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Sort of a cross between anime and South Park, with sketchier animations – that’s Scratch.

Developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy for people like you and me to write fun, interactive products with little programming knowledge.

Originally launched in May, 2007, the programming language is actually aimed at young programmers, from the age of 8 and up. Yes, this means your kid could be making some pretty cool animations and games that will blow your mind. No need for coding, Scratch is based on a drag and drop system that any newbie (or pretty smart kid) could use.

If you’ve made movies on iMovie, Scratch will seem like child’s play. Scenes are replaced with Sprites – little animations that are created and modified much like paper dolls were in our grandparents’day. Scripts are already written and simply dragged onto the stage, enabling animation, action, and reaction to the user’s requests.

There is functionality for both recording and importing audio, which is then dragged onto the sprite. Everything is included in this program – from the original creation of a character and scene, to the action, the programming, the audio, and finally the ability to export to a website, an email, or any social networking site.

Honestly, if this type of technology were available when I was kid, I would have never left the computer. The ability to be a game developer or movie producer in your own home while still in elementary school is an incredible amount of power. Everything about Scratch is fun – the colors, the icons, the little orange and white walking cat that is used as Scratch’s mascot. The style of the presentation is so fun, you may be fooled into thinking that it’s not a powerful product, but it is.

Right now, there are over 63,000 Scratch projects online, with over 1.1 million Scratch scripts already contributed. It’s fair to say that all of these projects aren’t being completed by children, but certainly there is a large youth movement within the Scratch community. The projects on the Scratch website are youthful, bright, and fun – but not too youthful to scare away an old computer geek like me. I’m downloading it tonight!

The Scratch development program is funded by the National Science Foundation, Intel Foundation, and the MIT Media lab research consortia and is provided to both Mac and Windows users, free of charge. Visit http://scratch.mit.edu for more information.