Mozilla

Getting Ready for Summit 2013; Fun Already!

September 27th, 2013

In just a week Mozillians will gather for the Mozilla Summit 2013.  I’ve been working with a number of the facilitators and the “track leads” and I have to say, it is really rewarding.

The Summit will have 4 or 5 “plenary sessions” with pretty carefully planned content.  We also have identified some key ideas and topics that the plenary talks will raise, and planned session to address some of these. These are known as “Supporting Sessions.” We expect to have the same Supporting Sessions in each of the 3 locations, facilitated by people in each location.  (There will also be a big chunk of time for Open Sessions –anyone proposes a session — and for spontaneous groups to gather.)  The topics for the Supporting Sessions were determined by the 60 or so Assembly Delegates and the rest of the summit organizing team.  These groups did not determine the actual content of the Supporting Sessions.  Instead, we gave a topical statement to guide the facilitators in developing an approach to the session.   The Track Leads have the roles of looking at all the supporting Sessions for a particular theme — product and technology, people and process, purpose and strategy.  They also assist the facilitators stay connected with the overall picture.

I’ll give one of plenary talks, focused on the nature of Mozilla, who we are, why we exist, how we work, the attributes of success, and the connections to our products and communities.  So far I’ve talked with the facilitators of 3 the Supporting Sessions that relate to these themes:

what does “mozillian” mean? ”
“practicing Open;” and
“distributed leadership and decision-making.”

Wow!  In each case I was impressed with the sophistication of the work the facilitators and track leads are doing.  These are complex topics, selected to represent some key elements of Mozilla that are different from most organizations.   That means it’s really important to develop a shared understanding of our goals, and yet we can’t simply do what everyone else does.

I’m looking forward to the Summit more than ever!

3 comments for “Getting Ready for Summit 2013; Fun Already!”

  1. 1

    Fabricio C Zuardi said on September 28th, 2013 at 10:06 pm:

    “Practicing Open” is indead a complex topic…

  2. 2

    said on October 2nd, 2013 at 8:22 am:

    Hi Mitchell and Fabricio. Agree that “Practicing Open” is a rich, complex topic. Here’s an update on what we’re thinking for that session:

    How to work open at Mozilla
    http://openmatt.org/2013/10/02/open_mozilla/

    The emphasis will be on surfacing key questions for an FAQ.
    So that we can dig into some of that complexity, without trying to tackle too much or solve for all of it to start.

    Fabricio, are you able to attend? Would love to have you take part!

  3. 3

    Fabricio said on October 8th, 2013 at 6:43 pm:

    Hi Matt,

    Too much competing great sessions at the same time 🙁 I wasn’t able to attend Ioanna’s session because I end up in the P2P technologies one, but I attended a similar one “working with closed partners” and it was good. I still need to organize notes and thoughts, but if I finish it I can follow up by email/web/wiki with you! Thanks for the links and for the effort! This is important.

    []s

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