Radio Rookies at MozFest

In November, Radio Rookies took part in the Mozilla Festival -- in London! The festival is all about teaching everyone to be a webmaker. Presenters come to show off their own hard work but are also there to teach young people and educators their skills.  People have the chance to actually use the tools they learn to make things there at Moz Fest. 

 

I'm a Rookie graduate that's now working as a research assistant and when they told me I was invited I was so happy to leave the country for the first time. We were there as part of the Hive Learning Network NYC team, along with REV-, Mouse and Global Action Project. Radio Rookies recently created the first in a series of do-it-yourself (DIY) videos that will teach people to make their own stories. This one features me and another Rookie graduate (and now Producer), Veralyn Williams and gives people a sneak peak of what Radio Rookies is and what we do. She and I ran a Hacktivate Learning session where people we were working on coming up with a template so that anyone can make their own DIY video, to teach anything, from how to make a perfect donut hair bun to how to use the Hackasaurus X-Ray Goggles. (we made that video at MozFest!)

This video shows how to get the courage to interview strangers out on the street, we call it VOX POP. Check it out!

  

Radio Rookies will be using Mozilla's new webmaking tool, Popcorn Maker, to create the rest of our DIY videos. Popcorn allows people to enhance, remix and share video and audio on the web; and it makes Radio Rookies stories interactive and visual. Mozilla debuted Popcorn Maker this year at Moz Fest and Veralyn and I led a session so people could learn how to make Radio For The Web using Popcorn. We "popped" a Radio Rookies story about stop-and-frisk policing in New York City and using all the Popcorn Maker tools: Google mapping, linking to images, live Twitter feeds and pop up text. At the end we made a call to action for people to tell their own story about relations between young people and the police where they live. With Popcorn, ANYONE can just click "Remix" when they watch our story and then tell their own! (We even made a DIY video template to make it easier)

 

At the festival I got to meet and see many talented people. One of my highlights was meeting the guy that controlled the MozFest blimp. I had never seen anything like it -- the blimp had a camera connected to it to capture pictures of everyone at the festival. I was like, "How do you do that?" He was moving it around with what looked like a video game controller. I was very impressed.  

Okay, okay! I know you all are probably like, "Really? A blimp!" But that was only one of the amazing projects that were there. 

I got to interview people about their super powers for the Superheroes of MozFest project that REV- put together. When I say "super powers" I mean the talents they brought to the festival and the challenges they have to overcome. I interviewed Christian Rodriguez from Global Action Project, the organizer of the whole entire MozFest Michelle Thorne, the host of the festival, Allan Gunn a.k.a. Gunner (who is one of the most funniest guys I have ever met). 

What I took away from this experience was that not only is the internet used to put up your personal business (like how most people use it), but it has developed so much that you can almost do anything with it. I was very impressed and amazed with how many presenters showed up and also the organizers that set up this amazing festival. I honestly have never seen anything so big like this in my life and when I say big, it was huge, because it took up the whole building!!! I am glad to have been a part of this amazing success. 

Thank you all!

Until we meet again Mozilla Festival!

- Vikky Cruz

Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Superheroes Project Team
Superheroes Project Team
Science Fair
Science Fair
Interviewing Christian Rodriguez about his superpower
Interviewing Christian Rodriguez about his superpower
Human API
Human API
Interviewing Michelle Thorne (super organizer) about her superpower
Interviewing Michelle Thorne (super organizer) about her superpower
Interviewing Allan Gunn aka Gunner (super host) about his superpower
Interviewing Allan Gunn aka Gunner (super host) about his superpower
Chris discussing about Hive
Chris discussing about Hive
Jacob at the Science Fair showing the group how to use Popcorn
Jacob at the Science Fair showing the group how to use Popcorn
Lainie and Michelle preparing for the festival
Lainie and Michelle preparing for the festival
Mozfest getting started
Mozfest getting started
How to interview strangers (DIY Video)
How to interview strangers (DIY Video)
Liam and I working on making his own Popcorn video
Liam and I working on making his own Popcorn video
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