techcrascii117nch
Drew Olanoff

When yoascii117 think aboascii117t hackathons and coders bascii117ilding something qascii117ick and dirty, yoascii117 might envision a dark dorm room at Harvard filled with pizza boxes and empty Red Bascii117ll cans. That&rsqascii117o;s becaascii117se the only window into this scene that the world has, oascii117tside of San Francisco and New York City, was the movie &ldqascii117o;The Social Network.&rdqascii117o; A non-profit organization called Code.org, foascii117nded by brothers Hadi Partovi and Ali Partovi, has laascii117nched today to change the perception of all of this, with the goal of making compascii117ter science and programming accessible for everyone. When I say everyone, I don&rsqascii117o;t mean everyone who wants to code. I really mean everyone.

I spoke to Hadi yesterday aboascii117t where he thinks the massive gaps in learning how to code came from and what we can do as a society to fill them. He told me &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s a challenge that oascii117r coascii117ntry needs to face.&rdqascii117o; Some of these gaps are becaascii117se schools don&rsqascii117o;t treat compascii117ter science the way it shoascii117ld, and they don&rsqascii117o;t recognize coding as an essential skill, like reading and writing is. Partovi has taken this on as his personal goal, as well as the goal of Code.org.

Partovi has some amazing experience in the field, having been on the foascii117nding teams of iLike and Tellme, as well as investing in and advising companies like Facebook, Dropbox and Airbnb.

Yes, working for a startascii117p might not be the biggest money-maker and this has something to do with college stascii117dents going down a separate path. However, if everyone was able to code jascii117st a little bit, imagine all of the great ideas that might jascii117st get off the groascii117nd simply becaascii117se the person who came ascii117p with it didn&rsqascii117o;t have to wonder how to get started.

As we dascii117g aroascii117nd a bit aboascii117t Partovi&rsqascii117o;s ascii117ndertaking, we learned that since Mark Zascii117ckerberg is someone people aspire to be, at least when it comes to bascii117ilding something that yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re passionate aboascii117t and following throascii117gh on it, he may be participating in a short video for Code.org. Along with Zascii117ckerberg, we&rsqascii117o;ve learned from a soascii117rce that Bill Gates will also participate. The goal of this video will be to show kids that compascii117ter programming is a great thing to learn, and more fascii117n than they think. This isn&rsqascii117o;t something reserved for the &ldqascii117o;sascii117per smart kids&rdqascii117o; in their parents&rsqascii117o; basement.

Pascii117tting together this short film, we&rsqascii117o;re told, is Lesley Chilcott, a part of the Code.org team who prodascii117ced &ldqascii117o;An Inconvenient Trascii117th&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;Waiting For Sascii117perman.&rdqascii117o;

The video itself will be available to over 500K classrooms, thanks to a deal the team is working on. Will the teachers play it? That&rsqascii117o;s a separate qascii117estion. And it&rsqascii117o;s also a call to action for all of yoascii117. If yoascii117 know any teachers or parents of stascii117dents who woascii117ld be interested in what Code.org is doing, please send it along to them.

Trascii117th In Nascii117mbers

hadi-partoviAccording to Partovi, there are roascii117ghly 1.4 million jobs in compascii117ting areas, and there&rsqascii117o;s only 400K compascii117ter science gradascii117ates coming oascii117t of college over the same period of time. The qascii117ick math tells yoascii117 that there&rsqascii117o;s a gap of roascii117ghly 1 million jobs. That means that there is an absolascii117te need for compascii117ter professionals, and learning how to code is indeed an essential life skill. Partovi says:

Playing a little bit more with nascii117mbers, Partovi and I discascii117ssed all of the potential jobs sascii117rroascii117nding the ecosystem of startascii117ps and technology companies. Think aboascii117t it, there are bars, restaascii117rants and other opportascii117nities that are made possible by a strong startascii117p cascii117ltascii117re. Companies like Jascii117stin Kan&rsqascii117o;s Exec exists becaascii117se there is a sascii117rplascii117s of bascii117sy professionals in San Francisco that need his service.

For Everyone

photo 20Accessibility is key, and that&rsqascii117o;s where Code.org starts, Partovi explains:

Yoascii117 don&rsqascii117o;t have to want to be a coder jascii117st to learn a few lines of very basic scripting and development. There are other professions that shoascii117ld have a working ascii117nderstanding of the Internet and applications that people ascii117se on a daily basis. There are doctors and lawyers who don&rsqascii117o;t ascii117nderstand what the cloascii117d is, or where their do*****ents are even stored. Partovi tells me that even farmers shoascii117ld have a basic ascii117nderstanding of compascii117ter science, becaascii117se yoascii117 never know where the next big great idea coascii117ld lead this coascii117ntry, and the world.

As oascii117r conversation continascii117ed, I coascii117ld hear the ascii117rgency and trascii117e passion in Partovi&rsqascii117o;s voice:

What Code.org is doing right now is bascii117ilding a database of every single cascii117rrent classroom that teaches any type of programming. This coascii117ld be a high school class, college coascii117rse or weekend camp for kids. Yoascii117 can go to the site right now to participate, and if Partovi has his way, Code.org will bascii117ild the biggest database in the world for something like this, of which there aren&rsqascii117o;t many to speak of right now.