Collaboration by Choice: Youth Online Creative Collabs in Scratch

Abstract

Online creative production has received considerable attention for its success in creating Wikipedia and Free and Open Source Software yet few youth participate in such voluntary online collaborations, in particular in programming contexts. In this paper, we describe how youth programmers organized collaborative groups or collabs in response to a design challenge in the Scratch Online Community. We report on participation in the “Collab Challenge” in the Scratch community at large and with particular groups, designers’ efforts in recruiting and organizing collab groups, and the role of community feedback. In the discussion, we address what we learned about youth’s informal collaborative skills, fostering community participation, and the design of online communities supportive of creative collaboration, and open issues for further research.