About

About CoderDojo

CoderDojo is a movement orientated around running free not-for-profit coding clubs and regular sessions for young people.

At a CoderDojo, young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and more. Dojos are set up, run and taught by volunteers. Dojos organise tours of technology companies, bring in guest speakers to talk about their career and what they do, and organise events. In addition to learning to code, members meet like-minded people, show off what they’ve been working on and so on. CoderDojo makes development and learning to code a fun & sociable experience. CoderDojo also puts a strong emphasis on open source and free software, and has a strong network of members and volunteers globally.

A bit of history

CoderDojo is a not-for-profit organization founded by James Whelton & Bill Liao. It was first started in James Whelton’s school in early 2011 when James received some publicity after hacking the iPod Nano and some younger students expressed an interest in learning how to code. He setup a computer club in his school (PBC Cork) where he started teaching basic HTML and CSS.

Later that year he met Bill Liao, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, who was interested in growing the project into something bigger than just an after-school computer club. In June 2011 the first CoderDojo was launched in the National Software Centre in Cork where CoderDojo saw extreme success. The Cork Dojo saw people travelling from Dublin frequently to attend sessions. Owing to this popularity a Dublin Dojo was launched soon after in Google’s Montevetro building. The increasing success lead to the setup of more Dojos around Ireland and subsequently around the world.