Mozilla exists to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the Internet. We’ve been doing it for 15 years and the following 15 facts offer a look at who we are, including some of our biggest achievements and milestones. But in some ways we’re just getting started, exploring new technology, entering new areas and reaching new users every day.
Find out 15 facts about Mozilla:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute
Follow this link to make a Webmaker Thimble Greeting:
https://thimble.webmaker.org/p/fqvr/edit
Or you can start from scratch:
https://thimble.webmaker.org/en-US/editor
See you in the New Year, Webmakers!
Doing good is part of our code.
We are a non-profit, which means we can keep our focus squarely on our mission — but that also means that we need your support to keep us going.Please watch The Mozilla Story to see how we’ve always taken a stand for users and protected the Web in a world where choice and control are too often at risk.
We’ve got a lot more work to do, and we need your help to keep moving forward. Help us build a better web by donating $30 and get a great Firefox shirt, or the shirt shown above.
Building a better world — one where users have control over their personal data and the freedom to create and to consume content without overzealous restrictions — means building a better Web, together.
Thank you,
MarkMark Surman
Executive Director
Mozilla Foundation
2012 was an incredible year for Mozilla. We mobilized. We did a better job than I have ever seen us do identifying the places where we needed to have impact, and then we focused and delivered. There’s a lot for us all to be proud of in 2012; I’ve gathered up a few of my favourites.
Read Jonathan Nightingale’s Year in Review:
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2012/12/14/mozilla-in-2012
In collaboration with Access Now and Fight for the Future, we’ve put together an interactive video about the ITU that you can customize for your own needs and share with others. Just click here and you’ll be editing your own video in minutes.
If making a Popcorn video isn’t your thing you could write a blog post, share your message on social media, or just start talking to your friends in your local community about what’s going on.
Use hashtags: #ITU #WCIT #freeandopen
Internet governance is a big, international issue. There is an amazing and diverse collection of opinions around what our governments should decide when they gather at the ITU meeting in Dubai in December. This Popcorn Maker project helps us—the web—speak in one voice while celebrating the plurality of languages and viewpoints that make the web such an amazing place to be.
To do that, we’re launching an experiment: in collaboration with Access Now and Fight for the Future, we’ve cut a short video that explains the ITU and why it’s important that our voices be heard. But this is no ordinary video—we’ve loaded the ITU activism video into Mozilla Popcorn Maker, where you’ll be able to easily personalize, remix, and share the content of the video.
Try these ideas out:
1. Translate the video into your local language
2. Change the tone or content of the message
3. Customize the call to action
When you’re finished, click ‘Share’ to get a link or embed code you can add to your site or share with your friends.
Try it now - it works right in your browser:
https://www.webmaker.org/en-US/projects/roll-your-own-itu-activism-video
The Internet has always been guided forwards by collaborative, open
approaches. We believe that these approaches are one of the reasons
why the web has become and remained the wonderful, powerful and
empowering place we know today. In the coming weeks, this successful
model of governing and shaping the future of the web will be at risk.
Today, we’re launching a kit of tools and resources to inform and
mobilize the Internet community about what’s happening at the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and support people in
taking grassroots action. Mozilla stands behind transparency in
Internet governance, but a free and open Internet depends on you.
On December 3rd, nations from around the world will be meeting in
Dubai for the World Conference on International Telecommunications
(WCIT), a meeting of the ITU. These governments will be meeting behind
closed doors to determine if an old treaty will be amended to allow
countries the power to more fully regulate and control the structure
of the web.
Whether the Internet is regulated by governmental treaties via the ITU
and to what extent, is a vitally critical question. In fact it is so
critical it can’t be done behind closed doors. The Internet as we know
it today is just too fundamental to our lives to leave it to
governments to decide its fate
Mozilla’s mission is to promote openess, innovation and opportunity on
the web. We do this first and foremost by building great products.
But, as any Mozillian knows — the story is much more than the latest
release or coolest hack. The Internet depends critically on a human
network of communities and relationships, and Mozilla builds movements
that strengthen the web.
The resources we are making available today will give you everything
you need to learn about the upcoming meeting and why it matters, craft
an effective message to get your government to listen, and engage in
the global conversation about how decisions about the future of the
web should be made.
One of the most amazing stories from the Summer Code Party continues:
Unnati the Webmaker, who once ran into trouble while working on a Thimble project, and Gauthramraj the Mentor, who created novel ways for her to solve problems has another chapter!
From Gauthramraj:
“Hey all,
We are wildly impressed with the both of them! Congratulations, Unnati!
The story starts here:
http://www.zythepsary.com/techie/the-power-of-contribution
Gauthramraj creates a project just to help Unnati (you can try it too):
http://mozillawebmaker.tumblr.com/post/30666021305/solve-gauthamrajelas-alice-puzzle-project
Unnati thanks her mentors:
https://thimble.webmaker.org/p/9ha
Unnati hosts her first HackJam with two of her friends and her cousin, and makes Popcorn:
http://maker.mozillapopcorn.org/505ed17aa640e28e060007a0.html
Join us for three days of inspired making, learning and celebration in London. Today we’re extremely proud to launch the new 2012 Mozilla Festival web site — and invite you to join us November 9-11 in London, UK.
“We want everyone to tap the full creative power of the web. The Mozilla Festival is a magnet for people interested in learning about — and playing with — the web’s future.” –Mark Surman, Executive Director, Mozilla
This year’s Mozilla Festival will gather more than 800 passionate people with diverse backgrounds and skill-sets. The goal: push the frontiers of the open web, learn together, and make things that can change the world.
Coders, designers, journalists and educators will join with filmmakers, gamers, makers and youth from more than 40 different countries. Together they’ll participate in a series of design challenges, learning labs and fireside chats spread across four floors of the Ravensbourne design and media campus in East London.
Find out more:
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2012/09/18/mozfest-2012
For anyone following the story of one of our most inspiring MozReps, Gauthramraj Elango, we’re very happy to share this wonderful creation by Unnati, the little girl who got stuck, asked for help, and met a virtual ‘Alice’ to help her finish her project.
We’re very impressed with them both and believe they deserve our strongest Kudos.
Find out how the story started:
http://www.zythepsary.com/techie/the-power-of-contribution
Visit the project that “Alice” (Gathramraj) made to help Unnati:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmakers/Projects/PicturePuzzle
See Unnati’s thank you:
https://thimble.webmaker.org/p/9ha
Try the Inanimate Alice project yourself:
https://webmaker.org/en-US/projects/make-your-own-episode-inanimate-alice
People often ask: Where did Mozilla Webmaker come from? And, how does it fit into the big picture of Mozilla’s mission? There are loads of materials online that answer these questions. I figured I should create a ‘reading’ list for would be web makers that pulls together some of the main threads. Here it is.
This video is a great place to start. In 3 minutes, you get primer on how Mozilla used Firefox to keep the web alive and on where we are headed next with mobile and web literacy. The main take away: Mozilla is a global community of people creates compelling products and experiences that build openness into the internet. This is an important foundational idea to get. It’s how Mozilla thinks about itself.
Read more…
http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/a-reading-list-for-webmakers
Solve @gauthamrajela’s ‘Alice Puzzle’ project & read the inspiring story behind its creation.
Excerpt from The Power of Contribution, by Laura Hilliger:
Michelle picked up the thread:
“Great recommendation, Laura. I’d also like to introduce Gauthamraj, copied in this email, a Rep from Mozilla India. He’s already organized a lot of Summer Code Parties and has helped a number of people get started with webmaker projects. He might have some ideas for supporting Unnati.”
But Gauthamraj had more than ideas. First, he assumed the identity of Alice because Unnati had mentioned not understanding the Inanimate Alice project. He asked Unnati to respond using Thimble.
Read the story:
http://www.zythepsary.com/techie/the-power-of-contribution
Try the Project here:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmakers/Projects/PicturePuzzle
Zainab Oni is part of the MOUSE Corps and is also a summer intern with Hive NYC. She is a teen news contributor to the Huffington Post, and hopes to go to M.I.T. to study electrical and computer engineering. She is also featured in Mozilla’s ‘Meet the Webmakers’ Video.
Technology isn’t something that I really expressed an interest in until recently. As a matter of fact, the word “technology” didn’t become a part of my vocabulary until I became a student at Hudson High School of Learning Technologies. I started to really notice the involvement of technology in our/my world when my high school informed the students that we were to use laptops as learning tools in classrooms rather than traditional textbooks. I thought my principal was crazy at first (no offense) but as time passed, I became more interested and involved in technology. Using the Internet started to mean more than just social media and it started involving research, online classes and creating and sharing what we made. I started using different tools on the web such as JayCut, Glogster, Prezi, K12, etc.
Since I began to develop interest in technology, I decided to join the MOUSE Squad in my school. It’s a group of students that serve as in-house technicians for the school, helping with daily tech maintenance and troubleshooting wireless and equipment issues. Gradually, I started getting into creating and designing technology, which inevitably led to webmaking. Earlier this year, I was also trained on how to use and teach others about X-Ray Goggles, a web tool that allows people to “hack” or remix a website by letting you see what web pages are made of and then putting in your own text and images. This was when I first started thinking about how to not only use the web, but to start making the web. From then on, I just basically started grabbing every opportunity I could to develop and gather more skills as a webmaker.
(continued…)
Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zainab-oni/dont-be-a-user-be-a-maker_b_1707877.html
Check out NBC Bay Area’s video footage of the Internet Defense League’s ‘Cat Signal’ - plus a few words from Mark Surman.
The “Cat Signal” can be seen, not only in San Francisco, but New York, Washington D.C. London and Ulaar Bataar (Mongolia).
Every Tuesday, we get together for 30 - 60 minutes by phone to:
These calls are open to all, so please feel free to join or listen in any time.
How to get involved:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmakers/Community_Calls#Archive
Weekly dial-in meeting, every Tuesday at 8am PST / 11am EST / 4pm GMT / UTC
