Make something amazing on the web during Mozilla's 2013 Maker Party

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Think back to the first thing you created on the web. For me, it was making a Geocities homepage when I was a teenager (Hollywood, represent). I was amazed that by writing HTML, I could make images of the Green Bay Packers and my favorite PEZ dispensers appear on a web site with my witty commentary.

My self-taught childhood HTML skills laid the foundation for my life on the web. Instead of merely consuming information online, I was armed at an early age with the basic skills needed to create content myself.

If you were like me, your first web project probably left you feeling empowered. Mozilla wants everyone who uses to the web to experience that feeling. The company wants to help turn web surfers into web creators, enabling everyone from children to grandmas to learn to code, edit multimedia content, or even make online games.

Saturday, June 15 marks the beginning of Mozilla's 2013 Maker Party, where for three months thousands of people around the world will take some time to make something—anything—on the web.

The Maker Party is part of Mozilla's Webmaker program, which is designed to increase understanding of the web, empowering users to actively participate in the web instead of passively consuming it. Mozilla reasons that the more people who understand how the web works, the easier it will be to keep it open and accessible to everyone.

Last year, Mozilla's inaugural summer webmaker party featured more than 700 community-led events, drawing more than 10,000 participants in 80 countries. When this summer's Maker Party ends, Mozilla hopes to have engaged more than 500,000 people in learning and creating things on the web.

Getting Involved

Whether you're a seasoned programmer or a total newbie, there's absolutely a way you can participate in the Maker Party. A slew of events and programs are being planned between June 15 and September 15 for people to learn, teach, and share their web-making skills. If there's not an event planned in your area, you can always plan one yourself. The Mozilla mentor community has details on how to organize an event.

But you don't need to attend a workshop or code-a-thon to participate.

Beginners can browse Mozilla's Webmaker database for projects based on difficulty to find something to try their hand at. Options for first-timers include learning to remix a video clip with new audio or writing a proposal while learning the basic HTML and CSS that goes into making the page.

More experienced web makers can hone their skills on more advanced projects like making an open source HTML5 game or building an online portfolio through web design, CSS, and HTML.

Mozilla is also encouraging expert web makers to use the summer to create experimental apps, demos, and web experiences that haven't been done before. Or you can submit a step-by-step guide showing others how to create something neat on the web.

Search the Maker Party website for events near you and follow #webmaker on Twitter to see what people are working on.

If you're organizing an event or planning to learn a new skill as part of the Maker Party, tell us about it. What do you want to learn? What are you teaching?

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Ginny Hamilton was a community manager for EnterprisersProject.com, an online publication and community focused on how CIOs and IT leaders create business value through information technology. A former journalist, Ginny is passionate about local politics, journalism, technology, and social media.

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