a project, the site automatically adds a link back to the original project, so the original author gets credit. Also, each project includes links to its “derivatives” (projects remixed from it), and the “Top Remixed” projects are featured prominently on the Scratch homepage.

Some projects focus on the site itself, providing reviews and analyses of other projects there. One early example was called SNN, for Scratch News Network, featuring the Scratch cat (the default character in Scratch) delivering news about the Scratch community, much like a CNN anchor. At first, we saw it as a “simulated newscast” but then realized it was a real newscast, providing news of interest to a real community—the Scratch online community. The SNN project inspired others, leading to a proliferation of online newsletters, magazines, and TV shows, all programmed in Scratch, reporting on the Scratch community.

Other Scratchers formed online “companies,” working together to create projects that their individual members could not have produced on their own. One company got its start when a 15-year-old girl from England, with screen name BeeBop, created a project full of animated sprites and encouraged others to use them in their projects or place special requests for custom-made sprites. She was setting up a no-fee consulting business. A 10-year-old girl, also from England, with screen name Mu-sicalMoon, liked BeeBop’s animations and asked if she’d be willing to create a background for one of her projects. This collaboration gave rise to Mesh Inc., a self-proclaimed “miniature company” to produce “top quality games” in Scratch. A few days later, a 14-year- old boy from New Jersey, screen name Hobbit, discovered the Mesh Inc. gallery and offered his services, saying, “I’m a fairly good programmer, and I could help with debugging and stuff.” Later, an 11-year-old boy from Ireland, with screen name Marty, was added to the Mesh Inc. staff due to his expertise in scrolling backgrounds.

Such collaborations open opportunities for many different types of learning. Here’s how a 13-year-old girl from California, who started a Scratch company called Blue Elk Productions, described her experience:

“What is fun about Scratch and

the scratch Web
site has become
a vibrant online
community, with
people sharing,
discussing, and
remixing one
another’s projects.

about organizing a company to write games together is that I’ve made a lot of friends and learned lots of new things. I’ve learned a lot about different kinds of programming by looking at other games with interesting effects, downloading them, and looking at and modifying the scripts and sprites. I really like programming! Also, when I started with Scratch I didn’t think I was a very good artist. But since then, just by looking at other people’s art projects, asking them questions, and practicing drawing using programs like Photoshop and the Scratch paint editor, I’ve gotten a lot better at art... Another thing I’ve learned while organizing Blue Elk is how to help keep a group of people motivated and working together… I like Scratch better than blogs or social networking sites like Facebook because we’re creating interesting games and projects that are fun to play, watch, and download. I don’t like to just talk to other people on-line, I like to talk about something creative and new.”

To encourage international sharing and collaboration, we’ve placed a high priority on translating Scratch into multiple languages. We created an infrastructure that allows the Scratch programming blocks to be translated into any language with any character set. A global network of volunteers has provided translations for more than 40 languages. Children around the world now share Scratch projects with one another, each viewing the Scratch programming blocks in their own language.

future Directions

A growing number of K– 12 schools around the world, and even some universities (including Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley), 8 use Scratch as a first step into programming. A natural question is What comes next? In the Scratch discussion forums, there are ongoing debates about what programming language should be used after Scratch. We receive many requests to add more advanced features to Scratch (such as object inheritance and recursive list structures), hoping that Scratch itself could be the “next step.”

We plan to keep our primary focus on lowering the floor and widening the walls, not raising the ceiling. For some Scratchers, especially those who want to pursue a career in programming or com-