Maker Party Bhubaneswar @SOAU

It was a bright and sunny day on 24^th August, 2014 when Mozilla Reps Priyanka Nag and Sayak Sarkar came over, and hosted the Mozilla Party in our college, here at ITER.

"TEACH.... CREATE.... SHARE....."

Driven by Mozilla, fuelled by passion; Moz FSAs Rish Goenka and Shubham Mohopatra organized the event in ITER college, of SOA University. The date was scheduled on 24^th August. The guests were Priyanka, Sayak, Umesh, Sumanto, Prasanna, Sukant, Aroop and Haider.

The main motto of that event was to help people of Bhubaneswar know more about web and how to make it secure.

'Maker Party Bhubaneswar' is a part of 'Maker Party’: a worldwide event (global campaign) hosted by Mozilla and its partner organizations to celebrate making things on the web. From June 15 to September 15, thousands of youth come together across the globe to learn how the web works through hands-on making.

Here at Bhubaneswar the Maker Party was attended by more than 400 students coming from different colleges like KIIT, CET, GITA, KEC, Institute of Mathematics, CIME, Silicon Institute and CV Raman college.

The event started at around 10 ‘o’ clock. The event was anchored by Shruti Nayak, who is a very fluent anchor, and a Mozillian herself. She undertook all the responsibilities, starting from welcoming the guests to the thanksgiving, very fluidly and ensured that nothing went wrong.

Other coordinators included Sumit, Pritshu, Priyanka, Prabha, Sourav, Manisha, Anmol, Abhishek and Sushreeta. All the coordinators helped; starting from efficiently managing the spot registration to crowd management to arranging the stage and chairs and the equipments.

First Priyanka gave a detailed introduction to the students about the world of Mozilla. She said everything about Mozilla, its products, its vision. Next she introduced the Firefox OS and also handed out her phone, which was Firefox OS enabled, to the students to see and feel how it is to use Firefox OS.

“Our Mission is to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the web.” Mozilla’s motto was told by her to the audience, which received a huge round of applause.

Many students had different queries. Many had too much misconception about Mozilla and its products. This was handled by Priyanka. She urged the students to ask her anything they had in their mind. And the students were not disappointed.

The stage was handed over to Sayak by Priyanka. Sayak told the students about Open source and how to contribute to it. He also told about the FSA program. FSA or Firefox Student Ambassador Program is designed for students who have a passion to do something for the web through Mozilla.

After the lunch, Sumanto took over the mike. He explained about the Mozilla Appmaker and how to build apps through it.

Next came Prasanna. He told, in details, to the students about the various products of Mozilla. He then interacted with the students and answered their queries.

 Next came Umesh. He taught students how to use X-ray goggles. The most exciting part came when he displayed its use to the students. Everyone was thrilled when Umesh actually changed content from our college’s website. Later he explained that it was no hacking, but actually only the content for the current user has changed. Students enjoyed this part thoroughly.

Sayak took over the stage and started teaching us how to use Popcorn Maker. He used a video of Bill Gates taking the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and modified it, by inserting popups at relevant places.

During the proceedings, various media coverage were also done. Radio 90.4 FM, a local radio station, and The Prameya News, a newspaper came for covering the workshop. Students as well as various coordinators were interviewed by them.

After 5 hours of Mozilla interaction, the Maker Party came to an end at 5pm. Moz Reps Priyanka and Sayak said they had never seen a crowd so big at any Mozilla event and thus were highly impressed. A delicious chocolate cake was cut, various photographs were taken and then everyone was bid goodbye. The students’ feedback was taken in a large piece of paper which was later pinned on the wall of the college. The feedback was good, students said they thoroughly enjoyed the event from start till end, and were looking forward for another one.

We are Crazy Mozillians !!

Rishu Goenka