IDC 2007 Proceedings: Posters June 6-8, 2007, Aalborg, Denmark

ScratchR: sharing user-generated programmable media

Andrés Monroy-Hernández
MIT Media Laboratory
77 Massachusetts Ave. E15-120B
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
+1 617 253 4191
[email protected]

ABSTRACT Programmable media and Scratch

In this paper, I describe a platform for sharing The easiest way to start describing the term programmable
programmable media on the web called ScratchR. As the media is by giving examples of what it is not. Videos,
backbone of an on-line community of creative learners, audio, images and text are not programmable media.
ScratchR will give members access to an audience and Programmable media is created when images, audio and
inspirational ideas from each other. ScratchR seeks to text, are controlled according to certain behavior. Scratch is
support different states of participation: from passive an authoring environment for creating programmable
consumption to active creation. This platform is being media. For example, a kid can use the image of a cat (non-
evaluated with a group of middle-school students and a programmable media) and then define a behavior like
larger community of beta testers. “move the cat 10 steps when the right arrow key of the
Author Keywords computer is pressed”. That mix of behavior and non-
Programmable media, user-generated content, social programmable media is what I call programmable media.
networks, creativity, on-line communities, programming
languages
ACM Classification Keywords
K.3.1 [Computer Uses in Education]: Collaborative
learning
INTRODUCTION
Figure 1. Elements of a programmable media object.
Scratch [1] is a new programming language that makes it
easy for youth and children to create programmable media RELATED WORK
such as animated stories, games and interactive art. Platforms for sharing user-generated content are not new;
ScratchR is the web-based platform that lets kids share their in fact, web sites like that have gained a lot of attention in
Scratch creations on-line. ScratchR gives kids access to an recent years. For example, YouTube [2] and Flickr [3] are
on-line community of Scratch programmer like themselves. well-known platforms for sharing non-programmable
One of the goals of ScratchR is to help the creative process media. In these sites users get different types of feedback
by fostering collaboration. To achieve collaboration, from other members of the community and find
ScratchR tries to provide a wide range of entry points: from inspirational ideas by looking at other people’s creations
the simple act of interacting with a project to commenting (e.g. pictures and videos). However, there is not a platform
and uploading new projects. The platform is a repository of for sharing programmable media and especially not one
user-generated content that then serves as a source of that focuses on youth and children.
inspiration and appropriable objects. Lastly, ScratchR Creative appropriation
allows members to connect with each other, forming a Due to the nature of programmable media, it is very useful
social network of creators. The immediate result of this to let people reuse other people’s work (e.g. blocks of code
work is the public release of the Scratch on-line community and sprites). That is what I call creative appropriation: the
which is as an important element of the whole Scratch utilization of someone else’s creative work in the making of
experience. The platform is being evaluated with a small a new object. There are very few platforms that allow
group of middle-school students and a larger group of beta creative appropriation; one of them is the OPENSTUDIO
testers. The result of this research will provide a theoretical [4] web site which focuses on sharing digital paintings.
framework for analyzing and designing on-line There seems to be no platform that allows people to engage
communities that engage kids in learning from each other in creative appropriation of programmable media. ScratchR
by sharing their creations. is a unique platform that gives young programmers access
to the power of collective intelligence.
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IDC '07, June 6-8, 2007 Aalborg, Denmark

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IDC 2007 Proceedings: Posters June 6-8, 2007, Aalborg, Denmark

Figure 2. Platform that fosters creative appropriation

DESIGN GUIDELINES
Figure 3. Components of the ScratchR platform
The goal of ScratchR is to foster creative learning as part of
an on-line social experience. Inspired by Jenkins’ [5]
description of the states of participation in fan-fiction
communities, I put forward the idea that members of a
creative on-line communitie like ScratchR, tend to be in
four different states: passive consumption, active
consumption, passive production and active production.

Figure5. States of participation

The level of engagement and state of participation varies Figure 4. ScratchR home page and project page
from person to person and from time to time in each
individual. ScratchR is designed to welcome users no EVALUATION
matter in what state they wish to be. For example, an active I am working with a group of ten middle-school students,
consumer could be engaged in only tagging other people’s ages 12 to 14, as part of an eleven-week workshop focused
projects. For active members of the community, be it on creating programmable media for the web. I expect to
active consumers or active producers, the social collect qualitative information that will help me build
connections and the feeling of being in control of their own illustrative cases. In parallel, quantitative data is being
community are important characteristics. Overall, the collected as hundreds of children and adults from around
ScratchR platform tries to foster creative learning in a the world are using a beta version of the website.
social context by allowing participants to engage in a wide ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
range of activities, such as giving or receiving inspirational I would like to thank my advisor Mitchel Resnick and the
ideas and feedback from and to the community. Lifelong Kindergarten Group for their feedback and
ARCHITECTURE support.
ScratchR is composed of three basic elements: a repository
REFERENCES
of Scratch projects, a collection of user-generated metadata
1. Maloney, J. et al (2004) "Scratch: A Sneak Preview".
about those projects and a community of socially
Second International Conference on Creating,
networked people. Members of the community can share
Connecting, and Collaborating through Computing,
(upload) or appropriate (download) the original building
Kyoto, Japan, pp. 104-109.
blocks of the Scratch projects they interact with on the web
site. Internally, the platform and the Scratch files 2. YouTube at http://www.youtube.com.
themselves keep a record of those activities. Users can also 3. Flickr at http://www.flickr.com.
participate in the community by tagging, commenting,
grouping and rating other people’s projects. These activities 4. OPENSTUDIO at http://openstudio.media.mit.edu.
occur in the context of a social network where members 5. Jenkins, H (2006). "Convergence Culture". New York:
can connect with each other by establishing friendship NYU Press. p 17
links.

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