about:mozilla is a weekly round-up of news and contribution opportunities. Here’s what’s happening this week.

Foxconn Adopts Firefox OS

Firefox OS is our open mobile operating system that is on its way to change the way we’re using the web on the go. A few days ago, Foxconn announced their support for it and unveiled new mobile phones which use the OS. But since the open web doesn’t just fit in your pocket but also in your rucksack, they also announced the first Firefox OS tablets. And as though as this wasn’t already exciting enough, they stated that they intend to have it running on laptops and TVs as well.

Find out more about our partnership with Foxconn and take a look at pictures of the devices.

An Interview with Firefox VP Jonathan Nightingale
Jonathan Nightingale, Vice President of Firefox Engineering, has a mission that sounds easy: Giving over 450 million users the best browsing experience. But behind the scenes, that means that he is in a constant “fight” with Chrome and IE over new features and market share. The web magazine “Engadget” released an interview yesterday in which Jonathan explains our mission, if we are in the shadow of Chrome and why we have a different plan that will work better. After so many tough questions, it’s definitely clear who’s the real winner: The Web.

Read the full interview with Jonathan Nightingale on Engadget.

C is for Cookie
Mozilla believes in putting users in control of their online experience, yet, we also want a healthy and thriving web ecosystem. We don’t see a contradiction, but sometimes, a crucial experiment is required to prove it: We’re testing a change in Firefox that blocks cookies from sites you have not visited yet. Cookies store small pieces of data that are helpful when it comes to remembering the state of a website you’ve visited. But often, they are used to track users, which is a huge privacy concern. Taking this step once again emphasizes how much we protect your privacy.

Learn more about what this will change for you and website developers on Brendan Eich’s blog.

Explaining Open Badges Through Analogy
Open Badges is a new online standard to recognize and verify learning. You earn badges for skills you learn offline and online and you can take them anywhere. No matter if you want to show them to your future employer, friends or your family. Doug Belshaw, Badges & Skills Lead for Mozilla, came up with useful metaphors to help you understand what Open Badges is. “It’s a bit like a water company providing the infrastructure so that instead of having to go to a well, you can get water coming out of a tap. What you use that water for is entirely up to you”, he explains in his blog post.

Get to know more about Open Badges and start using them today.

WebGL Dev Derby
Our Dev Derby is a monthly Web development contest open to anyone willing to learn. This time, we want to see what you can do with WebGL, a technology that brings 3D graphics to the Web. Build 3D games, create interactive data visualizations and more – the possibilities are endless. No matter if you’re just getting started or an expert – our developer network provide you with the basics you need to get started with tackling WebGL.

Show us what you can do with HTML & WebGL and take part in our dev derby.

Photo of the Week

The WebFWD Cohort III on their Graduation Day. Find some more pictures of the event on Flickr and a video of the eight teams on Air Mozilla.

Upcoming events
* June 13 – Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: OpenCoffee Sarajevo
* June 15 – Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: Mozilla Zimbabwe Community meet-up
* June 15 & 16 – Erfurt, Germany: Barcamp Erfurt
* June 17 – Mombasa, Kenya: Firefox Flicks Mombasa
* June 18-21 – Chittagong, Bangladesh: MozTour @ Chittagong
* Find even more near you on the Events Calendar

Get Involved
These are just some of the available contribution opportunities. Learn more about other ways to get involved and find other Mozillians in our community who share your interests.

About about:mozilla
The newsletter is written by Mozilla’s Community Engagement team and is published every Tuesday. For more on what has been happening this week also checkout the Mozilla Project Meeting. If you have anything you would like to include in our next issue, please contact: about-mozilla[at]mozilla[dot]com or send us a status message on mozilla.status.net or a tweet @aboutmozilla. You can also subscribe to the email version.

Have a good week folks and keep rocking the Web!

about:mozilla is a weekly round-up of news and contribution opportunities. Here’s what’s happening this week.

New Features, Less Interruption For You On The Web

During the last weeks, thousands of Mozillians have coded and tested the next version of Firefox to a fare-thee-well. A few days ago, we were proud to finally release Firefox 20, in which we have fixed about 300 bugs. But we also added new features: You can now open Private Windows that allow you to surf the web without saving any information about which pages you’ve visited. We have also added a new download button to your toolbar. Last but not least, Firefox is now able to open PDF files directly without using a plugin like Reader.

Find out more about the new features.

Samsung, Mozilla And Our Browser Engine
Firefox is already fast by default, but at Mozilla Research, we want to make it even faster by experimenting with what’s next when it comes to the core technology powering the Web browser. Since we need to take advantage of tomorrow’s faster computing architectures, we’ve recently teamed up with Samsung on an advanced technology Web browser engine that is called Servo. This program is basically a clone of Firefox that has been built from the ground up on modern hardware. It’s been written in a language that prevents entire classes of errors that lead to crashes and security vulnerabilities.

Find out when the first major revision of Rust will be completed in Brendan Eich’s blog post.

Public Mozillians Profile Mozillians.org is our community directory that our core contributors use to find and contact each other. Several of you have asked us for an option to share their profiles with other people who aren’t registered and we’ve listened to them: From now on, you can also display your profile publicly by using the new privacy controls. You can choose which information you want to be on your publicly viewable profile. If you want your profile to remain visible to only Mozillians, you do not need to make any changes.

Read William Reynolds blog post, in which he explains how to change the visibility for your profile.

Preparing for the Next Chapter
When Gary Kovacs became the CEO of Mozilla in 2010, he joined us to make a dramatic pivot – to move Mozilla from the desktop browser world into the mobile ecosystem with Firefox for Android and Firefox OS. We have accomplished so many things since Gary joined us. Last Wednesday, Mitchell Baker, Chair of the Mozilla Foundation, announced that he will step down as CEO later this year. This is the perfect time to thank him for his contributions to our cause, and for bringing new things to Mozilla.

Find out more about his accomplishments in Mitchell Baker’s blog post

Thoughts on Mozilla Research
Brendan Eich, inventor of the JavaScript language, gave a brief talk at the Mozilla Research Party, which happened to fall on the celebration of Mozilla’s 15th anniversary. In his talk, he talked about his memories, but also about his thoughts on Mozilla Research. He started off by stating the main problem: Software, especially “in the large”, remains quite challenging. In his opinion, calling software an art should not relieve us from advancing computer science. In the past, we already found that out: Because code kind of rusts over time, Brendan declared it time to rebuild major parts of the code back in 1998. Today, he designates this near-total rewrite as a big mistake.

Find out how this mistake hurt Netscape but helped Mozilla, Firefox’s predecessors.

Mozilla Summit 2013
Every once in the while, the core contributors of Mozilla from all around the world get together in one place. This is called the Summit. This year, we’re doing something different: We want to have three locations with up to 700 people, some shared content and some innovative ways to join the three locales. If you’re a registered Mozillian, you have already received an e-mail with instructions on how to be considered for an invitation. Till the deadline on the 17th of April, you can still apply for an invitation that will be sent out in May.

Read more about Mitchell Baker’s greatest hope for the Summit.

Photo of the Week

Mozilla Festival in Bhopal, India. Find some more pictures of the event on Flickr.

Upcoming events
* April 12-14 – Cluj-Napoca, Romania: Mozilla Meetup Romania 2013
* April 13 – Toronto, Canada: Open Web Open Mic
* April 13 – Utah, US: Mozilla Utah MozCafe
* April 13 – Durgapur, India: MozConnect-Durgapur
* April 13 – Long Mountain, Mauritius: Webmaker
* April 16 – Bogotá, Colombia: Mozilla Colombia Meetup
* Find even more near you on the Events Calendar

Get Involved
These are just some of the available contribution opportunities. Learn more about other ways to get involved and find other Mozillians in our community who share your interests.

About about:mozilla
The newsletter is written by Mozilla’s Community Engagement team and is published every Tuesday. For more on what has been happening this week also checkout the Mozilla Project Meeting. If you have anything you would like to include in our next issue, please contact: about-mozilla[at]mozilla[dot]com or send us a status message on mozilla.status.net or a tweet @aboutmozilla. You can also subscribe to the email version.

Have a good week folks and keep rocking the Web!