Maker Party Month Rwanda Phase 1 30th August 2014

Maker Party is Mozilla's global campaign to teach the web. This campaign happens annually from June to October and the Rwanda community was not left behind on this campaign. Mozilla Rwanda has been conducting web maker events among friends and family during the months of June, July and August and we were planning to make these small events big and take them to schools.

We set our calendar from August and September for this event “Maker Party Month, Rwanda” and our target was two schools and one community building event to plan for the school events.

30^th August, 2014. We met at KGL fast food to plan for our events. Meeting was set to start at 12.00p but because of the last Saturday community cleaning day, members came late and we started our meeting at 3.00pm. Everyone came with their laptops and we were ready to start our agenda. Six members attended and 8 came when we were winding up. Agenda of the day was:

• ·         Maker Party Month activities
• ·         Firefox OS Keon project
• ·         Reports on community building and webmaker projects

First item on the agenda was Maker Party month activities. We all know Maker party is a campaign to teach the web. Plan was to visit two schools and teach them how to create something using the web using the web tools and also help them understand how the web works. All the members who attended do know how to use the tools and they split into two groups and will plan how they will conduct the two events. Paula and Irene are the team leaders. The two events were supposed to take place early August but because of unavoidable circumstances due to one of the leaders being away because of seeking medical attention, schools were on break and so we had to reschedule the dates for the school events. Irene was to inquire from her school when they can have us again after schools resume and Paula was to plan with other developers and pick a day when we can have a maker party event in a hub.

   

   

Second thing on the agenda was Firefox OS Keon project. Az received 3 Keons from Mozilla in June and she gave them to the members to take a look at them. We again split the members into three groups and they were to work together on the phone. Dominique, Paula and Irene are the group and will give reports on the working progress. Each of them was given a Keon.

Last thing on the agenda was reports on community building and the webmaking projects. We have 3 new members through Irene and Az. Paula is doing a great job spreading the word and teaching her acquaintances the web. She will plan a webmaker session and will let us know to help facilitate.

There being no other business, the meet up ended at 6pm. The next event will be set after Irene and Paula confirm the dates.

MozRw Webmaker 31st May, 2014

Webmaker is a Mozilla project that helps us create something awesome on the web with tools like Google X-rays, thimble and popcorn maker which allow web makers to create and understand how the web works. Awesome right? Having this knowledge, one can make a web without limits. Webmaker project has built everything so that we see how it works, take it apart and remix it.

Remix? The first time I heard that word in a webmaker meetup (my 1st ever meet up), i got confused. I had to ask our rep then who is now my mentor what he meant. It simply means remake.So webmaker allows us to remake the web which takes us to our goal - encourage millions of people around the world to move beyond using the web to making it.

On 31st May, 2014, Mozilla Rwanda Community joined the Mozilla webmaker community at KLab - Kacyiru Rwanda.It was the community's 1st webmaker sessions so we covered Introduction to webmaking.

   

Everyone had their laptop and excited to learn about making the web. I introduced the team to Webmaking (what it about) webmaker.org then introduced them to the tools
Google X-rays, thimble and popcorn maker. After a brief explanation of each tool, the members present tried to remix several webmaking projects in the website. The experience was exciting for both the members and I. We covered Xray, Thimble and Popcorn. Below are some of the projects the members remixed and published.

      

After a two hour thirty minutes session of fun - teaching and learning the web tools, we all agreed to have another session to move to the next level.

FSA @ KIST - 21st March 2014

Friday 21st March 2014. A day we had planned for months and was in the dark for so long had finally seen the light. We requested this opportunity last year and after several reminders, they finally gave us an opportunity to  talk to the students.

Mozilla Rwanda Community, Represented by Ezres Anitah Az +Az, had a talk with the University of Rwanda - College of Science and Technology students. Given the school's schedule, the turn out was amazing. 50+ students showed up. 

With our our MISSION, the plan was to recruit FSA's in Kigali and set up an FSA club in the institution. 

Az gave her presentation on Mozilla, Mozilla Rwanda and the Firefox Student Ambassador Program and also talked about starting a Firefox Stdent Ambasador Club in the institution.

The presentation included trivia questions about Mozilla and Firefox to see how much the students knew about Mozilla and Firefox. Not many people know about Mozilla or Firefox but many know about Mozilla Firefox browser. They were surprised to find out about Mozilla as an organisation, its products and the Mozilla community. Funny how many think we were recruiting students to work for Mozilla organisation :).

After the presentation, many seemed to be interested and the audience had many questions about the presentation and how they can be part of the community. With the help of their Head of Department, Arthur Joash who is willing to be our contact person (Ambassador) in the institution, we managed to pick a name for the club, and a student rep Adelene. Name picked for the Club is COSTECH FSA Club. Az was tasked to create a club then the students can join online. 

After all this, it was time to share the Mozilla gear we received for the event. Students were excited to recieve something after the talk.

None of this would have happened without the help of Hezron Richard & Alex Wafula from Mozilla Kenya and our contact from the institution Arthur Joash, Univeristy of Rwanda COSTECH. Thank you.

Mozilla Rwanda Meet up 15th March, 2014

It was a rainy afternoon in Kigali. We planned to meet at 2.00pm but ended up meeting at 5.30pm. The turn out was low. We were only 5 Mozillians present namely Irene, Benjamin, Chris, Deus and Az.

Agenda of the Day Event was to plan the upcoming Firefox Student Ambassador event at KIST, which was scheduled for Friday 21^st March 2014.

Az took them through the presentation I had prepared for the event and also assigned tasks to them. What they would do at the event. Benjamin and Irene suggested we plan a future event for their school next semester. 

The meeting ended at 6.30pm.