MANILA - Members of the tech community came together for a synchronized global launch event on June 30 (PDT) and July 1 (PHT)-- packing a virtual KumoSpace room, and two physical venues in California and Ortigas to celebrate DEVCON Kids’ inaugural entry to the Web3 space. CodeyVerse is a public benefit corporation borne out of DEVCON’s commitment to empowering communities with human centered coding experiences.
Built around emerging technology like metaverses and the blockchain, CodeyVerse seeks to foster a vibrant community where kids aged 9-15 develop their lifelong passion for computer science-- a prospect that DEVCON Kids' Pam Ros Damarillo thinks particularly promising in light of broader industry trends.
Launch day proper was centered around a panel discussion featuring Damarillo, Crypto and NFT Educator, Angel Investor, Michelle Sario-Goodwin, chief of the Philippine Department of Science and Technology's Knowledge Innovation Division and Co-Founder of DEVCON KIDS, Joel Bautista, and Silicon Valley vet and founder of DEVCON Philippines, Winston Damarillo.
Curious optimism permeated the room-- listeners eager to see what the future of children's tech education had in store.
Meet Codey!
Around 9AM (PHT)/6PM (PDT), attendees began trickling into the KumoSpace room. For many, it was a strange, new world. The heavily stylized event space resembled a cartoon conference hall, including seating for a large number of participants, a stage to present from, and a friendly welcome from a robot named Codey– who was eagerly stationed by the room’s main doorway. We were all entering his world for the first time.
KumoSpace is essentially a metaverse environment that aims to extend aspects of real-world group interactions to digital space– similar to the lobby of an online multiplayer game. Each user is represented by an avatar that moves around the room, engaging in both private communications within earshot, and larger-scale broadcasts that fill the whole space.
More than just a quirky choice of conferencing software, CodeyVerse’s embrace of virtual space is grounded in a sincere belief in the potential of emerging technology– that this is where the future happens. Spaces like these will serve a key role within the CodeyVerse ecosystem, being a key educational tool and environment.
CodeyVerse helps fund the DEVCON Kids program with every NFT they mint and sell. Each sale aims to give another child a life-changing head start with world-class code camps. NFT purchases are converted to Sparkles– the CodeyVerse’s very own energy source. These are awarded to both donors and deserving students, giving them access to exclusive perks and assets.
Ultimately, the program intends to help prepare the next generation of computing innovators– targeting over 50,000 scholarships in California and the Philippines over the next three years.
How Web3 can help fund tomorrow’s innovators
Throughout the session, there was this sense that one collectively stood on the cusp of a major paradigm shift in computing. “Decentralization will hit everyone,” said Winston Damarillo– underscoring the value of embracing the Web3 framework this early on. “It’s much more democratic– with no central authority,” he continued. “Imagine an actual meritocracy, with measures that can systematically enforce equal rights and bias removal.”
More than a moral and ethical imperative, this affinity for transparent, decentralized computing is baked into the very core of Web3’s nascent tech stack– from the blockchain, a distributed, transparent ledger that’s validated across nodes in a shared network, to the Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) which represent unique, persistent assets on it.
Sario-Goodwin, drawing from her own experience in the Philippine crypto community, reached similar conclusions– going on to laud Web3 as a welcome return to the early internet’s affinity for free and horizontally organized spaces. “It’s the future, happening now,” she said before declaring that NFTs were the new face of ownership. “Everyone’s experimenting right now, seeing where NFTs could go– especially in the Philippines.”
Throughout the session, there was this sense that one collectively stood on the cusp of a major paradigm shift in computing. “Decentralization will hit everyone,” said Winston Damarillo– underscoring the value of embracing the Web3 framework this early on. “It’s much more democratic– with no central authority,” he continued. “Imagine an actual meritocracy, with measures that can systematically enforce equal rights and bias removal.”
More than a moral and ethical imperative, this affinity for transparent, decentralized computing is baked into the very core of Web3’s nascent tech stack– from the blockchain, a distributed, transparent ledger that’s validated across nodes in a shared network, to the Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) which represent unique, persistent assets on it.
Sario-Goodwin, drawing from her own experience in the Philippine crypto community, reached similar conclusions– going on to laud Web3 as a welcome return to the early internet’s affinity for free and horizontally organized spaces. “It’s the future, happening now,” she said before declaring that NFTs were the new face of ownership. “Everyone’s experimenting right now, seeing where NFTs could go– especially in the Philippines.”
Emerging tech isn’t the only exciting thing here though– it’s what you can do with it that matters most. “It really is all about empowerment,” said Winston. “Today’s kids are fortunate enough to be able to embrace tech this early and we want to do what we can to ensure they meet the future prepared. Tomorrow’s world, like Pam [Damarillo, co-founder of DEVCON Kids] said, will be built on computational thinking. This, coupled with the Web3 turn, presents us with the opportunity to do some really good things.”
“We’re the fourth largest adopter of NFTs in the world,” Pam continued. “It’s very promising. In [DEVCON], we’re all about helping schools use new tools, so we’re looking to do that with Web3 as well.”
Joel from DOST’s Knowledge Innovation Division, concurred. “[Computer science] should really be on the level of general literacy. While Web3 education is fairly new, features like smart contracts are incredibly interesting. Other industries are already moving towards the blockchain for records management among other things. The infrastructure will be important for the public sector.”
The future is brighter with you in it! Sponsor a scholarship or learn more about how you could contribute to the CodeyVerse at codeyverse.io
