's over 330,000 registered members and new projects popping up almost every minute with a total over half a million projects with over 12 million scripts. It's not just here in the states either. Now there are 120 events in 44 different countries.

The platform isn't just catching on because its really cool. If that were the case, then only the youngsters would be interested in using it. Teaching professionals are interested in it because it provides a completely new experience for both themselves and their students to teach and learn concepts. Empowering people with new, novel experiences that enhance some aspect of life in a new way are bound to do well and gain popularity.

One of my favorite bloggers and venture capitalists, Fred Wilson (one of the first investors in Twitter), explained in a sentence why some of today most popular websites and applications are taking off. They all have the same theme that spurs consumer adoption:

iPhone - mobile browser with a killer touch screen interface
Facebook - a social net with real utility
Wii - gesture based user interface for gaming
Hulu - your favorite TV shows in a fantastic web UI
FlipCam - a video cam that fits in your pocket comfortably
Rock Band - everyone can be a rock star for a few minutes
Mafia Wars - a natively social game built for social nets
Blogger - a printing press for everyone
Pandora - drop dead simple personalized radio
Twitter - blogging everyone can do in less than a minute

What would his sentence summarizing Scratch look like?

Scratch - a platform that even a 6 year old can use to build interactive applications