In this issue…

New HTML5 video features for Firefox 4
Chris Pearce has written a series of articles outlining new HTML5 video features that are slated to be part of Firefox 4: the video “buffered” property, the video “preload” attribute, and support for keyframe indexed Ogg files. You can follow along with HTML5 video development through Chris’ weblog.

Understanding private browsing
“Private Browsing was introduced in Firefox 3.5, giving users the option of browsing the web without keeping track of their history. A recent Test Pilot study recorded the time users activated Private Browsing, and the time they deactivated it. Though what happens in Private Browsing stays in Private Browsing — that is, neither Firefox nor Test Pilot records anything during that period — we did learn a few things about timing and duration.” Read more about this study at the Blog of Metrics.

SXSW 2011: vote for Mozilla sessions!
“It feels like just yesterday we were wrapping up SXSW Interactive 2010, but now the Panel Picker is up and running and SXSW 2011 is ramping up. This year we have three sessions submitted to the panel picker — including our very own from the Engagement team. Please vote them up!” Mozilla’s submitted panels include: Mozilla’s Army of AWESOME: Engaging Non-Technical User Participants, How to Create Prototypes and Influence People, and Mozilla School of Webcraft @P2PU.

Brendan Eich on static analysis
Brendan writes, “One of the best ‘researchy’ investments we’ve made at Mozilla over the last few years has been in static analysis, both for C++ (including Taras Glek’s excellent Dehydra, with which you write the custom analysis in JS) and now for JS itself. DoctorJS is based on Dmitris Vardoulakis’s work this summer implementing CFA2 for JavaScript at Mozilla. Dmitris is a student at Northeastern University under Olin Shivers (who is in fact a super-hero, not a super-villain like his name might suggest). Dmitris is one of many awesome interns we’ve managed to recruit in recent summers.” Read more about Dmitris’ work and DoctorJS at Brendan’s weblog.

A new feature and a new contributor
Mike Beltzner has written not only about a new feature coming to Firefox 4 on Windows Vista and Windows 7, but also about how the feature’s development was done by a brand new contributor. “Alex filed a bug with the design, which included several new UI concepts that had not been previously implemented using XUL, such as a two-tiered Windows Vista-esque menu, and a menu that had buttons in it. At the time the bug was filed, we weren’t sure who would have time to experiment and implement the changes, and considered some of the design items to be at risk for Firefox 4.” This is where the new contributor comes into the story.

“Joshua M (who also goes by SoapyHamHocks on IRC) created a Bugzilla account on August 12th, and put up his first attempt at an implementation the next day. Working with the Firefox team in IRC and through Bugzilla, several iterations of his patch went by, and on August 20th, the patch landed in Mozilla’s codebase. There are some bugs and issues to work out, but thanks to Joshua’s contribution, our Windows Vista/7 users will all be able to look forward to a much more native and better user experience.”

Education for the open web fellowship
“In May, Mozilla and the Shuttleworth Foundation announced a new Education for the Open Web Fellowship. The aim is to support practical ideas that help people learn about, improve and promote the open nature of the internet, as part of our commitment to supporting leaders working at the intersection of open education and the open web. While response was promising, we did not feel any of the submissions were far enough along to award the fellowship in July as planned. So we’ve decided to a) push back the application deadline to October 17, 2010, to allow existing applicants to further strengthen their pitch and new applicants to throw their hat into the ring; and b) offer the early stage proposals a chance at small grants that will help them get off the ground.” Read more about the Education for the Open Web Fellowship at Drumbeat.

Crowdsourcing project updates
Mozilla Labs embarked on a “Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing” project a few months ago, and recent posts include summaries of what the team has discovered regarding both best practices and related literature. Best practices, which the team has covered in more detail in the post, include having a low barrier to entry, some elements of competition, playing towards individuals’ intrinsic motivations, giving people the “ability to shine”, and having a strong and active community. More about this project is available at the Mozilla Labs weblog.

Mitchell Baker honored by Frost & Sullivan
Yesterday, Mitchell Baker was announced as the recipient of Frost & Sullivan’s 2010 Growth, Innovation and Leadership Award. Mitchell will be honored for her achievements at the annual GIL 2010 event in Silicon Valley on Sept 13th, 2010. The award honor was announced in a press release issued by Frost & Sullivan.

Software releases
* Mozmill 1.5

Upcoming events
* Oct 1-2, New York City, Open Video Conference
* Oct 28-29, Toronto, FSOSS
* Nov 4-6, Barcelona, Drumbeat Festival 2010
* Nov 5-7, Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit (FSCONS)

Developer calendar
For an up-to-date list of the coming week’s Mozilla project meetings and events, please see the Mozilla Community Calendar wiki page. Notes from previous meetings are linked to through the Calendar as well.

About about:mozilla
about:mozilla is by, for and about the Mozilla community, focusing on major news items related to all aspects of the Mozilla Project. The newsletter is written by Deb Richardson and is published every Tuesday morning.

If you have any news, announcements, events, or software releases you would like to have included in our next issue, please send them to: about-mozilla[at]mozilla.com.

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