ScrunchUp

Sep '083rd

Today, the holding page for scrunchup.com was launched. Everyone involved in the project has been stunned by the overwhelming response it has had. An hour after it was published, we’d had 100 subscribers to the mailing list.

So what’s this all about?

It’s not easy for young people starting out in the web design/development industry. There seems to be the assumption that teenage-webbie-wannabies are only interested in making a quick buck. Many don’t attend conferences or meetups, and there are few courses that use up-to-date material.

There are so many young people aspiring to work in the industry who have grown up with the Internet, and are pro-active in using it. Many have learnt HTML through customising their MySpace profiles. In a few years, there will be a huge increase in the number of people in my generation publishing content, and not knowing about things like accessibility and web standards. This could slow the pace at which the web is progressing.

When I became a part of the Boagworld production team, I was contacted by a number of people my age who were just starting out in the industry and asked for careers advice and tips on starting out. Many more have come out of the woodwork since. I got in contact with a few of these people to ask them if they thought it would be a good idea to build a website aimed at young people starting out in the industry. We decided to work together to build ScrunchUp to give advice on best practices, accessibility and web standards.

ScrunchUp will be a magazine-style website with content aimed at young people. We’re working hard to bring it to you as soon as possible, although many of us are starting courses this month so you’ll have to bear with us!

So a big, big thank you to everyone who has made this possible including Jamie, Teifion, Ollie, James, Alistair and Jane.

6 Comments on “ScrunchUp”

Jon Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 pm

This sounds really interesting and I will be watching closely.

Having just given up on university to get a job I know first hand how totally uninteresting, out-of-date and out-of-touch web design/development courses can be. I also know how hard it can be starting out having spent most of my student loans on going to conferences instead of feeding myself.

Rachael Says:

September 9th, 2008 at 7:56 pm

Remember I’m still here if you need me.

Brian Says:

October 9th, 2008 at 5:49 am

I don’t think you should be surprised at how many people have signed up for your mailing list. I think you can expect that just from boagworld podcast listeners.

I’m looking forward to seeing the new site!

andyk Says:

October 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

Anna,

Im not suprised by the fact you had so many so quickly, ok its taken 2 weeks of pushing or more but iv just hit 100 for http://www.projectaccess.org.uk (the site is under construction …well its internals)
great stuff on boag too :P

I look forward to seeing the new site,

(drop me an email as projectaccess is similar to scrunch up ….with one little difference :P)