Mozilla is an increasingly global community. This is important to the success of our mission. If we hope to have a world of openness and opportunity for all we should be building centers of gravity in many different locales. Silicon Valley in California is still the center of a big chunk of the Internet industry, but Mozilla’s commitment to the Internet as a global public resource means we in particular focus on building leaders in many other places.
With this in mind my family and I have decided to get ourselves out of California for a bit. We’re planning to move to Barcelona next September for a year. Barcelona is not only in the heart of Europe, it’s much closer to the middle east and Africa, and it’s no further from the east coast of Latin America than California. (Although getting to Asia may be a longer trip.) I expect to be able to spend much more time with many more local Mozilla communities.
This is a change of geography, not of commitment to Mozilla. I expect to spend more time meeting Mozillians and more time focusing on project dynamics. I want to strengthen the ability for local leaders to become regional and global leaders in Mozilla.
I also expect to spend more time representing Mozilla to governments, policy-makers and other organizations interested in Mozilla and the Internet. By being located in Europe, we will be able to give more support to the critical issues being discussed in that region. I will also stay involved in our product efforts, as these are so key to have we achieve our mission. Perhaps I’ll find the time to do some of the writing that would be so helpful.
I’m not (yet???) a Spanish-speaker, so I will undoubtedly spend a bunch of time off-balance and trying to figure out how basic things work.
September will be here soon. We’re excited!