On January 1, we proclaimed 2012 "Code Year." Our aim was to make programming mainstream in 2012. We thought that not everyone needed to be a programmer, but everyone needed to understand what programming was. Code Year launched and more than 450,000 people joined us on the journey, making their own New Years Resolution to learn to code.
Code Year brought amazing awareness to the importance of programming literacy. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined in, helping to turn his city into one of the most fertile for startups by pledging to learn to code. Weeks later, The White House realized the same thing and helped us champion a program to teach children to program. Schools everywhere contemplated including coding in their core curriculums, and politicians started the crusade to make more engineers in America.
WHERE TO?
We’ve seen tremendous success stories come out of Code Year and we’ve collected them for you to check out. These four stories are merely a small sampling of what’s come out of Code Year, and there are stories all over the web. Ryan Hanna, who knew nearly no programming before seeing Codecademy and Code Year, launched his company Sworkit and has seen more than 100,000 downloads. Joah and Haley, meanwhile, learned bits of code on Codecademy and then created their own course to share with others. We think they embody true success on Codecademy – learning, building, and sharing back with the community.
At the same time, while we’ve seen tremendous success, all of us at Codecademy have spoken to the thousands of people who have let our emails languish unread in their inboxes. Kevin Roose of New York Magazine wrote a great apology to Codecademy last week and we understand where he’s coming from. Making a commitment over a year and keeping it is notoriously difficult. We judge Code Year’s success not just by the finishers but by the people who now are simply more interested and more aware of programming and the community that surrounds it.
SO, WHAT NEXT?
We’re here to help. In 2012, we pulled together an excellent yearlong curriculum that spanned JavaScript, HTML/CSS, jQuery, and Python. This year, we want people to do more than learn to code, we want them to use their code to build something. Learning is the first step, but creating is the next (and maybe more important) step.
Sticking to your resolutions is hard. That’s why, in 2013, we’ve done everything possible to make sure you’ll come out a capable coder:
- Pick a project and build it – in 2012 people could "learn to code." That’s a hard goal to achieve. In 2013, you’ll build a project and you’ll do it almost immediately. Build a website or build a game and learn the basics of code in the process.
- Timing – consistency is hard to achieve and starting small is the key. In 2012, people got emails every week. In 2013, you’ll start small by achieving your goal in less than a month! Where you go from there is up to you.
- Pencil the time in – are you always "too busy" to finish your resolutions? Start off by putting the time in your calendar.
- Measure progress – we’ll show you what people who stick with it can achieve. Track your own progress with our profiles and stick with it!
It’s easier than ever to start now. Programming is empowering and we’re proud to have helped thousands of people learn to code. In 2012, Code Year students built mobile apps with hundreds of thousands of downloads, taught thousands of people, and got better at their own jobs. It’s 2013 – what will you accomplish with code?
JOIN THE MOVEMENT
Code Year is about more than learning – it’s about creating. In 2013, let’s make a community of creators, teachers, and students, all united by the power of programming.
