Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux adds new in-product developer tools that make it easier to visualize page elements. Firefox also expands Firefox Sync capabilities to let users sync add-ons across computers.

Firefox includes new developer tools that represent the structure of websites in a new way and make it easier to live-edit CSS code. The first is a powerful visual layout tool unique to Firefox, Page Inspector 3D View. Nicknamed Tilt, it is a brand new WebGL-based website visualization tool that highlights the structure of a page better than a flat view, so anyone can immediately understand the relationship of the code to the page output. While developer tools like “view source” have always been useful to learn about how to develop a page, the 3D View more clearly illustrates how the parts of a website are structured. After selecting “3D” View in Page Inspector, just hover your mouse over the elements to get more information about each piece you select.

Firefox now includes the new Style Editor tool, which allows developers to edit CSS stylesheets like a text editor and see changes instantly, entirely within the browser.
It’s a quick and easy way to iterate and test designs on a website. Once changes are made, the Firefox Style Editor provides a simple way to save the file to your computer.

Firefox introduces Add-on Sync. Users now have the option to sync add-ons between computers to allow for a seamless experience across Firefox at work and at home. Users can enable this feature in the Preferences window on the Sync tab.

For more information:

• Download Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux
• Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux long, technical release notes

Mozilla is partnering with the world’s leaders in documentary film to launch The Living Docs Project. The partnership will produce events, projects and code aimed at revolutionizing Web-based documentaries, using the power of new open Web tools like Mozilla Popcorn to create new ways of telling stories online.

Living Docs is a partnership between Mozilla, The Tribeca Film Institute, The Center for Social Media at American University, ITVS and BAVC. The Tribeca Film Institute is one of the world’s leading funders of interactive documentaries.

Filmmakers and developers changing the face of storytelling

Living Docs films will apply the “hacker spirit” of open innovation to the world of documentary, using open Web technology, sharing code and resources, and releasing new iterations early and often.

“This is about the evolution of the documentary genre,” said Mozilla’s Brett Gaylor. “We’re bringing filmmakers and developers together to tell stories in ways that have never been attempted before.”

“As storytelling enters the 21st Century, we are inspired by Mozilla’s open-source ethos of collaboration, constant learning and iteration,” said ITVS. “These new ways of working require new skills, new teams and new aesthetics.”

Living Docs Hack Day from Brett Gaylor on Vimeo.

Hot Docs hackathon

The first Living Docs hackathon will pair web developers and documentary filmmakers at the upcoming Hot Docs film festival in Toronto. The project is now seeking filmmakers with interactive projects to participate in the two-day sprint, which will be held April 28 and 29 at Mozilla Toronto.

Learn more

• Read the Living Docs launch announcement from ITVS
• Apply to take part in the “Hot Hacks” sprint at the Hot Docs Film Festival
• Learn more about Mozilla Popcorn
• Learn more about why Wired and Fast Company call Mozilla Popcorn “the future of web video”

The New York Times and three other leading global news organizations are joining “Knight-Mozilla OpenNews,” a partnership aimed at driving open source innovation in news.

The announcement will be made at SXSW on Saturday, alongside a series of exhibits showcasing how Mozilla and other open source projects are leading innovation in news, in areas like real-time visualizations, augmented video, data-journalism and HTML5 web tools.

Four new partners join Knight-Mozilla OpenNews

Begun in the spring of 2011, The Knight-Mozilla OpenNews  project began with an initial set of news partners that include the BBC, the Guardian, Zeit Online, the Boston Globe and Al Jazeera English.

Four new news partners are now joining the project. They are:

• The New York Times (New York)
• ProPublica (New York)
• Spiegel Online (Hamburg)
• La Nacion (Buenos Aires)

2012/13 Knight-Mozilla OpenNews Fellowships

OpenNews will award eight new fellowships this year, embedding fellows in these partner news organizations to spend a year writing code in collaboration with reporters and newsroom developers.

Fellows will work in the open by sharing their code and their discoveries on  the web, to increase access to new software and ideas. Applications will open April 9 through MozillaOpenNews.org.

Knight-Mozilla OpenNews partners at the 2011 Mozilla Festival in London

Open news and the open web

“SXSW has become a destination event for the ‘hacker-journalist,’” said Mozilla’s Dan Sinker. “It  does a great job of mixing the developer mindset with the larger media  world. It’s the perfect place for us to make this anouncement.”

“What’s exciting about this project is that it affords us a luxury newsrooms rarely have: the ability to dig deep on a subject of critical importance,” said Aron Pilhofer, Editor of Interactive News at The New York Times. “The results, we hope, will help The Times and the industry in general measure and enhance the impact of our journalism.”

Learn more

• Learn more about Knight-Mozilla OpenNews
• Learn more about the 2012 Knight-Mozilla OpenNews Fellows
• Learn more about applying to become a 2013 OpenNews Fellow

We are excited to officially kick off the start of the Firefox Flicks video competition with the announcement of our judging panel and prizes.

With the Firefox Flicks competition, we are encouraging aspiring filmmakers, animators and creatives from around the world to produce and submit short films that promote and educate users about the issues that affect their online lives such as privacy and security, and also raise awareness about what makes Firefox and Mozilla unique. 

The filmmakers, actors and industry executives who will be judging this competition include:

• Edward Norton
• Shauna Robertson
• Couper Samuelson
• Jeff Silver
• Ben Silvermam

Individuals or teams that submit an entry will not only have their work judged by Hollywood filmmakers, actors and executives, they will also have the chance for their work to be seen by millions of people around the world and be entered to win cash prizes that can used to pay their tuition, buy equipment, or fund their next creative project.

• Grand prize winners: A grand prize winner from each of the four regions (US & Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia) will receive $10,000 USD.
• Category winners: In each of the regions a winner will be selected from each of the four categories. (Best 30 second spot, Best Animation, Best Public Service Announcement, Best Use of New Open Technology) . Each of these winners will receive $5,000 USD.
• Category runners up: In each of the regions a category runner up from each of the four categories listed above will receive $1,000 USD.
• Plus, the first 1,000 qualified entrants will receive a limited edition Firefox Flicks prize pack including exclusive t-shirts, stickers, pens, notebooks, and more.

We will also have additional sponsored prizes that will be announced throughout the competition. Additionally, check out these three videos  – Twilight, Noir and Dance — directed by Mozilla to get some ideas.

The deadline for entries is May 1, 2012.

For more information, including submission guidelines and categories, and to enter, please visit  firefoxflicks.org.

Firefox Flicks Judges

Edward Norton has acted in the films Primal Fear, Everyone Says I Love You, The People vs Larry Flynt,American History X, Rounders, Fight Club, Keeping the Faith, The Score, Death to Smoochy, Frida, Red Dragon, The 25th Hour, The Italian Job, Down in the Valley, The Kingdom of Heaven, The Illusionist, The Painted Veil, The Incredible Hulk, Pride & Glory and Leaves of Grass and Stone.

He has been nominated for two Academy Awards, for Primal Fear and American History X, and won a Golden Globe along with numerous other awards for his performances. He produced and directed Keeping the Faith and also produced Down in the Valley (Cannes Film Festival selection), The Painted Veil, Leaves of Grass and the documentary By The People: The Election of Barack Obama.

Norton is also a committed social and environmental activist, supporting the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities, Enterprise Community Partners, the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, the Libby Rouse Fund for Peace, the Signature Theater Company and Friends of the High Line. Recently Norton founded CrowdRise, an innovative new web platform that brings the power of crowd-sourcing and the fun of social networking to fundraising and volunteerism.

Shauna Robertson has produced some of the best comedies of the last decade. Her list of credits include Meet the Parents, Elf, Anchorman, The Forty Year Old Virgin,Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Shauna is a Canadian who moved to Hollywood to start working in the movies at age 17.

Last year she left the movie business to pursue her dreams of working in the non profit sector. In March 2010 she and her boyfriend, Edward Norton, launched the new web based company Crowdrise (http://www.crowdrise.com/) that helps individuals and charities make fundraising impactful and fun.

Couper Samuelson runs Jason Blum’s Universal-based production company. Prior to that, he worked for producer Brad Weston at Paramount, where he produced the forthcoming Destination Wedding, the first movie initiated by Paramount Insurge, the studio’s low-budget division. He spent five years at 2929, Mark Cuban’s financing company, where he co-produced We Own the Night, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg among other 2929 features. He began his career as an assistant in the Motion Picture Department of the Creative Artists Agency.

Jeffrey Silver has produced over 30 feature films – through his production company Biscayne Pictures, and his partnership with Outlaw Productions. In the course of his career, Silver has produced both studio and independent pictures, including Tron: Legacy, Terminator: Salvation, 300, Training Day, The Santa Clause and its sequels, and the TV series, The Wonder Years, as well as many others.

Ben Silverman is executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning NBC comedy The Office and the Golden Globe-winning comedy Ugly Betty, is co-creator and executive producer of the hit reality show The Biggest Loser for NBC and the critically acclaimed series The Tudors for Showtime, as well as executive producer of VH1’s Mob Wives and the upcoming NBC hit Fashion Star.

Previously, Silverman has served as Co-Chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, founded the production and distribution company Reveille, ran the international packaging division at William Morris Agency (WMA), served as vice president for New World/Marvel Entertainment and held posts at CBS and Warner Bros.

The Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition winners were announced yesterday at the Digital Media and Learning Conference in San Francisco. The winners—awarded grants ranging from $25,000 to $175,000 —will use Mozilla’s new free and open source “Open Badges” software to issue, manage and display digital badges for learning across the Web.

The competition brought together Web developers, designers and technologists with educators, online learning innovators and collaborators that range from NASA, the U.S. Department of Education and the Girl Scouts of America to Intel, Disney-Pixar and Motorola.

The goal: explore how digital badges can provide learners of all ages new ways to gain 21st century skills, harness the full educational power of the Internet, and unlock career and learning opportunities in the real world.

And the winners are…
The Competition was held in collaboration with the Mozilla, and is part of the Digital Media and Learning Competition supported by the MacArthur Foundation and administered by HASTAC. Winners include:

* NASA’s Robotics and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) System will engage learners in exploring new STEM topics and create digital badges for learners of all ages.
* The Disney-Pixar Wilderness Explorers badges will engage youth in nature-based explorations, offering ways to learn about and become advocates for wildlife and wild places.
* The Manufacturing Institute’s National Manufacturing badges will recognize the range of skills and achievements workers need to be competitive in today’s advanced manufacturing workplace.
* The Young Adult Library Services Association’s Badge Program will help librarians develop the skills they need to meet the needs of 21st century teens.
A complete list of all 30 competition winners is available here

Why digital badges for learning?
Learning today happens everywhere and at every age. But its often difficult to get recognition for learning that happens online or outside of school.
“We believe digital badges have the power to unlock the full educational potential of the Web,” said Mark Surman, Executive Director of Mozilla. “Our goal is to provide a free and open infrastructure that today’s award winners—and any organization or community in the world—can use to easily issue and share badges across the web. This will empower learners to take charge of their online identity and reputation, gathering badges from any site on the Internet, and combining them into a single story about what they know and what they have achieved.”

Learn more about Mozilla Open Badges for learning
* Learn more about the Mozilla Open Badges project
* See the complete list of MacArthur Foundation competition winners and project descriptions
* Learn more about why Mozilla is building an open infrastructure for digital badges 

Editor’s Note: Brendan Eich, Mozilla CTO, posted on his blog today about Mozilla and community-prioritized Web standards, excerpted below.

Mozilla is happy to support Facebook in forming a Core Mobile Web Platform W3C Community Group in which to curate prioritized, tiered lists of emerging and de facto standards that browsers should support in order for the Web to compete with native application stacks on mobile devices.

This week we are in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2012, the mobile industry’s largest trade show. Our goal is to meet with industry operators, vendors and developers to further the cause of promoting an open, people-centric Web for consumers and developers across all devices and platforms.

Today, we announced several significant milestones in the advancement toward these goals. The first, was Telefónica’s support for the creation of open Web devices based on our Boot to Gecko project. Also supporting the project are industry leaders, Adobe and Qualcomm. Together, we are committed to driving forward the adoption of HTML5 as a viable platform option for the mobile industry.

In a joint press conference, Telefónica revealed their intention to work with us to deliver the very first open Web devices in 2012. These devices, architected entirely on the Web and built based on an HTML5 stack with powerful Web APIs, will mean significant advances in speed and cost reduction for mobile devices in
the future. Attendees at the press conference were able to see a sneak preview of what is possible with HTML5 open Web technologies powering entire mobile device functions and experiences.

Mozilla is delighted to also announce Deutsche Telekom’s support of an open Web platform. Specifically, Deutsche Telekom’s Innovation Labs will join the Boot to Gecko project with dedicated development resources, and is evaluating further steps based on our common experience.

This week Mozilla is previewing open Web apps and Mozilla Marketplace, enabling the creation and distribution of apps powered by open Web standards like HTML5, CSS and JavasScript. We are also previewing Persona, the first identity system truly of the Web, including Browser ID. Each offering represents the latest tools available to developers and users to take control of their online lives.

Since the beginning, it has been our mission as an organization to develop and bring about a completely open and standards-based Web as a platform for innovation. Mozilla’s latest innovations are being proposed to the W3C for standardization, helping us move the needle to advance the Web and make it a more people-centric experience for all.

As the Mozilla community has always known – the Web is the platform.

Editor’s note: Today, Mitchell Baker posted her thoughts on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement proposal. Below is an excerpt from her blog:

ACTA (“Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement”) is a proposed new international law establishing international enforcement standards against counterfeit goods and pirated intellectual property items. ACTA was negotiated as a “trade agreement” which means that it was negotiated in private without open involvement of all the stakeholders. There has been no formal opportunity for input from people other than those who were lucky enough to be invited into the private discussions.

This is a bad way to build Internet policy. The Internet is a fundamental platform for communication and interaction. There are many stakeholders. The voices of human empowerment, human rights, and competing economic interests must be heard. These voices must have a place at the table when policy is debated. ACTA was not created through such a process.