Pack your principles, and your pragmatism.
If you’re coming to the Mozilla Summit this week, you’ll need your principles and your pragmatism. You will need both in equal measure.
At our best, Mozillians combine these two qualities.
- Principles – we envision a world where everyone is in control of their online life.
- Pragmatism – we know we have to to roll up our sleeves to build the technology and to spread the know-how needed to create this world. When it works, it’s this combination that allows us to build the Web we want through great products, services and programs.
As we roll into Brussels / Toronto / Santa Clara, we will be called upon to reflect on our principles: We’ll talk about what we want the digital world to look like in 10 years, how ideas like ‘open’ and ‘interoperable’ play out not only only in mobile but also in a world where almost everything around us is connected to the Internet. We’ll think about what working collaboratively and in the open look like as we get bigger, work with new partners, and expand the areas in which we work. Our core principles are clear but figuring out how to make them real in today’s world is a task we need to tackle together.
Similarly, we have work to do figuring out how to concretely build out the Web that the world needs and deserves. We’ve made great progress into mobile with Firefox OS. And we’re beginning to talk more about an open services layer and a large-scale push for people to learn more about how the Web works. But we are far from winning yet. The Summit gives us a chance to put our heads together to figure out how to do that: to move the ball on building products and programs that both embed our values and will succeed in the market.
Of course, ‘putting our heads together’ is what’s most important here. It’s the point of the Summit. Mozilla is a global community of people who all have something to contribute to shaping and building out the future of the Web. If you are reading this, that probably includes *you*. We have a great Summit planned. It’s a chance to chart an inspiring and successful course for coming years. But it only works if we all come with both our principles and our pragmatism, ready to engage, tinker and invent the future together. Pack well. And see you soon.
~ Mark