zachleat: [00:00:00] yeah, we're shipping the new Build Awesome. Kickstarter, which is the, rebrand of 11 and the sustainable future of the open source project. So I'm very excited.

Big Announcement: Eleventy Rebrands to Build Awesome

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Well, wouldn't you know it? 11 is becoming build. Awesome. And in this episode, Zach Leatherman explains what changes, what stays compatible and how version three to version four upgrades work And what Build Awesome Pro Ads. I'm Matt Johnson. This is Podcast Awesome, where we talk about icons, design, tech, business, and nerdery with members of the fun, awesome team and the broader, awesome verse.

All right, let's get into it.

Matt: Zach Leatherman, thanks for coming on podcast. Awesome again, and what exciting news we have today. ta-da. If people haven't gotten something coming through their social media feed or an email or a blog or something like that. What's your big news for today?

zachleat: yeah, we're shipping the new Build Awesome. Kickstarter, which is the, uh, rebrand of 11 and the sustainable future of the open source project. So I'm very excited.

Matt: Excellent. Well, congratulations on that. I know it's been a long time in the making and.

Yeah.

I imagine, folks have seen the writing on the wall a little bit. It doesn't take a lot to kind of, we couldn't officially make an announcement and we're making hints and things like that, and folks

zachleat: Yeah.

Matt: uh, saw it coming, but, we. 

Why Join the “Awesomeverse”? A Sustainable Open Source Future

Matt: Have been thrilled to have you on the team and to see the awesome verse expanding over time. We brought on, Corey Laka from Shoelace and they rebranded to Web. Awesome. So we are expanding the awesome verse and the hope is, time we'll be kind of, know, hopefully we'll be the go-to. Shop for developers and creators we can just keep creating more great tools for folks and it's very, very exciting.

zachleat: Yeah, it's this. Very unique formula that is helping open source thrive. [00:02:00] And you can see it's played out well with web. Awesome. and Corey and the team are doing great work. And, I think the same thing is gonna be true for 11 as we pivot to build. Awesome. And join the awesome verse.

So it's gonna be great.

Recap: Funding Models & Avoiding Open Source Burnout

Matt: For folks that maybe are not totally caught up on the podcast and the news of what's been going on in the last episode, we talked a little bit about sustainability of open source projects and how to keep open source projects moving and Trying to avoid the pitfalls of different funding schemes that people might use. And we're, you know, we're, we're not trying to be controversial or, you know, start a fight or anything. But, based on what you said in that conversation, it sounded like this was a, Sort of obvious step in the direction of finding a sustainable model for 11, so you could continue to grow the open source, part of, of the project while, additional features.

zachleat: there are a lot of different funding models that folks have tried for open source, and I've tried a lot of them as well. and I really do feel like. The font awesome. formula is a good one. pairing pro-level features with providing extra value to the open source project at the same time is the best way to have a sustainable project moving forward.

I know a lot of projects tried. It's sort of the venture capital investment route, which works great for a few years. You hire a bunch of people there. It's a sort of a rocket ship of growth for a little while. And, then the, in the initial investment runs out and, the project languishes and. the people that built using your tool are sort of left out, on their own.

they're left to their own devices and the tool maybe doesn't work like you would've wanted, originally. So with 11, I mean, we're a an 8-year-old project. and so Joining the [00:04:00] awesome verse as Build Awesome, I think is. The way that we're gonna keep this thing going for eight more years.

So, yeah, I'm excited to, to join the awesome rocket ship to the moon. and yeah, I think it's gonna be many more years of the project, uh, and helping people build websites, so I'm excited.

Matt: That's great. 

What Build Awesome Is: Website Generation for Everyone

Matt: And can you tell folks a little bit about what they can expect to be able to use, now into the future, and then some of the additional pro offerings that might be available if they want to take it a step further.

Could you break it down for folks?

zachleat: So 11 is, has always been a, an easy way to build websites. it's a tool that helps you generate websites and it can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. and we've had a lot of success and folks have seen and built a lot of websites using 11 D over the years. And so that's been great to see.

And sort of the next step that we're taking now is how do we bring that same experience to an even wider field of folks, people that maybe aren't familiar with the terminal window or what a CLI is, or maybe they don't wanna run commands in their command line. 

 How do we get those folks building with Build Awesome. without any of that terminal or command line experience to easily publish things online in the same way and with the same power tools that they had before.

Matt: the open source aspect of the project, people can still use it for free. and you also are gonna expand some pro offerings with, with Build Awesome Pro. Can you kind of break down for folks, the difference between those tiers and, and what they get?

zachleat: For sure. 

Build Awesome Pro: One-Stop Publishing + Collaboration Tools

zachleat: So with sort of an easier experience of publishing online, we're gonna have a sort of all-inclusive experience where you can go to our website to publish a website online. That's pro tools. 

And I think that's very exciting, because it, if we want this to [00:06:00] be, the best experience for folks to publish things on the web, That couples nicely with a good developer experience. we wanna provide as much automation for folks as possible. And the other thing we're really getting into here is how to, how to unlock non-technical folks to edit your website later as well.

So. Adding collaborators that really have no interest in maybe creating a website, but they want to create content for your website. Uh, we wanna make that editing experience as easy and as, seamless and streamlined as possible. And that's the stuff that we're gonna provide with Build Awesome Pro. So Yeah, I'm very excited about it and I think it's gonna be a, a great future for the project moving forward. 

Backwards Compatibility Promise: Your Eleventy Sites Still Work

zachleat: I think the other thing maybe we should touch on is just because the, the name is changing from 11 to build Awesome doesn't mean we won't keep the same compatibility. and durability of projects that we had before.

So if you have an 11 project now, you'll be able to run that using Build. Awesome. We're gonna have full backwards compatibility, with existing projects, so people don't need to worry. The name is changing a little bit, but the power tools are still gonna be there. The open source project is still gonna be there.

and we're gonna keep using the same versioning structure that we had before and The 11 experience that you, have come to love will still be available as build. Awesome. Moving forward,

Matt: change is exciting, but it can also be a little nerve wracking if you're really invested in a tool and, Everybody's had experiences where they have to update something or move on to something new and they get in trouble along the way, and that can be a little anxiety producing. What can you say to folks that might, be concerned about a switch, as things change from 11 D to web? Awesome. Is there anything that they need to do or,

zachleat: Awesome.

Matt: you address any of those concerns that folks might have?

Upgrade Path: From Eleventy v3 to Build Awesome v4

zachleat: I mean, for folks that have existing 11 D projects and [00:08:00] they want to use Build Austin moving forward, really this is no different than, a major version breaking change. I mean, we. Already have a history of very reliable major releases in 11. We often hear folks repeat over and over again. I am so surprised at how easy it was to upgrade from 11 one to 11 two or 11, two to 11 three, and in that same vein, this is.

A similar upgrade. We're moving from 11 three to build Awesome on version four. and we'll keep that same compatibility with all the existing plugins that we have in the ecosystem. community contributed code and plugins and utilities that folks have built over the years, we're gonna keep that same compatibility moving forward.

We're just joining this larger ecosystem of tools in the awesome verse. and the name is Changing to Build. Awesome. So that's just part of the project growing from a solo project that I have worked on very diligently for many years. As sort of, uh, different levels of funding that we talked about in the last episode.

So side project, partially funded, sometimes fully funded, but maybe not as part of the, bottom line of the company that we were partnering with. And so this is really part of joining something bigger than just 11. So Build Awesome is the new name, but that is really represents the larger. investment that fun, awesome.

And web awesome and Build Awesome are gonna bring to the web and also bring to the maintainers of Build Awesome as well. So I think it's a great partnership and I think folks will see that as we start to deliver more and more things to build.

Awesome. Things that they can use even for free in their projects moving forward. Not just the pro-level features, but we'll deliver more and more things to the build off some classic, as it were, moving forward. [00:10:00] So yeah, I think it's gonna be great.

Why Pro Features Matter: Better Free Core + In-Browser Editing

Matt: this is a model. There's other models for how people fund these projects and, We definitely have our own, strong sense and of point of view on how to fund a project like this.

And this, this is what makes sense for us. And, It's funny to hear Dave and Travis talk about this. it comes up every so often where they say, like, sometimes our biggest roadblock or competitor is the free version.

You know, and I love that, like that you sign up for a service. It allows us to continue to build a free offering that PE anybody can use, when you're talking about the, the issue of sustainability and the project alive and Crossing your fingers, hoping that the community is gonna stay engaged and help you with the project, um, over time and potentially, you know, risking burnout and things like that. To use a model like this, you can say, oh, okay, we can continue to fund the growth and continue to develop this. And the free product just keeps getting better and better over time. It just, just seems like such a win-win for everybody, you know?

zachleat: And I think a lot of these pro-level features would not have been possible, uh, outside of a model like this. just the scope of something, building something like this requires a level of monetary investment. There is sort of no way around delivering pro-level features like this. So the ability to, edit a website, in line while you're on the website, I feel like is gonna be a very exciting thing for folks to experience.

I think with traditional content, uh, management systems, a lot of times the experience, the user experience feels like you're on a separate website. The thing we're trying to deliver here is really a seamless editing experience that feels like you're just on the website, you spot a, a typo or an issue that you wanna correct.

And, it should feel like you're editing the website in your web browser without having to navigate to a different experience. So [00:12:00] there is a, a very cool user experience that we're gonna see in the, in some of the demos, I think in the Kickstarter and. yeah, I think folks are gonna be very excited to see what we're gonna come up with here.

So, and again, this kind of thing would not have been possible, uh, as a free feature. Like it just, the level of development and investment that's required here, needs a higher level than what someone could do just as a, an open source project. And I think you, you can see that when you look at different, folks trying to, deliver similar experiences online, so competitors to, to this project, you see very similar things.

This is, sort of a big business feature that I'm very excited to start competing in the space. So it's gonna be great.

Matt: All very exciting. 

Kickstarter Fun: Shooting the Launch Video in LA

Matt: Of course, there's a lot of the fun. Aspects of doing a Kickstarter, which is always the way we do things here at fa. Awesome. Which is, um, I gotta know the experience was for going out to LA and shooting the Kickstarter video. 'cause, 'cause folks have come to, kind of expect that we're gonna do, you

zachleat: Yeah.

Matt: is gonna come with a video and that it's so fun for us.

Like we, folks are talking about it around the, around the office, the virtual office.

zachleat: Yeah.

Matt: and a lot of planning goes into it, and obviously we have brought on the characters from the previous videos and sort of kept a theme. what can you tell me about that experience?

zachleat: Yeah, that was surreal in many ways. it was amazing to be in that environment and to see those, those very, very creative people sort of just let loose on this project and talking about an open source project that I have worked on for eight years now. And so it is, it was, yeah, surreal to see them, Just the entire process from writing the script to the video, to acting it out, to filming [00:14:00] it, to doing edits, to like the CGI that they're working on now. 

 I think I went around and got selfies with all of the actors, which.

that was maybe a unique experience because from, from their perspective, like they don't know how famous they feel to me. You know, because I've seen the videos over the years and Right. They feel, they feel famous to me. And so, because I've seen them in all the videos and, yeah, their work feels very important to me, and in many respects it's, I feel like.

it's a pretty big contributor to why I am here at the company now. 'cause not only does it, does it signal that this company is willing to invest in a creative en endeavor like that which is maybe like an ironic thing to say, but it makes it very obvious that that whimsy and, and fun is very important at the company because they're putting like real, real money behind it.

And so that vibe is just, to me, I love that, I love that this company invests in that. It's just super fun to see the result too. I think people are gonna be real, excited and, I think they'll really enjoy the video we have for Build. Awesome.

Matt: Yeah. funny, I went out to the shooting of the pH. Awesome. Seven video a little over a year ago, and That was so fun watching that whole process. And I had a similar experience where you like see the actors and you're like, oh, you know, wow, wow.

I'm gonna go meet Steve. I'm gonna go meet Rob. 

Behind the Scenes: Cast, Crew, and the Cake/Hot Dog Metaphor

Matt: and it was also interesting to hear too, A lot of these actors, when they do commercial work, it's sort of a one time thing. You show up, you shoot something, and then you may not have a future relationship with the other actors or, uh, the people working on it. Um, but this is really neat, you know, in the sense of like, we're basically doing commercials, but we [00:16:00] keep bringing the same cast back. And,

zachleat: Yeah.

Matt: I remember, Albert 

And he said sometimes when you do, you know, feature length stuff or, you know, if you're like a regular actor in a series or something like that, you may build some comradery with a team, but not so with commercial oriented stuff. And, uh, that this, this is sort of unique in that way. So it's, cool to hear behind the scenes Hearing the actors and the, the people on the crew talk about it in, in that way. It's really fun and I'm always like, I can't wait for the next one. 'cause like, how are we gonna keep telling the story, you know, and adding onto the theme and bringing these, sort of beloved characters back, back into it.

zachleat: So it's really, really fun to watch. I mean, they're just so good at their job too. I feel like I'm, I just am in awe of, anyone that's just, um, incredible at their job and watching them in action. I feel like the director especially was just so impressive how they kept things moving and it was, they were long shoot days, 

 it was two very long days back to back and just keeping everything moving and getting everyone organized. It was, it felt like a marathon for sure.

Matt: Oh yeah. It is, it is quite the site to behold and, and you know, every conceivable detail you, you can imagine for folks that haven't been a part of a, a, you know, behind the scenes of a project like that, there are so many people doing important stuff that are, it might just be like

zachleat: Yeah.

Matt: detail to this thing,

zachleat: Yeah.

Matt: hanging out and they're on call. Basically the whole day ready to like come in and do their thing and they're, they're just like on it. it, it's pretty cool to watch

zachleat: Oh, we, we just had, there was someone on set that was in charge of all of the baked items. And seeing that experience was just very incredible too, because in this video specifically, we had probably like eight different cakes. and you can kind of see in the video how we, The metaphor is like the progression of the cake makes it very easy to edit the cake after it's baked.

And [00:18:00] uh, yeah, it's a very interesting and fun metaphor that they've done in the bakery. But someone had to make all of those different cakes and there was like this giant hot dog cake that was hilarious he was very professional in that he, uh, was dedicated to getting the take, um, because. When you only have two of those giant hotdog cakes and one of 'em, you need to save, you need to get it in one take. Otherwise, uh, there's trouble. So the amount of professionalism that was on display for just a very whimsical project was incredible to me.

I loved it. I loved that vibe.

Matt: that's great. And I, I love to hear that there was a giant hot dog in this one, in the, uh, the font. Awesome. Seven Shoot also heavily features hot dogs as well, so. I love, I love these repeat themes. It's so good. It's so funny.

zachleat: Yeah. Yeah.

Meet the Awesome Possum: Mascot Origins & New Brand Homage

Matt: and there's another fun surprise, we have a new mascot and you did us quite the favor, because this was a mascot that you're, kind of bringing along with you from the 11 days.

So.

zachleat: Yeah, the, the awesome possum,

um, that has been wild to witness.

So yeah, the possum is great. We've had the possum in 11 D almost since the beginning. it hearkens back to, very early in the project, someone on, uh, social media sent me a picture of a. Red balloon with like a cat holding onto it. And it was, uh, James Williamson had sent me that, and this was probably like 2018, like 2019, I don't know.

It was a really long time ago. and he said, uh, yeah, we got the mascot for 11. And I'm like, oh, that's great, but can it be a possum? 

But yeah, over the years we've sort of had this recurring gag where. We'll pay a new artist every once in a while to redo the mascot and draw a new mascot for us. [00:20:00] And we've com. I think we commissioned maybe like three or four of them over the years. that has been a great collaboration too.

And so when I joined the company Fun. Awesome. And heard y'all had already, had plans to make a possum the mascot from the beginning it did feel just. I don't know. It was, it felt like more than a coincidence for sure. and I think the Build Awesome logo even plays into that quite a bit too, because the logo for Build Awesome is a balloon.

And so, and so it's,

taking all of these elements from the, the previous brand and I think it's, yeah, just a great. Homage to 11, so I'm very excited to, to even see how that's played out. I think just reusing all of that stuff is great.

Matt: s

How to Support: Where to Go, Tiers, Swag, and Wrap-Up

Matt: o folks that want to support the project and they want to more about. All this and get into the details. Where should they go? 

zachleat: They should go to font awesome.com. There'll be a banner at the top, that will point to the Kickstarter. and, or they can go to eleven.dev. We will have a also an announcement there, uh, pointing everyone to the Kickstarter.

For build. Awesome. So if you're excited to have an easier experience publishing things online and editing your website online, definitely support the Kickstarter because that is how we're gonna have a sustainable project moving forward. Um, and that's how you can support us. So, definitely head over to the Kickstarter and see what, tier works best for you.

Matt: And we always like physical stuff too. That's, you know, sort of branded and, you know, awesome. 'em first branded stuff and, uh, what can folks, if they want to contribute, what kind of goodies might be coming? The we, if they like to contribute.

zachleat: Yeah, so we have, different tiers in terms of, how many months people can support the project. I think we're gonna have a six month and a 12 month tier, but we'll also have some swag as well that folks can get. so t-shirts, uh, [00:22:00] notebooks, uh, mugs, all the, all the usual things. and I've even seen some of the designs for them and there's definitely possums themed there.

So, we may even have, 11 merch as well on this, uh, build off some Kickstarter just as a throwback. So, uh, if folks are interested in that as well, they can head over the Kickstarter and check it all out.

Matt: Has there been any talk of a plush toy? I'm sure this has come up.

zachleat: Yes, it has come up. we're not gonna get that for the Kickstarter this time, but in the future it's definitely a possibility. Definitely a possibility. I don't know. Whatever.

Matt: Nice. so thanks again for taking some time to share the news and, and walk us through, All the developments in build. Awesome.

zachleat: Yeah, thanks for having me. Very exciting.

Thanks again to Zach for jumping on and walking everyone through the build Awesome rebrand. What's changing, what's staying the same, and why this is such a big step for the long-term future of the project.

If you wanna support build awesome and keep the project thriving. For the next chapter, go to font awesome.com. And click the banner at the top to head to the Kickstarter. You can pick the tier that fits you best.

And yes, there's swag. Yes, there are possum mascots. And if you're watching on YouTube, hit subscribe and go watch our episode on open source sustainability Next, because it really sets the stage for why this move matters so much. Thanks everybody for hanging out with us in the Awesome Verse podcast.

Awesome is produced and edited by this guy right here, Matt Johnson. The podcast awesome theme song was composed by Ronnie Martin. The music interstitials were done by Zach Mom, and the video editing was done by Isaac Chase. Alright, you guys, you know what to do next. Go make something awesome.