I’m always fascinated by the projects that come out of MIT Media Lab, specifically those of John Maeda’s groups. OpenCode is an initiative of his PLW group. According to the website:

“At it’s core, OpenCode is a Web-based programming tool. It’s simple, elegant, and lightweight. OpenCode is a web-based programming environment that leverages the user community to foster creative development and teach graphics-based programming to non-programmers.”

What I find nice about it is that it uses the Processing engine and brings it online. No need to download the software. OpenCode also makes sharing of code easier. I personally would use it to browse through the hundreds of software already made and “learn by example.”

For those who don’t know, Physical Language Workshop (PLW) an evolution of Maeda’s Aesthetics and Computation Group (ACG). The ACG group was very influential and produced graduates like Casey Reas, Ben Fry, Golan Levin, Peter Cho and David Small among others, all legends in their own right. One of the things that Reas and Fry are working on is the software I use called Processing, a learning environment for non-programmers/designers/artists to learn programming.

Posted in Design, Inspiration, Seen, Tech |

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