Mozilla

Archive for May 21st, 2007

Mozilla Community and Mozpad

May 21st, 2007

The Mozilla community is unbelievably vibrant and active. There is a long history of people interested in Mozilla clumping together to make things happen — this started way back in 1999 or so and continues today. Our QA effort is one example, Firefox is another, mozdev.org is another, Spread Firefox is another. In each of these settings groups of people decided something should be done to expand the reach of Mozilla, they made something good happen, and now they are integral parts of Mozilla.

The activities underway to inaugurate Mozpad are a contemporary example of the Mozilla community. There are a group of application developers using the Mozilla platform to build applications other than the browser. These developers start with Mozilla code, add other elements, and build applications and businesses. The developers get enormous value from Mozilla code, but it often does not meet all of their needs. The unmet needs might be changes to the core Mozilla platform, packaging and installation changes, or any number of other things.

A user’s group for these developers such as Mozpad is a great idea. And not only is it a great idea, but it is happening. And it’s happening through a classic Mozilla process — people see a need, self-organize, and improve the Mozilla world. Matt has come up with a name (always helpful), and is organizing an initial meeting. All those interested are welcome to attend.

Self-organizing, “doing,” and expanding the Mozilla world is a long-standing and fundamental aspect of the Mozilla community. It’s how many new things gain traction, often leading to more effective results than would come from a centralized planning effort.

As self-organizing activities gain scale and provide new benefits to the Mozilla world, Mozilla works to provide infrastructure and supporting resources. If there are ongoing activities coming out of Mozpad, Mozilla is more than happy to provide infrastructure — newsgroups, mailing lists, discussion sites, etc. — and to help get appropriate platform development requests incorporated into the general development process.

The vitality of the Mozilla community produces an astonishing range of self-organizing groups of people who move the Mozilla vision closer to reality. It’s unbelievably energizing to be part of such a community.

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