Hi Scratchers,

Earlier this week, the MIT Scratch Team announced a new collaboration with Google. I’m writing, on behalf of the Scratch Team, to provide you with a little more information about this collaboration – and what it means for the Scratch community.

We view the Google announcement as one step in our process of developing the next generation of Scratch, which we informally call Scratch 3.0. This new version will be designed to run well on mobile devices and all modern browsers, and it will be based on HTML5 (moving away from Flash). We hope to start rolling out Scratch 3.0 sometime during 2017.

The Google collaboration will help us in developing the technical infrastructure for Scratch 3.0, drawing on Google’s strong engineering expertise. To start, we are working with Google on a new version of our programming blocks, which we’re calling Scratch Blocks. This new version will support both vertical-snapping blocks with text labels (as in the current version of Scratch) and also horizontal-snapping blocks with icons (as in ScratchJr). With this flexibility, Scratch Blocks will be suitable for a broad range of people (from beginners to experienced programmers) and a broad range of devices (from mobile phones to desktops).

A big reason why folks at Google are interested in collaborating with Scratch is that they like the friendly, intuitive design of the Scratch programming blocks and interface – and they are interested in making the Scratch design available to more people. Everything that comes out of the Scratch-Google collaboration will be made available, via open source, to other developers. So you might start seeing other products with programming blocks that look a lot like Scratch.

In everything we do, our top priority is always the Scratch community. We believe that our collaboration with Google puts us in a strong position to carry out our most important mission: to provide a free, friendly, and creative space where you, as members of the Scratch community, can imagine, program, and share!

O MAH GAWSH SCRATCH 3.0

(distracting reaction gif removed by moderator - please don't spam)

Anyway, how different will it be from 2.0? (graphics, how it works, new stuff, etc.)

1st post, yey

Pretty awesome. Good luck!

Wow, sounds good to me! Can't wait! I remember how excited I was when 2.0 came out… hope this will be even better! Good luck with your new Google partnership, and congratulations, Scratch Team!

Gonna mess around with scratch-blocks now. Can't wait to see how this all turns out!

Super excited! 3.0 can't come soon enough!

I'm slightly concerned about the partnership, because I do not agree with Google's way of business, which may violate antitrust laws. I'm worried that Google may use Scratch to market its products and spread its name. I don't think that any single company should be endorsing or collaborating with Scratch. How much control will Google have over Scratch?

I'm so excited. Can't wait to see it.
Edit: 7th post. :D

^._.^::control //This is Kallie. She is a certified siggy protector. She protects my siggy from kumquats.

Hold on, Scratch Team… From what I've heard, doing this collaboration with Google will cause Google's search engine to get worse. But anyways, I hope for the best…

Oh… that's neatish, I guess. Will we have to use Scratch 3.0, or could we still use 2.0? I don't really like the idea of “horizontal-snapping blocks”, but I saw the vertical block designs on GitHub after finding a random link somewhere, and they look really cool!

i love cs-first because cs-first has always been my favorite project on this computer that i am on right now

Chibi-Matoran wrote:

I'm slightly concerned about the partnership, because I do not agree with Google's way of business, which may violate antitrust laws. I'm worried that Google may use Scratch to market its products and spread its name. I don't think that any single company should be endorsing or collaborating with Scratch. How much control will Google have over Scratch?

(removed by moderator - please keep it polite)
(sorry
Google is literally just helping them. They're not going to “sell out” and turn it into a factory.

NanoRook wrote:

Chibi-Matoran wrote:

I'm slightly concerned about the partnership, because I do not agree with Google's way of business, which may violate antitrust laws. I'm worried that Google may use Scratch to market its products and spread its name. I don't think that any single company should be endorsing or collaborating with Scratch. How much control will Google have over Scratch?

(removed by moderator - please keep it polite)

Google is literally just helping them. They're not going to “sell out” and turn it into a factory.

Well, Mres did say to expect a lot of other block-programming “products.” However, this is because that Scratch Blocks is open-source, which is good. Still, I can imagine Google churning their out their own, commercial version of Scratch.

Also, please keep your posts/comments more respectful. My feelings have been hurt. (Note to Mres: There's been an ongoing argument because of a Suggestions topic I made warning against collabing with Google.)

Chibi-Matoran wrote:

NanoRook wrote:

Chibi-Matoran wrote:

I'm slightly concerned about the partnership, because I do not agree with Google's way of business, which may violate antitrust laws. I'm worried that Google may use Scratch to market its products and spread its name. I don't think that any single company should be endorsing or collaborating with Scratch. How much control will Google have over Scratch?

(removed by moderator - please keep it polite)

Google is literally just helping them. They're not going to “sell out” and turn it into a factory.

Well, Mres did say to expect a lot of other block-programming “products.” However, this is because that Scratch Blocks is open-source, which is good. Still, I can imagine Google churning their out their own, commercial version of Scratch.

Also, please keep your posts/comments more respectful. My feelings have been hurt. (Note to Mres: There's been an ongoing argument because of a Suggestions topic I made warning against collabing with Google.)

I think a lot of people would like to know how much control Google will have over this.
Glad to see that a javascript version is being developed!

mres wrote:

..will be designed to run well on mobile devices and all modern browsers, and it will be based on HTML5 (moving away from Flash). We hope to start rolling out Scratch 3.0 sometime during 2017.

Yay! Will there be Beta testers, like in 2.0?

Techno

Also, I believe this means Scratch 3 for the RPi 0,1,2 and 3!

For anyone who is absolutely confused about this, here are the highlights from my post:


- Scratch Blocks is a framework for creative programming environments. A framework is not an application itself, but more like the backbone for applications.

- Scratch Blocks is not the same as Scratch 3.0 or Scratchblocks. Scratch Blocks will be an open source derivative of Blockly, with coding from Google programmers and guidance from the Scratch Team.

- Scratch Blocks will not be used just to make Scratch 3.0. Other developers of children's coding products may use it as well. This is why the partnership will be such a huge undertaking, not just for Scratch but for all creative programming environments.

- The partnership is JUST for Scratch Blocks. Once that has dissolved and both parties exchange thanks, then the ST will get to work on using Scratch Blocks to create Scratch 3.0. Again, this is a separate project, so Google won't be involved.

- I'm absolutely certain that any moves by Google to poison the partnership will not happen. This is a mutual partnership, so each party depends on the other to succeed with this project. Knowledge and wisdom for programming expertise.

Hope that helps.

I deeply appreciate all of the support we've seen in the forums, but also want to take a second to recognize the concerns that some members of the community have raised as well. It's incredibly inspiring to see how much Scratch means to this community and I appreciate all the feedback: both positive and negative. But through all of these discussions I think it's important to remember that while Scratch may seem like it's made by a mysterious band of avatars with asterisks* after their names – Scratch is made by people. People who do everything they can to protect and grow a community that they have worked so hard to build. People who have dedicated themselves to making this small corner of the internet a creative, inclusive, and empowered platform where everyone can learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

Even though it may be hard to believe: Google is made up of people too. Some of the people we work with at Google even used to be members of the Scratch Team! *Gasp!* To be even more shocking some of the current members of the Scratch Team used to work for Google! *Double Gasp!* In fact, two of our collaborators at Google flew all the way out to Boston to help volunteer at Scratch Day last week. Similar to the Scratch Team these are people who also care about what we have built and want to help us continue to grow and thrive.

Contrary to what has been suggested by some, our collaboration does not include a marketing agreement, or anything involving search, or puts Google in a position that allows them to control our editor or community. That said, this doesn’t mean that we take collaboration with any other organization lightly. Whether we are working with LEGO, Code.org, Cartoon Network, Intel, or Google (all real and active examples) we all have a responsibility to make sure that Scratch continues to be the amazing community that you all prove it to be every day.

So I hope that you’ll continue to hold us accountable, but I also hope that you’ll try to ask questions before jumping to conclusions and remember that at the end of the day technology is made by people. In the case of Scratch: it’s made by people who care and are here to help.

Zro716 wrote:

- Scratch Blocks is a framework for creative programming environments. A framework is not an application itself, but more like the backbone for applications.

- Scratch Blocks is not the same as Scratch 3.0 or Scratchblocks. Scratch Blocks will be an open source derivative of Blockly, with coding from Google programmers and guidance from the Scratch Team.

- Scratch Blocks will not be used just to make Scratch 3.0. Other developers of children's coding products may use it as well. This is why the partnership will be such a huge undertaking, not just for Scratch but for all creative programming environments.

- The partnership is JUST for Scratch Blocks. Once that has dissolved and both parties exchange thanks, then the ST will get to work on using Scratch Blocks to create Scratch 3.0. Again, this is a separate project, so Google won't be involved.

- I'm absolutely certain that any moves by Google to poison the partnership will not happen. This is a mutual partnership, so each party depends on the other to succeed with this project. Knowledge and wisdom for programming expertise.

This is pretty good overview @Zro716. The one thing I'd like to clarify is that while the Scratch Team is solely responsible for the design of Scratch Blocks, both the ST and Google are developing it. If you look at the contributors list you'll see both Google employees as well as three ST members have contributed significant amounts of code (including myself).

thisandagain wrote:

I deeply appreciate all of the support we've seen in the forums, but also want to take a second to recognize the concerns that some members of the community have raised as well. It's incredibly inspiring to see how much Scratch means to this community and I appreciate all the feedback: both positive and negative. But through all of these discussions I think it's important to remember that while Scratch may seem like it's made by a mysterious band of avatars with asterisks* after their names – Scratch is made by people. People who do everything they can to protect and grow a community that they have worked so hard to build. People who have dedicated themselves to making this small corner of the internet a creative, inclusive, and empowered platform where everyone can learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

Even though it may be hard to believe: Google is made up of people too. Some of the people we work with at Google even used to be members of the Scratch Team! *Gasp!* To be even more shocking some of the current members of the Scratch Team used to work for Google! *Double Gasp!* In fact, two of our collaborators at Google flew all the way out to Boston to help volunteer at Scratch Day last week. Similar to the Scratch Team these are people who also care about what we have built and want to help us continue to grow and thrive.

Contrary to what has been suggested by some, our collaboration does not include a marketing agreement, or anything involving search, or puts Google in a position that allows them to control our editor or community. That said, this doesn’t mean that we take collaboration with any other organization lightly. Whether we are working with LEGO, Code.org, Cartoon Network, Intel, or Google (all real and active examples) we all have a responsibility to make sure that Scratch continues to be the amazing community that you all prove it to be every day.

So I hope that you’ll continue to hold us accountable, but I also hope that you’ll try to ask questions before jumping to conclusions and remember that at the end of the day technology is made by people. In the case of Scratch: it’s made by people who care and are here to help.

thisandagain wrote:

Zro716 wrote:

- Scratch Blocks is a framework for creative programming environments. A framework is not an application itself, but more like the backbone for applications.

- Scratch Blocks is not the same as Scratch 3.0 or Scratchblocks. Scratch Blocks will be an open source derivative of Blockly, with coding from Google programmers and guidance from the Scratch Team.

- Scratch Blocks will not be used just to make Scratch 3.0. Other developers of children's coding products may use it as well. This is why the partnership will be such a huge undertaking, not just for Scratch but for all creative programming environments.

- The partnership is JUST for Scratch Blocks. Once that has dissolved and both parties exchange thanks, then the ST will get to work on using Scratch Blocks to create Scratch 3.0. Again, this is a separate project, so Google won't be involved.

- I'm absolutely certain that any moves by Google to poison the partnership will not happen. This is a mutual partnership, so each party depends on the other to succeed with this project. Knowledge and wisdom for programming expertise.

This is pretty good overview @Zro716. The one thing I'd like to clarify is that while the Scratch Team is solely responsible for the design of Scratch Blocks, both the ST and Google are developing it. If you look at the contributors list you'll see both Google employees as well as three ST members have contributed significant amounts of code (including myself).

Thank you for clarifying! Cant wait for Scratch 3!

Thank you for responding to the concerns raised, Scratch Team. I will sleep better with more faith in the next generation of Scratch.