Lessons from MozillaNASA Open Source SummitMarch 30th, Ames Research Center
Seven InsightsTwo Problems & Some Thoughts
Hello.
Caution: Your results may vary
ContextSome
Mozilla is…
FOX News thinks differently
PromoteChoice and Innovation
on the Internet
Mission
Seriously.
That’s it.
The Webis
too important!
Factoids
• Mozilla project started in 1998 within Netscape• Mozilla Foundation started in 2003• approximately 350 paid staff in 20 countries
• 40% of code contributed by volunteers• Testing community of 60,000+
• More than 400 million users• Global browser market share ~30%
Open Source
Wishful thinking
Reality
Hone your MacGuyver-Skills
Seven Insights
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Superior ProductsMatter
Withoutexcellent experience & utility,
the rest is meaningless
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Push (most) Decision Making to the Edges
Build Dee Hock’s Chaords
1. Distributed Decision-Making
2. Nodal Authority
3. Ways to Route Around
1. high agreement on core values
2. decision-making rests with module owners
3. groups have distinct ways of working
4. many decision-makers outside the “official” org
5. communication is central
Mozilla is a Chaord
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Communication will happenin every possible way
* so make sure it’s reusable
People will communicate inevery useful way possible
Wikis
Blogs
Our main channels: Bugzilla, IRC & newsgroups
More: Video, Audio, Chat (and Robots)
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Make it easy for yourCommunity to do the
Important Things
Firefox ships in 80 languages;79 of them localized by volunteers
Making it easy is a huge priority
Our focus now (increasingly) is onmaking it easier to help others do more
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Surprise is overrated
Surprise is the
of EngagementOPPOSITE
Grow the Circle of Participation
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Communities are not Markets:Members are Citizens
Citizens are more than consumers,are more than bystanders,
are more than stakeholders
THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM – THEY ARE US – WE ARE THEM
The best citizens challenge the status quo, propose improvements and make the conversation richer
They don’t just make products better. They make them what they are.
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The key is the art of figuringout whether & how to apply
each of these ideas
1. Superior Products Matter
2. Push (most) decision-making to the edges
3. Communication will happen - make it reusable
4. Make it easy to do the important things
5. Surprise is overrated
6. Communities are not Markets
7. Figure out whether & how to apply these ideas
Two Problems
Engaged citizens are
noisy#1
“I love tabs!”
“Everyone uses tags,not bookmarks.”
“My mom doesn’tunderstand tabs.”
“OpenID is the future!”
“What’s with thedirty house?”
“Nobody uses the ‘Go’ button.”
“There should bea preference setting.” “Add support for
BitTorrent.”
“Fitts’ says biggerbuttons are better.”
“Add support forOgg Vorbis.”
“That’s great!”
“That’s awful”
“The profile managershould be redesigned.”
“Closebuttons are better atthe end of the tabstrip.”
“The URL bar shouldbe removed.”
Noisy
Dem
andi
ng
Contradictory
They help products, technology & organizations make hard decisionsin the right way.
vital
There are
NO#2
maps…
Actually… there are maps.
They just aren’t yours.
Dragons
Key is to define what you care about,how to measure it and how to communicate a litmus tests.
Thoughts…and some
Communitybuild
alongside your tool-chain
Planningwiki.mozilla.org
Dev & BuildTinderbox , etc
AutomationNightly / Testing
Project Mgmtbugzilla.mozilla.org
QAquality.mozilla.org
Crash Statscrash-stats.mozilla.org
Feedbackinput.mozilla.org
…
Tools matter
10x
pfinette@ – @pfinette
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