March 31, or “three thirty-one,” is something of a talisman in the Mozilla community. It’s the date that, back in 1998, Mozilla first came into being — the date that we open-sourced the Netscape code for the world to use.

This year, “three thirty-one” is especially meaningful: It’s Mozilla’s 25 year anniversary.

A lot has changed since 1998. Mozilla is no longer just a bold idea. We’re a family of organizations — a nonprofit, a public benefit-corporation, and others — that builds products, fuels movements, and invests in responsible tech.

And we’re no longer a small group of engineers in Netscape’s Mountain View office. We’re technologists, researchers, and activists located around the globe — not to mention tens of thousands of volunteers.

But if a Mozillian from 1998 stepped into a Mozilla office (or joined a Mozilla video call) in 2023, I think they’d quickly feel something recognizable. A familiar spirit, and a familiar set of values.

When Mozilla open-sourced our browser code 25 years ago, the reason was the public interest: We wanted to spark more innovation, more competition, and more choice online. Technology in the public interest has been our manifesto ever since — whether releasing Firefox 1.0 in 2004, or launching Mozilla.ai earlier this year.

Right now, technology in the public interest seems more important than ever before. The internet today is deeply entwined with our personal lives, our professional lives, and society at large. The internet today is also flawed. Centralized control reduces choice and competition. A focus on “engagement” magnifies outrage, and bad actors are thriving.

Right now — and over the next 25 years — Mozilla can do something about this.

Mozilla’s mission and principles are evergreen, and we will continue to evolve to meet the needs and challenges of the modern internet. How people use the internet will change over time, but the need for innovative products that give individuals agency and choice on the internet is a constant. Firefox has evolved from a faithful and efficient render of web pages on PCs to a cross-platform agent that acts on behalf of the individual, protecting them from bad actors and surveillance capitalists as they navigate the web. Mozilla has introduced new products, such as Firefox Relay and Mozilla VPN, to keep people’s identity protected and activity private as they use the internet. Mozilla is contributing to healthy public discourse, with Pocket enabling discovery of amazing content and the mozilla.social Mastodon instance supporting decentralized, community-driven social media.

We’re constantly exploring ways to apply new technologies so that people feel the benefits in their everyday lives, as well as inspire others to responsibly innovate on behalf of humanity. As AI emerges as a core building block for the future of computing, we’ll turn our attention in that direction and ask: How can we make products and technologies like machine learning work in the public interest? We’ve already started this work via Mozilla.ai, a new Mozilla organization focusing on a trustworthy, independent, and open-source AI ecosystem. And via the Responsible AI Challenge, where we’re convening (and funding) bright people and ambitious projects building trustworthy AI.

And we will continue to champion public policy that keeps the internet healthy. There is proposed legislation around the world that seeks to maintain the internet in the public interest: the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA) in the U.S., the Digital Services Act (DSA) in the EU. Mozilla has helped shape these laws, and we will continue to follow along closely with their implementation and enforcement.

On this “three thirty-one,” I’m realistic about the challenges facing the internet. But I’m also optimistic about Mozilla’s potential to address them. And I’m looking forward to another 25 years of not just product, but also advocacy, philanthropy, and policy in service of a better internet.

As Mozilla reaches its 25th anniversary this year, we’re working hard to set up our ‘next chapter’ — thinking bigger and being bolder about how we can shape the coming era of the internet. We’re working to expand our product offerings, creating multiple options for consumers, audiences and business models. We’re growing our philanthropic and advocacy work that promotes trustworthy AI. And, we’re creating two new Mozilla companies, Mozilla.ai: to develop a trustworthy open source AI stack and Mozilla Ventures:  to invest in responsible tech companies. Across all of this, we’ve been actively recruiting new leaders who can help us build Mozilla for this next era.

With all of this in mind, we are seeking three new members for the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors. These Board members will help grow the scope and impact of the Mozilla Project overall, working closely with the Boards of the Mozilla Corporation, Mozilla.ai and Mozilla Ventures. At least one of the new Board members will play a central role in guiding the work of the Foundation’s charitable programs, which focuses on movement building and trustworthy AI.

What is the role of a Mozilla board member?

I’ve written in the past about the role of the Board of Directors at Mozilla.

At Mozilla, our board members join more than just a board, they join the greater team and the whole movement for internet health. We invite our board members to build relationships with management, employees and volunteers. The conventional thinking is that these types of relationships make it hard for executives to do their jobs. We feel differently. We work openly and transparently, and want Board members to be part of the team and part of the community.

It’s worth noting that Mozilla is an unusual organization. As I wrote in our most recent annual report:

Mozilla is a rare organization. We’re activists for a better internet, one where individuals and societies benefit more from the effects of technology, and where competition brings consumers choices beyond a small handful of integrated technology giants.

We’re activists who champion change by building alternatives. We build products and compete in the consumer marketplace. We combine this with advocacy, policy, and philanthropic programs connecting to others to create change. This combination is rare.

It’s important that our Board members understand all this, including why we build consumer products and why we have a portfolio of organizations playing different roles. It is equally important that the Boards of our commercial subsidiaries understand why we run charitable programs within Mozilla Foundation that complement the work we do to develop products and invest in responsible tech companies.

What are we looking for?

At the highest level, we are seeking people who can help our global organization grow and succeed — and who ensure that we advance the work of the Mozilla Manifesto over the long run. Here is the full job description: https://mzl.la/MofoBoardJD2023

There are a variety of qualities that we seek in all Board members, including a cultural sense of Mozilla and a commitment to an open, transparent, community driven approach. We are also focused on ensuring the diversity of the Board, and fostering global perspectives.

As we recruit, we typically look to add specific skills or domain expertise to the Board. Current examples of areas where we’d like to add expertise include:

1. Mission-based business — experience creating, running or overseeing organizations that combine public benefit and commercial activities towards a mission.
2. Global, public interest advocacy – experience leading successful, large-scale public interest advocacy organizations with online mobilization and shaping public discourse on key issues at the core.
3. Effective ‘portfolio’ organizations – experience running or overseeing organizations that include a number of divisions, companies or non-profits under one umbrella, with an eye to helping the portfolio add up to more than the sum of its parts.

Finding the right people who match these criteria and who have the skills we need takes time. Board candidates will meet the existing board members, members of the management team, individual contributors and volunteers. We see this as a good way to get to know how someone thinks and works within the framework of the Mozilla mission. It also helps us feel comfortable including someone at this senior level of stewardship.

We want your suggestions

We are hoping to add three new members to the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors over the next 18 months. If you have candidates that you believe would be good board members, send them to msurman@mozillafoundation.org. We will use real discretion with the names you send us.

Mozilla is a global community that is building an open and healthy internet. We do so by building products that improve internet life, giving people more privacy, security and control over the experiences they have online. We are also helping to grow the movement of people and organizations around the world committed to making the digital world healthier.

As we grow our ambitions for this work, we are seeking new members for the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors. The Foundation’s programs focus on the movement building side of our work and complement the products and technology developed by Mozilla Corporation.

What is the role of a Mozilla board member?

I’ve written in the past about the role of the Board of Directors at Mozilla.

At Mozilla, our board members join more than just a board, they join the greater team and the whole movement for internet health. We invite our board members to build relationships with management, employees and volunteers. The conventional thinking is that these types of relationships make it hard for the Executive Director to do his or her job. I wrote in my previous post that “We feel differently”. This is still true today. We have open flows of information in multiple channels. Part of building the world we want is to have built transparency and shared understandings.

It’s worth noting that Mozilla is an unusual organization. We’re a technology powerhouse with broad internet openness and empowerment at its core. We feel like a product organization to those from the nonprofit world; we feel like a non-profit organization to those from the technology industry.

It’s important that our board members understand the full breadth of Mozilla’s mission. It’s important that Mozilla Foundation Board members understand why we build consumer products, why it happens in the subsidiary and why they cannot micro-manage this work. It is equally important that Mozilla Corporation Board members understand why we engage in the open internet activities of the Mozilla Foundation and why we seek to develop complementary programs and shared goals.

What are we looking for?

Last time we opened our call for board members, we created a visual role description. Below is an updated version reflecting the current needs for our Mozilla Foundation Board.

Here is the full job description: https://mzl.la/MoFoBoardJD

Here is a short explanation of how to read this visual:

• In the vertical columns, we have the particular skills and expertise that we are looking for right now. We expect new board members to have at least one of these skills.
• The horizontal lines speaks to things that every board member should have. For instance, to be a board member, you should have to have some cultural sense of Mozilla. They are a set of things that are important for every candidate. In addition, there is a set of things that are important for the board as a whole. For instance, international experience. The board makeup overall should cover these areas.
• The horizontal lines will not change too much over time, whereas the vertical lines will change, depending on who joins the Board and who leaves.

Finding the right people who match these criteria and who have the skills we need takes time. We hope to have extensive discussions with a wide range of people. Board candidates will meet the existing board members, members of the management team, individual contributors and volunteers. We see this as a good way to get to know how someone thinks and works within the framework of the Mozilla mission. It also helps us feel comfortable including someone at this senior level of stewardship.

We want your suggestions

We are hoping to add three new members to the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors over the next 18 months. If you have candidates that you believe would be good board members, send them to msurman@mozillafoundation.org. We will use real discretion with the names you send us.

Gerv was Mozilla’s first intern.  He arrived in the summer of 2001, when Mozilla staff was still AOL employees.  It was a shock that AOL had allocated an intern to the then-tiny Mozilla team, and we knew instantly that our amazingly effective volunteer in the UK would be our choice.

When Gerv arrived a few things about him jumped out immediately.  The first was a swollen, shiny, bright pink scar on the side of his neck.  He quickly volunteered that the scar was from a set of surgeries for his recently discovered cancer.  At the time Gerv was 20 or so, and had less than a 50% chance of reaching 35.  He was remarkably upbeat.

The second thing that immediately became clear was Gerv’s faith, which was the bedrock of his response to his cancer.  As a result the scar was a visual marker that led straight to a discussion of faith. This was the organizing principle of Gerv’s life, and nearly everything he did followed from his interpretation of how he should express his faith.

Eventually Gerv felt called to live his faith by publicly judging others in politely stated but damning terms.  His contributions to expanding the Mozilla community would eventually become shadowed by behaviors that made it more difficult for people to participate.  But in 2001 all of this was far in the future.

Gerv was a wildly active and effective contributor almost from the moment he chose Mozilla as his university-era open source project.  He started as a volunteer in January 2000, doing QA for early Gecko builds in return for plushies, including an early program called the Gecko BugAThon.  (With gratitude to the Internet Archive for its work archiving digital history and making it publicly available.)

Gerv had many roles over the years, from volunteer to mostly-volunteer to part-time, to full-time, and back again.  When he went back to student life to attend Bible College, he worked a few hours a week, and many more during breaks.  In 2009 or so, he became a full time employee and remained one until early 2018 when it became clear his cancer was entering a new and final stage.

Gerv’s work varied over the years.  After his start in QA, Gerv did trademark work, a ton of FLOSS licensing work, supported Thunderbird, supported Bugzilla, Certificate Authority work, policy work and set up the MOSS grant program, to name a few areas. Gerv had a remarkable ability to get things done.  In the early years, Gerv was also an active ambassador for Mozilla, and many Mozillians found their way into the project during this period because of Gerv.

Gerv’s work life was interspersed with a series of surgeries and radiation as new tumors appeared. Gerv would methodically inform everyone he would be away for a few weeks, and we would know he had some sort of major treatment coming up.

Gerv’s default approach was to see things in binary terms — yes or no, black or white, on or off, one or zero.  Over the years I worked with him to moderate this trait so that he could better appreciate nuance and the many “gray” areas on complex topics.  Gerv challenged me, infuriated me, impressed me, enraged me, surprised me.  He developed a greater ability to work with ambiguity, which impressed me.

Gerv’s faith did not have ambiguity at least none that I ever saw.  Gerv was crisp.  He had very precise views about marriage, sex, gender and related topics.  He was adamant that his interpretation was correct, and that his interpretation should be encoded into law.  These views made their way into the Mozilla environment.  They have been traumatic and damaging, both to individuals and to Mozilla overall.

The last time I saw Gerv was at FOSDEM, Feb 3 and 4.   I had seen Gerv only a few months before in December and I was shocked at the change in those few months.  Gerv must have been feeling quite poorly, since his announcement about preparing for the end was made on Feb 16.  In many ways, FOSDEM is a fitting final event for Gerv — free software, in the heart of Europe, where impassioned volunteer communities build FLOSS projects together.

To memorialize Gerv’s passing, it is fitting that we remember all of Gerv —  the full person, good and bad, the damage and trauma he caused, as well as his many positive contributions.   Any other view is sentimental.  We should be clear-eyed, acknowledge the problems, and appreciate the positive contributions.  Gerv came to Mozilla long before we were successful or had much to offer besides our goals and our open source foundations.  As Gerv put it, he’s gone home now, leaving untold memories around the FLOSS world.

This week I had the opportunity to share Mozilla’s vision for an Internet that is open and accessible to all with the audience at MWC Americas.

I took this opportunity because we are at a pivotal point in the debate between the FCC, companies, and users over the FCC’s proposal to roll back protections for net neutrality. Net neutrality is a key part of ensuring freedom of choice to access content and services for consumers.

Earlier this week Mozilla’s Heather West wrote a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai highlighting how net neutrality has fueled innovation in Silicon Valley and can do so still across the United States.

The FCC claims these protections hamper investment and are bad for business. And they may vote to end them as early as October. Chairman Pai calls his rule rollback “restoring internet freedom” but that’s really the freedom of the 1% to make decisions that limit the rest of the population.

At Mozilla we believe the current rules provide vital protections to ensure that ISPs don’t act as gatekeepers for online content and services. Millions of people commented on the FCC docket, including those who commented through Mozilla’s portal that removing these core protections will hurt consumers and small businesses alike.

Mozilla is also very much focused on the issues preventing people coming online beyond the United States. Before addressing the situation in the U.S., journalist Rob Pegoraro asked me what we discovered in the research we recently funded in seven other countries into the impact of zero rating on Internet use:

(Video courtesy: GSMA)

If you happen to be in San Francisco on Monday 18th September please consider joining Mozilla and the Internet Archive for a special night: The Battle to Save Net Neutrality. Tickets are available here.

You’ll be able to watch a discussion featuring former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler; Representative Ro Khanna; Mozilla Chief Legal and Business Officer Denelle Dixon; Amy Aniobi, Supervising Producer, Insecure (HBO); Luisa Leschin, Co-Executive Producer/Head Writer, Just Add Magic (Amazon); Malkia Cyril, Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice; and Dane Jasper, CEO and Co-Founder of Sonic. The panel will be moderated by Gigi Sohn, Mozilla Tech Policy Fellow and former Counselor to Chairman Wheeler. It will discuss how net neutrality promotes democratic values, social justice and economic opportunity, what the current threats are, and what the public can do to preserve it.

For the past year and a half I have been serving as one of two co-chairs of the U.S. Commerce Department Digital Economy Board of Advisors. The Board was appointed in March 2016 by then-Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzer to serve a two year term. On Thursday I sent the letter below to Secretary Ross.

Dear Secretary Ross,
I am resigning from my position as a member and co-chair of the Commerce Department’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors, effective immediately.
It is the responsibility of leaders to take action and lift up each and every American. Our leaders must unequivocally denounce bigotry, racism, sexism, hate, and violence.
The digital economy is fundamental to creating an economy that offers opportunity to all Americans. It has been an honor to serve as member and co-chair of this board and to work with the Commerce Department staff.
Sincerely,
Mitchell Baker
Executive Chairwoman
Mozilla

Today, I’m thrilled to announce that Mohamed Nanabhay and Nicole Wong have joined the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors.

Over the last few years, we’ve been working to expand the boards for both the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation. Our goals for the Foundation board roles were to grow Mozilla’s capacity to move our mission forward; expand the number and diversity of people on our boards, and; add specific skills in areas related to movement building and organizational excellence. Adding Mohamed and Nicole represents a significant move forward on these goals.

We met Mohamed about seven years ago through former board member and then Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito. Mohamed was at Al Jazeera at the time and hosted one of Mozilla’s first Open News fellows. Mohamed Nanabhay currently serves as the Deputy CEO of the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), which invests in independent media around the world providing the news, information and debate that people need to build free, thriving societies.

Nicole is an attorney specializing in Internet, media and intellectual property law. She served as President Obama’s deputy chief technology officer (CTO) and has also worked as the vice president and deputy general counsel at Google to arbitrate issues of censorship. Nicole has already been active in helping Mozilla set up a new fellows program gathering people who have worked in government on progressive tech policy. That program launches in June.

Talented and dedicated people are the key to building an Internet as a global public resource that is open and accessible to all. Nicole and Mohammad bring expertise, dedication and new perspectives to Mozilla. I am honored and proud to have them as our newest Board members.

Please join me in welcoming Mohamed and Nicole to the Board. You can read more about why Mohamed chose to join the Board here, and why Nicole joined us here.

Mitchell

There are a set of topics that are important to Mozilla and to what we stand for in the world — healthy communities, global communities, multiculturalism, diversity, tolerance, inclusion, empathy, collaboration, technology for shared good and social benefit.  I spoke about them at the Mozilla All Hands in December, if you want to (re)listen to the talk you can find it here.  The sections where I talk about these things are at the beginning, and also starting at about the 14:30 minute mark.

These topics are a key aspect of Mozilla’s worldview.  However, we have not set them out officially as part of who we are, what we stand for and how we describe ourselves publicly.   I’m feeling a deep need to do so.

My goal is to develop a small set of principles about these aspects of Mozilla’s worldview. We have clear principles that Mozilla stands for topics such as security and free and open source software (principles 4 and 7 of the Manifesto).  Similarly clear principles about topic such as global communities and multiculturalism will serve us well as we go forward.  They will also give us guidance as to the scope and public voice of Mozilla, spanning official communications from Mozilla, to the unofficial ways each of us describes Mozilla.

Currently, I’m working on a first draft of the principles.  We are working quickly, as quickly as we can have rich discussions and community-wide participation. If you would like to be involved and can potentially spend some hours reviewing and providing input please sign up here. Jascha and Jane are supporting me in managing this important project.  
I’ll provide updates as we go forward.  

Today I want to say thank you to Reid Hoffman for 11 years as a Mozilla Corporation board member. Reid’s normal “tour of duty” on a board is much shorter. Reid joined Mozilla as an expression of his commitment to the Open Internet and the Mozilla mission, and he’s demonstrated that regularly. Almost five years ago I asked Reid if he would remain on the Mozilla board even though he had already been a member for six years. Reid agreed. When Chris Beard joined us Reid agreed to serve another two years in order to help Chris get settled and prime Mozilla for the new era.

Mozilla is in a radically better place today than we were two, three, or five years ago, and is poised for a next phase of growth and influence. Take a look at the Annual Report we published Dec 1, 2016 to get a picture of our financial and operational health. Or look at The Glass Room, or our first  Internet Health Report, or the successful launch of Firefox Focus (or Walt Mossberg’s article about Mozilla) to see what we’ve done the last few months.

And so after an extended “tour of duty” Reid is leaving the Mozilla Corporation board and becoming an Emeritus board member. He remains a close friend and champion of Mozilla and the Open Internet. He continues to help identify technologists, entrepreneurs, and allies who would be a good fit to join Mozilla, including at the board level.  He also continues to meet with and provide support to our key executives.

A heartfelt thank you to Reid.

This post was originally posted on the Mozilla.org website.

Helen Turvey, new Mozilla Foundation Board member

Today, we’re welcoming Helen Turvey as a new member of the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors. Helen is the CEO of the Shuttleworth Foundation. Her focus on philanthropy and openness throughout her career makes her a great addition to our Board.

Throughout 2016, we have been focused on board development for both the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation boards of directors. Our recruiting efforts for board members has been geared towards building a diverse group of people who embody the values and mission that bring Mozilla to life. After extensive conversations, it is clear that Helen brings the experience, expertise and approach that we seek for the Mozilla Foundation Board.

Helen has spent the past two decades working to make philanthropy better, over half of that time working with the Shuttleworth Foundation, an organization that provides funding for people engaged in social change and helping them have a sustained impact. During her time with the Shuttleworth Foundation, Helen has driven the evolution from traditional funder to the current co-investment Fellowship model.

Helen was educated in Europe, South America and the Middle East and has 15 years of experience working with international NGOs and agencies. She is driven by the belief that openness has benefits beyond the obvious. That openness offers huge value to education, economies and communities in both the developed and developing worlds.

Helen’s contribution to Mozilla has a long history: Helen chaired the digital literacy alliance that we ran in UK in 2013 and 2014; she’s played a key role in re-imagining MozFest; and she’s been an active advisor to the Mozilla Foundation executive team during the development of the Mozilla Foundation ‘Fuel the Movement’ 3 year plan.

Please join me in welcoming Helen Turvey to the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors.

Mitchell

You can read Helen’s message about why she’s joining Mozilla here.

Background:

Twitter: @helenturvey

High-res photo