My First Trip Abroad In 2007 I went on a trip to Costa Rica with my high school Spanish class. It was a huge deal for me and set me on a mission to see the world. I managed to save enough to cover nearly half of the cost of the trip, but there was no way I was going to be able to get the rest of the money myself. As the final payment due date approached, a few of the teachers in my school raised…
We recently kicked off a mentoring program at P2PU to help people learn web development. We re in the pilot stage, but we re looking forward to opening up for everyone very soon. Here s a first hand look into what the program is like from the view of one of my mentees. Vanessa Gennarelli is a P2PU community member from Chicago, IL. She s an Editor at Flat World Knowledge , serving up open…
I ve had this idea for a while, but I haven t really written about it anywhere yet. The 2011 P2PU Workshop in Berlin is right around the corner. Each attendee is supposed to bring at least one concrete idea and make it happen. This is mine. Sign up to join the group when it starts. Sign up for "Let's Talk TED Talks" TED Talks spark discussion. Every time I watch a TED Talk I want to discuss it.…
It s no secret, Skype sucks. Skype has really been driving me nuts lately. I don t willingly use it, but because of it s popularity and the remote nature of my work I don t really have a choice. Here s are a couple of problems and how I m dealing with them. I m currently running Skype version 5.4.0.1217 on OSX Lion 10.7.2. Microphone Volume Control Because I m a nomad, I work from coffee shops and…
Caley Woods is a P2PU community member from Brookfield, Missouri. He s participated in two courses in the School of Webcraft . This is his story in his words. I believe this whole thing started when I saw a tweet where someone linked the live coding video from John Britton s Twilio presentation at the New York Tech Meetup . I thought the clip was neat so I started following John on twitter and…
Dropping Out of College I dropped out of college about two and a half years ago, but that has not been an excuse to stop learning. In fact, I ve put more effort into learning on my own than I ever did while I was in the system. School was very much about external validation, I lived for taking top marks with as little effort as possible. It wasn t really about learning, it was about jumping…
Someone asked me to explain P2PU and School of Webcraft in an email. My description is always changing, this is what I came up with today: P2PU is a community for learning about anything with peers. Right now we re focused on online learning groups (courses, study groups, book clubs, etc) but are definitely keen on facilitating communities in the real world. We re breaking the traditional model of…
I ll be giving a talk on School of Webcraft at Open Source Bridge . It s happening in Downtown Portland, Oregon at The Eliot Center on June 21 from 1:30PM to 2:15PM. Mozilla and Peer 2 Peer University are creating the P2PU School of Webcraft, a new way to teach and learn web developer skills. Our classes are globally accessible, 100% free, and powered by learners, mentors and contributors like…
I love to travel and I love visualizations of the places I go. I love the visualizations so much that I go out of my way to manually add all of my trips to a map using (the acquired by Nokia and now abandoned) service Dopplr. I m actually writing this article from the Detroit airport and am on my way to Oklahoma City for the Red Dirt Ruby Conference . I m not happy with Apple right now, here s…
Register for Music Hack Day New York On behalf of NYHacker , the nyc hacker union I am proud to announce Music Hack Day New York . Since the first Music Hack Day, (London, July 2009) New York has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the most awesome music hackfest on the planet. Music Hack Day is about creating software, hardware, art anything at all related to music. We ll kick the event off with…
We just opened signups for the third cycle of courses at P2PU which are starting in September. This is our third, and largest cycle yet. We had 6 courses in the first, 16 in the second, and 23 so far for the third cycle. I m organizing a course called Web 200: The Anatomy of a Request as part of the School of Webcraft. Here s the story from the P2PU blog : The Peer 2 Peer University announced its…
I put together a proposal for our Mozilla Drumbeat project, P2PU School of Webcraft, to go to SXSW Interactive and we need your help. Please register for an account on the panel picker website: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/users/register Confirm your email address Vote up our proposal: http://bit.ly/sxsw_webcraft Leave comments and start a discussion Please pass this along to as many people as you…
Udemy just posted a short interview with me about my experience with P2PU: Entrepreneur John Britton is with us today. He has been a member of the P2PU community- a collection of short, college level courses made by anyone- since day one of its launch, and has spent much of his professional life focusing on making topics and education more open to others. John is here to share his views on P2PU…
Here are 7 Tips for demoing at the New York Tech Meetup . This list is definitely not exhaustive, but it should help people out a bit. In the spirit of the advice I'm going to give, I'm going to get right to the tips. 1. Intro in Under 30 Seconds No one cares who your partners are, they just want to see cool tech now. 2. Always be Demoing This is the most important thing I can tell you. People…
Quick Recap Tuesday night I gave a demo of Twilio to a crowd of around 850 people at the New York Tech Meetup . The event was a ton of fun and jam packed with great demos. I'd like to thank Brandon Diamond , Nate Westheimer , and the rest of the NYTM people for putting on such a great event. I can't wait to come back and demo some more cool stuff, these guys are awesome. The demo went over really…
P2PU is going strong. We're getting ready to launch our third cycle of courses, but before we do that we need you to propose them! Join in on the fun, all the cool kids are doing it. From the P2PU Blog : The Peer 2 Peer University is gearing up to launch its third cycle of courses this coming September, and we’re looking for new faces to join the community. Do you have an idea for a six week…
August 7, 2010 - 12:00pm - 5:00pm OpenPlans 148 Lafayette Street New York, NY, 10013 http://www.drumbeat.org/events/drumbeat-new-york Join us Saturday, August 7th for a look at some cool people and projects that are keeping the web open. Plus, free pizza and beer! About Mozilla Drumbeat Will the web still be open in 100 years? Mozilla thinks it can, and should, and must be. That s why we re…
I ll be at the Open Video Conference in NYC, if you re in town, you should definitely join. Here s a quick message from the organizer: Open Video Conference October 1-2, 2010 New York City http://openvideoconference.org Register by August 1st for early bird rates! See a preview of confirmed OVC programming About OVC The Open Video Conference (OVC) is a multi-day summit of thought leaders in…
The Mozilla Summit far surpassed my expectations. The event was personal, technical, creative and inspiring all at once. The Mozilla Summit is an invitation-only gathering of some of the most active contributors in the Mozilla community. This year's theme was "Be More Like the Web". I was lucky enough to be among those who were invited, due to my involvement with the Drumbeat project. There were a…
P2PU just got coverage in The Hindu , which, according to REXML could not parse this XML/HTML: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Hindu&oldid=370224129">Wikipedia</a> is the second-largest circulated daily English newspaper in India. The author, Ajai Sreevatsan, quoted me and mentioned my course Mashing Up the Open Web. Video discussions John Britton, course organiser of…
Mozilla and Peer 2 Peer University are creating the P2PU School of Webcraft , the ultimate environment in which to learn the craft of open and standards-based web development. This coming September we'll be launching our first cycle of six week courses including Introduction to HTML5 and Building Social with the Open Web . We still have space for a few more courses, so whether you can teach a…
The Mozilla Drumbeat Festival is going to be happening in Barcelona right around the same time as the P2PU workshop and the Open Education Conference. I d say it s very likely that I ll be there, you should come too. Spread the word. Save the date: November 3-5, 2010, Barcelona The web is changing how we learn . It surrounds us with a massive and remixable tapestry of perspectives, facts and data.…
I m in San Francisco for the month of June getting ramped up at my new job with Twilio and it just so happend that Google hosted a Summer of Code Meetup at their office just a few blocks down the road. I joined a group of about a dozen others, including Carol Smith and Cat Allman from Google s Open Source Programs Office . There were GSoCers from all over California, including two exchange…
Some friends over at Creative Commons tell me that they re launching a new grant program. The awards range from $1,000 $10,000. They re going to start distributing funds as early as August, so apply right away if you ve got a good idea. I m really psyched to see them making funding available to the general public like this. I ve got a couple ideas of my own that might be eligible so be ready for…
CC-BY-SA Alison Jean Cole A few years ago, I had an idea: I wanted to travel around the world and meet interesting people who I could learn from in exchange for sharing my skills. I remember having the idea very vividly. I was on an airplane, as I often was back in those days, and I was scribbling as fast as I could in my notebook. There was going to be an online component to a mostly offline…
Photo CC-BY-SA gi As I mentioned in my previous post , my course, Mashing Up the Open Web , was a huge success. Since I started participating in P2PU , I ve wanted to organize a course. I haven t yet taken part in a course that someone else has organized, although that is on my todo list. I really would have liked to join in on Kitchen Science , but alas my schedule did not permit it. Background…
It s been a busy couple of months working with Creative Commons . Back in March, Jane Park and I organized ccSalon New York and exactly one month later I was lucky enough to attend ccSalon San Francisco . CC Salons are global, informal events focused on building a community of artists, developers, and creators of all kinds around Creative Commons licenses, standards, and technology. The first…
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Next Saturday, 24 April 2010, I ll be at Drumbeat Toronto to work on the P2PU Open Web Certificate . If you re in or around Toronto, you should definitely come by. Also keep your eyes peeled for an NYC Drumbeat event some time this summer. UPDATE: This is a REMIX of HACK THIS POSTER .
Yesterday, I posted More Than Code, It s a Community Too on the Google Open Source Blog. The post is about my recent experience with GSoC students in India, go check it out!
Are you interested in learning more about the Open Web? Then sign up for my course, Mashing Up the Open Web at P2PU. Sign-ups close on 3 March officially, but if you re really keen on taking the course, contact me . Course Description An introduction to open web standards. HTML, CSS, JavaScript (and more?) through project based learning. This course is not for complete novices, some web experience…
Today I m taking off for a trip to the United Arab Emirates and India. I m traveling with a good friend and we ll be Couch Surfing the whole time. Last year I took a similar trip to go to Education Without Borders in Dubai followed by a short trip to Mumbai . This year, there s no conference to attend and I ll be staying offline as much as possible. While I m traveling I ll be thinking about…
If you ve got ten minutes to spare, I suggest you check out the presentation that I just gave about the soon to be Open Web Career Track at the Peer 2 Peer University. The Open Web Career Track is one of the first few Drumbeat projects being kickstarted in collaboration with Mozilla . The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses.…
I just received the email below on the Google Summer of Code Students mailing list. In 2008 I worked on Gallery as part of Google s Summer of Code . I did the bulk of my work while I was on exchange in Beijing, China. Luckily, at the time, the Summer of Code management application wasn t censored, apparently it is now. This really hurts. If the Chinese Government doesn t lift the ban on the GSoC…
I just got a bunch of Google Wave invites. Post a comment here if you want one, be sure to include your email in the form (it won t be displayed).
On August 26, 2009 at midnight EST we closed applications to the first cycle at the Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) with a total of 227 applicants across 7 courses. The six week pilot phase will begin on September 9, 2009 (09/09/09). Each of the 7 courses has a maximum enrollment of 8 - 15 students. All applicants will be notified of their status within a week. P2PU Course Application Distribution…
Today at the Open Education Conference in Vancouver, Canada we will open applications to The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) . The first round of six week courses will include: Introduction to Concepts in Behavioral Economics and Decision Making Copyright for Educators Introduction to Cyberpunk Literature Land Restoration and Afforestation Open Creative Nonfiction - Take Away Narratives Poker and…
Photo: CC-BY-SA Fast Company has an interesting article about Edupunk . It covers Academic Earth , Flat World Knowledge , and Peer2Peer University (P2PU) . It s also worth noting the total contribution to Open Education by The Hewlett Foundation is $68 million. Thanks for sending me to the Open Education Conference last year!
This weekend is Wiki-Conference New York. I ll be there to kick start the Open Sessions on Saturday. Hope you can make it! I m also going to lead two sessions: Steering Communities of Practice and Using Wikipedia as a Translation Engine . The Nitty-Gritty Date: 25 - 26 July 2009 Location: New York University: Vanderbilt Hall Host: Free Culture @ NYU / Wikimedia NYC Details:…
This blog post is my application for a travel scholarship to attend OpenEd 2009 . Last year I applied for, and was awarded a scholarship to attend OpenEd in Logan, Utah. I came all the way from Hong Kong, and I m tremendously glad that I did. My experience at OpenEd has made an enormous impact on my life. I met some great people , found a great project , and subsequently landed an excellent job in…
Last year I organized a gathering in Beijing s Beihai Park for Couch Surfing Day 2008. This year we were featured in the Wanderlust Newsletter. Check it out!
This past Friday a few friends and I ventured in to New York City to see a live performance by CAKE ( Official Site , Wikipedia ). It was everything I could have hoped for. Back during my freshman year at RPI , CAKE came to Albany and I ve been kicking myself ever since I missed my chance to see them live. The show was sold out, but I was able to snag a couple tickets off eBay. The crowd was good…
Open Everything NYC REXML could not parse this XML/HTML: <ul> <li>There hasn't been much use of the <a href="http://openeverything.wik.is/New_York/New_York_City"> Open Everything NYC Wiki</a>, feel free to dive in and add content before, during, and after the event.</li> <li>As per Philip Ashlock's suggestion, there is now a page on the Open Everything <a…
We ll be screening RIP: A REMIX MANIFESTO , an open source documentary about copyright and remix culture at the Open Everything NYC after party. From the RIP REMIX website: REXML could not parse this XML/HTML: <blockquote> In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and…
Robert David Steele, one of the featured speakers at Open Everything NYC , has decided to distribute copies of his book REXML could not parse this XML/HTML: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0971566119?tag=wwwjohndbritt-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0971566119&adid=1TNWBS80M5JBNB46S8NN&">The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political</a> to all registered attendees…
CC-BY 2.0 The Wikimedia Foundation is currently holding a vote on the possibility of dual licensing the content of the various Wikipedias. To qualify to vote you must hold a Wikipedia account with at least 25 edits prior to March 15. If the vote passes, there will no longer be a licensing conflict between Wikipedia and CC licensed works. You should vote. I did and here s the proof: SPID: 5574…
I m happy to announce the second featured speaker for Open Everything NYC 2009 . We ve got just over one week before the big day; space is going quickly. Spread the word and REXML could not parse this XML/HTML: <a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cEYzbkdPeEMzOEFISkw0U0VySGtRV0E6MA">register</a> now! Robert David Steele Vivas, 56, is a former US spy, co-founder of the US…
Outline Volunteers needed Arrive on time Free lunch T-Shirts Spread the word Suggestions We need between three and five volunteers to take notes directly onto the wiki during the event. It's very important we record the success of the event. Aside from taking notes, you will be responsible for collecting slides and other materials to post on the wiki. Volunteers will receive a free Open Everything…
It has been exactly one year since I re-launched this site using Drupal. That s one year of blogging, and quite a lot has happened. localhost:~ whois johndbritton.com Domain Name: JOHNDBRITTON.COM Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC. Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com Name Server: NS1.HOSTGROWN.COM Name Server: NS2.HOSTGROWN.COM Status: clientDeleteProhibited…
I d like to officially announce the Just Plane Fare Award . I m now accepting applications from REXML could not parse this XML/HTML: <a href=""http://www.bhrsd.org/mmrhs/mmhome/m_index.htm">MMRHS</a> students planning international travel during the summer of 2009. One winner will receive free round trip airfare to anywhere in the world to go and do something . Why? Because I can. Because the…