Introducing DIY.org: A Community of Kids Who Make
When you were a kid, were you constantly asking your parents how things were made, why they worked, and who made them? If you were, you'd have fit right in at DIY.org, a newly launched company that strives to promote creativity and community among kids today.
For kids, this means potential for surrounding themselves with kids just like them. Kids who are innovators, brainiacs, building block experts, and kids who just like to get their hands dirty (read: ALL kids). The goal is for DIY to be the first app and online community in every kid's life. The first official tool they've released is an app that lets kids collect everything they make in a portfolio available on the website and app.
Founded by Zach Klein of College Humor, Vimeo, Boxee, and Svpply, DIY is the perfect combination of playtime and arts and crafts, but taken to the next level. Once you sign your kid up for DIY, he or she gets to choose an animal avatar making sure identities are kept totally secure. Parents also have their own dashboard so they can see what their kids are posting online, and have the ability to mark certain projects as private if needed.
Aside from the community of super creative kids, DIY makes it ridiculously easy for kids to share all their creative pursuits with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. If you see a project you like, give it a sticker to show your support.
The iPhone / iPod touch app taps right into the same community as the website, and makes it super easy to snap photographs of recent projects and add them to your portfolio. The Internet is 100 percent apart of kids lives today, so why not create a super awesome digital tool that actually breeds analog creativity?
First, we wish something like this had been around when we were little! Second, can they make a version that's just as playful and easy to use for grownups?
Do you know of any awesome communities for kids that promote creativity and resourcefulness? What about ones for grownups? Let us know what you think about DIY.org in the comments below and be sure to follow all the DIY happenings on Twitter.
