Code.org's short film on coding featuring Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg goes viral on YouTube.
A short film by Code.org to encourage kids to take up coding, featuring the likes Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg went viral on the Internet with its Youube video receiving more than 5 million views in just two days.
According to a statement released by the non-profit organization, the video has inspired more than 260,000 petition signatures and a number of donations on the site.
"For a 'geeky' topic like motivating people to code, it's clear that the team behind Code.org and director Lesley Chilcott have found [a way] to break through the perceptions and get people talking about the national need for more computer programming education," a spokesman for the non-profit organization said in an email.
According to the film, one million of the best jobs in America may go unfilled because only one in 10 schools actually teach students how to code. Code.org points to a state of unbalanced opportunity, when, by 2020, there will be 1 million more jobs than students who can fill them, despite the notion that computer science is among the highest-paid college degrees.
Code.org founders and twin brothers Hadi and Ali Partovi dropped by Reddit, Thursday, for an Ask Me Anything session. The session lasted for more than an hour and a half, receiving a massive list of questions and answers, including some words of wisdom from Ali.
"For young people: [coding] teaches you how to think, it unlocks creativity, and builds confidence," he wrote. "It's an amazing feeling for a young boy or girl to realize, 'If I don't like something, I can change it. If I wish I had something, I can create it.' This sense of empowerment is valuable no matter what path you choose in life."
