Archive for December, 2008

Goal: Integrate mobile into one unified, open, innovative web

1. Make the web experience on mobile devices exciting and enjoyable
2. Products:
   - demonstrate the power of the web as the development platform
   - accelerate innovation from multiple sources
   - delight users, attract developers

3. New web standards are for all devices, not segregated into mobile-specific or “web” standards.

To my surprise, at the last discussion of 2010 goals the most active topic was the goal for “mobile.” Here’s a brief summary. I’ll put the actual revised goal in the next post.

Jonas looked at item 2 — “The web becomes the primary ‘SDK’ for applications rather than product specific proprietary SDKs,” and said, “Isn’t that our goal on the desktop as well, not just for mobile?” This is so obviously correct that I’ve moved this item to a bullet point of the general goal: “Make openness, participation and distributed decision-making more common experiences in Internet life.” This also has the advantage of giving us a core technical element, central to what many of us work on every day, in this rather abstract general goal. It’s a truly Mozilla-centric way of advancing the general goal. There’s a piece of this specific to the mobile experience in point 2 of the revised mobile goal.

Jono noted he’d like to see something along the lines of making the web experience on mobile devices fun and exciting, rather than the tortured experience it is today. Again, that seems pretty fundamental and worth capturing explicitly.

We had a long discussion about innovation, fragmentation, mobile devices and the desktop. My response has been to simplify, and try and state the high level  goals, and work out the interactions and complexities as we go along. So I’ve reduced the previous point: “accelerate innovation by reducing the fragmented operating system / carrier / handset problems that developers face today” to “accelerate innovation from multiple sources.” To do this we probably need to reduce fragmentation. We may need to be successful at making the web the development platform. But whatever it is that needs to be done, the goal is  to increase the innovative and generative potential.

We also discussed the question of how to make the web accessible / available to the billions of people who don’t have access today. We haven’t found an approach to this where we have a sense we can make a significant difference so there’s no specific goal here.

Here’s a slightly revised version, based on the Tuesday Air Mozilla / IRC discussion.

Goal: Make the explosion in data safer, more useful and more managable for individuals

• Products offer people realistic options for understanding, managing, combining, sharing and moving data created by or about them
• People expect the ability to understand,access, manage, combine, share, and move their data

Based on Tuesday’s discussion, I settled on keeping the goal itself general, not specific to Mozilla, and then refering to Mozilla specifically in some of the subpoints.

Goal: Make openness, participation and distributed decision-making more common experiences in Internet life.

• More and stronger Mozilla communities practicing these values
• Mozilla experiences increasingly applicable to topics such as the open web, hybrid social enterprises, organizational sustainability, shared decision-making, individual control, and portability in Internet life
• Innovations emerge from varied sources
• Projects and products based on these values — at Mozilla and elsewhere — become increasingly vibrant
• Leadership through excellence, technical and otherwise
• Creation of open content becomes easier

When i went to finalize the Firefox goal for 2010 I realized it feels wrong, and in much the same way the “Mozilla as centerpiece” goal felt wrong.  (The current proposal is Reinforce Firefox mindshare and marketshare momentum). Mindshare and marketshare — and Firefox — are not ends in themselves. They are means to an end. So I’d like to restate this goal as:

Reinforce Firefox’s role as a driver of innovation, choice and great user experience

We probably need mindshare and marketshare momentum to accomplish  this. But having momentum isn’t the end goal. It’s what we do with that momentum that matters.

Let me know if this feels odd to you. This is a case where I’m going to take silence as a sign of agreement (or exhaustion 🙂 )

Probably our last such discussion before the goals are done. I plan to focus on the revisions I’ve posted over the last few days. Today on Air Mozilla at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. You can tune in by logging in to air.mozilla.com, and IRC discussion will take place at #airmozilla.

Goal: Reinforce Firefox mindshare and marketshare momentum

I think this goal stays as is, other than changing the verb from “continue” to “reinforce.” Today Firefox is by far the biggest lever we have to make our values and other goals real. If this were our only goal it would be a problem; Firefox is not an end in itself. Similarly leaving the health of our most powerful tool out of the goals would be odd.

If you feel the need for subpoints to parallel the other goals let me know and we can work on those.

My proposed revision of this goal is:

Goal:  Make the explosion in data safer, more valuable and more managable for  individuals

This would be followed by some subpoints, along the lines of those below. They need some work, but I want to post the general idea for reaction before I spend more time on the subpoints.

1. products offer people realistic options for managing data created by or about them
2. people EXPECT access to their data, ability to combine it, move it, manage it as theirs

The change is because I don’t feel we have a solid enough consensus on the original proposal. This was:  provide leadership in

• helping people exercise better ownership and control over their data
• making anonymous, aggregate “usage data” more of a public resource

The idea of making any data available to anyone has generated concern. Some of this I think is due to a lack of concrete examples, or to a misperception that this would involve Mozilla software tracking people’s behaviors, or to a concern that it’s hard to anonymize data. But some of the concern is a basic discomfort with the currently invisible generation and processing of so much data, or the idea of a public “data commons,” or a concern about what’s happening “to” me through my software.

The data explosion is only just beginning, and it’s powerful. New forms of data can help us understand new things and solve new problems we can’t even see the shape of yet. But there’s a risk that each one of us will end up at the mercy of others who control the data. This risk affects our privacy, the degrees of choice and innovation available, and the degree of centralization of our online lives.

We should have a goal that reflects both the potential benefits and the risks of the data explosion.

One of the proposed 2010 goals is “Deepen Mozilla’s role as a centerpiece of the Internet.” I received feedback that this goal feels wrong: it seems to be about promoting Mozilla rather than a healthy Internet. Once this was pointed out, it’s obvious. I’ve edited the proposed goal to reflect this and capture ideas raised during the various discussions.

Goal: Make openness, participation and distributed decision-making more real in Internet life.

1. More and stronger communities practicing these values
2. Scope expands to include things such as the open web, hybrid social enterprises, organizational sustainability, shared decision-making, individual control, and portability in Internet life
3. Innovations emerge from varied sources
4. Projects and products based on these values become increasingly vibrant
5. Leadership through excellence, technological and otherwise
6. Creation of open content becomes easier

As part of finalizing the 2010 goals I’ve been working through the feedback to each specific goal. I’ll post the results for each goal separately and then assemble them into a complete document.

Here’s the mobile piece. Everything is framed as a goal, rather than a big goal with specific tasks Mozilla ought to accomplish. I think this is the right approach, though I’ve gone back and forth. Many groups within the Mozilla community will identify specific tasks to accomplish these goals.

Goal: Integrate mobile into one unified, open, innovative web

1. Product(s)

• are as exciting to users and developers as products built on closed proprietary technologies
• accelerate innovation by reducing the fragmented operating system/ carrier / handset problems that developers face today
• have mindshare and marketshare to influence the industry

2.  The web becomes the primary “SDK” for applications, rather than product specific proprietary SDKs.

3.  New web standards are for all devices, not segregated into mobile-specific or “web” standards.