About Webwhompers

Web Users and Web Builders

Technology is often created by "experts" and then used by "regular people." Webwhompers celebrates the "Web builder": a regular person who creates his own Web technology.

Sometimes it helps to distinguish between "regular people" who use technology and "experts" who create technology. For example, a regular person might want a home stereo; he pays experts to create hi-fi technology for him. In other cases, regular people create technology without even considering asking for expert help—for example, making a snowball.

Much of the Web technology that regular people want is within their power to create, just like a snowball. Webwhompers seeks to unleash the technical creativity of the regular person: By highlighting Web building resources, by bringing together aspiring Web builders, by providing expert guidance when necessary, and by encouraging regular people to try on the idea that they can create their own Web technology.

Whomp: In the Dictionary

From Merriam Webster's:

whomp \ˈhwämp, ˈhwomp, ˈwämp, ˈwomp\ noun [imitative] (1926): a loud slap, crash, or crunch
whomp intransitive verb (1942): to strike with a sharp noise or thump ~ transitive verb 1: to hit or slap sharply 2: to defeat decisively: TROUNCE 3: to create or put together esp. hastily—usually used with up
whomp up intransitive verb (1949): to stir up: AROUSE

Bruce Hoppe

Bruce Hoppe, PhD, creator of Webwhompers, teaches Web Science in the College of Arts and Science at Boston University.

Dr. Hoppe is founder and president of Connective Associates LLC, where he has helped businesses large and small to improve productivity, innovation, and leadership with a network perspective. He writes a popular business blog Connectedness about social network analysis. Dr. Hoppe is a member of Harvard Law School’s Social Physics project on Internet & Society, and previously was a member of MIT Sloan’s Innovative Collaborative Knowledge Networks project.

As an experienced community leader, Dr. Hoppe often helps catalyze collective awareness and action. He works closely with the Leadership Learning Community, a nationwide collaborative of leadership development practitioners, funders, and thought leaders dedicated to social change.