Maker Party 2016: Stand Up for a Better Internet

Lucy Harris

Cross post from: The Mozilla Blog.

Mozilla’s annual celebration of making online is challenging outdated copyright law in the EU. Here’s how you can participate.

It’s that time of year: Maker Party.

Each year, Mozilla hosts a global celebration to inspire learning and making online. Individuals from around the world are invited. It’s an opportunity for artists to connect with educators; for activists to trade ideas with coders; and for entrepreneurs to chat with makers.

This year, we’re coming together with that same spirit, and also with a mission: To challenge outdated copyright laws in the European Union. EU copyright laws are at odds with learning and making online. Their restrictive nature undermines creativity, imagination, and free expression across the continent. Mozilla’s Denelle Dixon-Thayer wrote about the details in her recent blog post.

By educating and inspiring more people to take action, we can update EU copyright law for the 21st century.

Over the past few months, everyday internet users have signed our petition and watched our videos to push for copyright reform. Now, we’re sharing copyright reform activities for your very own Maker Party.

Want to join in? Maker Party officially kicks-off today.

Here are activities for your own Maker Party:

Be a #cczero Hero

In addition to all the amazing live events you can host or attend, we wanted to create a way for our global digital community to participate.

We’re planning a global contribute-a-thon to unite Mozillians around the world and grow the number of images in the public domain. We want to showcase what the open internet movement is capable of. And we’re making a statement when we do it: Public domain content helps the open internet thrive.

Check out our #cczero hero event page and instructions on contributing. You should be the owner of the copyright in the work. It can be fun, serious, artistic — whatever you’d like. Get started.

For more information on how to submit your work to the public domain or to Creative Commons, click here.

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Post Crimes

Mozilla has created an app to highlight the outdated nature of some of the EU’s copyright laws, like the absurdity that photos of public landmarks can be unlawful. Try the Post Crimes web app: Take a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower’s night-time light display, or the Little Mermaid in Denmark.

Then, send your selfie as a postcard to your Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Show European policymakers how outdated copyright laws are, and encourage them to forge reform. Get started.

Meme School

It’s absurd, but it’s true: Making memes may be technically illegal in some parts of the EU. Why? Exceptions for parody or quotation are not uniformly required by the present Copyright Directive.

Help Mozilla stand up for creativity, wit, and whimsy through memes! In this Maker Party activity, you and your friends will learn and discuss how complicated copyright law can be. Get started.

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We can’t wait to see what you create this Maker Party. When you participate, you’re standing up for copyright reform. You’re also standing up for innovation, creativity, and opportunity online.

One Mozilla Clubs

Lucy Harris

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In 2015, The Mozilla Foundation launched the Mozilla Clubs program to bring people together locally to teach, protect and build the open web in an engaging and collaborative way. Within a year it grew to include 240+ Clubs in 100+ cities globally, and now is growing to reach new communities around the world.

Today we are excited to share a new focus for Mozilla Clubs taking place on a University or College Campus (Campus Clubs). Mozilla Campus Clubs blend the passion and student focus of the former Firefox Student Ambassador program and Take Back The Web Campaign with the existing structure of  Mozilla Clubs to create a unified model for participation on campuses!

Mozilla Campus Clubs take advantage of the unique learning environments of Universities and Colleges to bring groups of students together to teach, build and protect the open web. It builds upon the Mozilla Club framework to provide targeted support to those on campus through its:

  1. Structure:  Campus Clubs include an Executive Team in addition to the Club Captain position, who help develop programs and run activities specific to the 3 impact areas (teach, build, protect).
  2. Training & Support: Like all Mozilla Clubs, Regional Coordinators and Club Captains receive training and mentorship throughout their clubs journey. However the nature of the training and support for Campus Clubs is specific to helping students navigate the challenges of setting up and running a club in the campus context.
  3. Activities: Campus Club activities are structured around 3 impact areas (teach, build, protect). Club Captains in a University or College can find suggested activities (some specific to students) on the website here.

These clubs will be connected to the larger Mozilla Club network to share resources, curriculum, mentorship and support with others around the world. In 2017 you’ll see additional unification in terms of a joint application process for all Regional Coordinators and a unified web presence.

This is an exciting time for us to unite our network of passionate contributors and create new opportunities for collaboration, learning, and growth within our Mozillian communities. We also see the potential of this unification to allow for greater impact across Mozilla’s global programs, projects and initiatives.

If you’re currently involved in Mozilla Clubs and/or the FSA program, here are some important things to know:

  • The Firefox Student Ambassador Program is now Mozilla Campus Clubs: After many months of hard work and careful planning the Firefox Ambassador Program (FSA) has officially transitioned to Mozilla Clubs as of Monday September 19th, 2016. For full details about the Firefox Student Ambassador transition check out this guide here.
  • Firefox Club Captains will now be Mozilla Club Captains: Firefox Club Captains who already have a club, a structure, and a community set up on a university/college should register your club here to be partnered with a Regional Coordinator and have access to new resources and opportunities, more details are here.
  • Current Mozilla Clubs will stay the same: Any Mozilla Club that already exists will stay the same. If they happen to be on a university or college campus Clubs may choose to register as a Campus Club, but are not required to do so.
  • There is a new application for Regional Coordinators (RC’s): Anyone interested in taking on more responsibility within the Clubs program can apply here.  Regional Coordinators mentor Club Captains that are geographically close to them. Regional Coordinators support all Club Captains in their region whether they are on campus or elsewhere.
  • University or College students who want to start a Club at their University and College may apply here. Students who primarily want to lead a club on a campus for/with other university/college students will apply to start a Campus Club.
  • People who want to start a club for any type of learner apply here. Anyone who wants to start a club that is open to all kinds of learners (not limited to specifically University students) may apply to start a Club here.

Individuals who are leading Mozilla Clubs commit to running regular (at least monthly) gatherings, participate in community calls, and contribute resources and learning materials to the community. They are part of a network of leaders and doers who support and challenge each other. By increasing knowledge and skills in local communities Club leaders ensure that the internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all.

This is the beginning of a long term collaboration for the Mozilla Clubs Program. We are excited to continue to build momentum for Mozilla’s mission through new structures and supports that will help engage more people with a passion for the open web.

Firefox 49 new contributors

Josh Matthews

10 responses

With the release of Firefox 49, we are pleased to welcome the 48 developers who contributed their first code change to Firefox in this release, 39 of whom were brand new volunteers! Please join us in thanking each of these diligent and enthusiastic individuals, and take a look at their contributions:

Firefox 48 new contributors

Josh Matthews

10 responses

With the release of Firefox 48, we are pleased to welcome the 78 developers who contributed their first code change to Firefox in this release, 57 of whom were brand new volunteers! Please join us in thanking each of these diligent and enthusiastic individuals, and take a look at their contributions:

Firefox 47 new contributors

Josh Matthews

5 responses

With the release of Firefox 47, we are pleased to welcome the 41 developers who contributed their first code change to Firefox in this release, 33 of whom were brand new volunteers! Please join us in thanking each of these diligent and enthusiastic individuals, and take a look at their contributions:

  • malayaleecoder: 1219323, 1234875, 1238537, 1241846, 1241941, 1243821, 1247723
  • matthewstroud101: 1247450
  • ruxton: 1033144
  • u562192: 1249281
  • varunnaganathan912: 1236387, 1238796
  • Andrew: 1249937
  • Andrew Swan: 612168, 1156826, 1228247, 1236940, 1245597, 1245600, 1245603, 1245678, 1250880, 1251766, 1256399
  • Angel Bouzo: 1194033
  • Astley Chen: 1228918
  • Bob: 730192
  • Calixte Denizet: 1248981
  • Daniel Maher: 1248898
  • Daniel Näslund: 1239710, 1242196, 1250589
  • Deepthi Venkitaramanan: 1244328
  • Eric Hu: 920169, 1244766, 1245910
  • Frank-Rainer Grahl: 1246614
  • Greg Tatum: 1164252, 1242958, 1252971
  • Huma Zafar: 1206166
  • James Burke: 1139849
  • Jeffrey Tran: 555087, 637238, 938699, 1108019, 1230683, 1230685
  • Joe Whitfield-Seed: 1245496
  • Jonathan Howard: 1241931
  • KM Lee: 1248907
  • Leo Ufimtsev: 1229206
  • Maurya Talisetti: 1156176, 1242352
  • Michelangelo De Simone: 1247445, 1249833
  • Nils M.: 1225102
  • Oussama Ben Guirat: 1224192, 1251960
  • Priyen Patel: 1245722
  • Ricky Rosario: 1249642
  • Rok Garbas: 1248983
  • Ryo Motozawa: 1226047, 1244586, 1211783, 1244641
  • Sambuddha Basu: 952564
  • Sanyam Khurana: 1221494
  • Sourabh Shrivastava: 1241991
  • Stefan Dye: 1204520
  • Sándor Gecsey: 241698
  • Tristan: 1244197
  • Tushar Saini: 1228170
  • Vince Tieu: 524757
  • dlim: 1231549
  • radu stoica: 1248558, 1250499

    • A New Firefox Development Forum

    mhoye

    We’ve been looking for the right home for Firefox browser development Q&A for a while now. It’s taken longer than it should have, but after a lot of discussion and experimentation with different tools and forums, we’ve finally come to a conclusion.

    In retrospect the decision was obvious; hindsight is like that. But here it is; if we want everyone in the community to be a part of making Firefox great, then we should be where the community is: part of the Mozilla Community Discourse forum.

    Things are a bit thin on the ground there now; I’ll be migrating over some questions and answers from other forums to stock that pond shortly. In the meantime if you’re new to Discourse it’s a very civilized piece of forum software. You can keep track of discussions happening there by logging in and taking a look in the upper right-hand corner, where you’ll see “Watching”, “Tracking”, “Normal” and “Muted”. Set that to “Watching”, and you’ll get a notification when a new topic comes up for discussion. Set it to “Tracking”, and you’ll also get a note when you’re called out by name. You can also watch or track individual threads, which is a nice touch.

    Alternatively, if you’re a fan of syndicated feeds you can grab an Atom feed as follows:

    https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/c/firefox-development.rss

    I hope you’ll join us in helping build Firefox into everything it can be, the best browser in the world and the cornerstone of a free, open and participatory Web. And as always, if you’ve got questions about that, please email me directly.

    Thank you,

    – mhoye

    Jakarta Community Space Launch

    Brian King

    2 responses

    This post was written by Fauzan Alfi.

    It was not an ordinary Friday 13th for Mozilla Indonesia because on May 13th, 2016, it was a very big day for us. After months of planning and preparation, the Mozilla Community Space Jakarta finally launched and opened for the community. It’s the 4th volunteer-run physical community space after Bangalore (now closed), Manila and Taipei and another one is opening soon in Berlin. Strategically located in Cikini – Central Jakarta, the Space will become a place for Mozillians from Greater Jakarta and Bandung to do many activities, especially developer-focused events, and to build relationships with other tech communities in the city.

    The Space

    The Space. Photo by Yofie Setiawan

    Invited to the event were many open source and other communities around the city. Mozilla Reps, FSAs and Mozillians also joined to celebrate the Space opening. On his presentation, Yofie Setiawan (Mozilla Rep, Jakarta Space Manager) hopes that Jakarta Community Space can be useful for many people and communities, especially to educate anyone who comes and joins events that take place in the space.

    Opening Event

    Dian Ina and Rara talk to guests. Photo by Yofie Setiawan

    Ceremonial first piece

    Brian gets the ceremonial first bite. Photo by Yofie Setiawan

    Also joining the event, Brian King from Participation Team at Mozilla. During his remarks, Brian said that the reason behind the Jakarta Community Space is because “the Mozilla community here is one of the most active globally, with deep roots and a strong network in tech scene”. He also added that “Indonesia is an important country with a very dynamic Web presence, and we’d like to engage with more people to make the online experience better for everyone.”

    The Jakarta Community Space is around 40 square meters in area that fits 20-30 people inside. On the front side, it has glass wall that’s covered by frosted sticker with some Mozilla projects wording printed on it. Inside, we have some chairs, tables, home theater set, food & drink supplies and coffee machine. Most of the items were donated by Mozillians in Jakarta.

    The tour

    The tour. Photo by Yofie Setiawan

    One area where the Jakarta Community excelled was with the planning and design. All the processes are done by the community itself. One of Reps from Indonesia, Fauzan Alfi – who has a background in architecture, helped design the space and kept the process transparent on the Community Design GitHub. The purpose is to ignite collaborative design, not only from Indonesian community but also from other parts of the globe. More creativity was shown by creating mural drawings of landmarks in selected cities around the world – including Monas of Jakarta.

    Jakarta Community Space means a lot for Mozilla community in Greater Jakarta and Indonesia, in general. Having a physical place means the Indonesian community will have their own home to spread the mission and collaborate with more communities that are aligned with Mozilla, especially developer communities. Hopefully, the Space will bring more and more people to contribute to Mozilla and help shape the future of the Web.

    Reinventing Mozilla on Campus

    Lucy Harris

    Re-post from George Roter’s blog, “Reinventing Mozilla on Campus” .

    Throughout history, University students, staff and professors have often shaped the leading edge of change and innovation. The history of the web is no different: the student-built Lynx browser was one of the first and Mosaic (Firefox’s distant ancestor!), pioneered by students and staff, opened the graphical web to millions.

    I saw the impact that students and professors can make through my own experience at Engineers Without Borders Canada. Engineering students and professors on campuses across Canada and in Africa built remarkable ventures, reshaped curriculum, changed on-campus and government policy, and taught hundreds of thousands of young people about global development.

    I fully believe in the potential of students, staff and professors on campuses around the world to have massive impact on Mozilla’s mission. As innovators, contributors and open web advocates. Engineers, scientists, lawyers, social scientists, economists and designers.

    From what I know about my past experience and have heard in the past year working for Mozilla, our mission resonates tremendously with students and professors. The range of impact and involvement is considerable. Until now, we’ve only just scraped the surface of this potential.

    We need to reinvent Mozilla on campus.

    Our existing engagement on University campuses around the world is an assortment of largely disconnected programs and people. Firefox Student Ambassadors and Firefox Clubs. Mozilla Clubs. Code contribution by individual contributors. Maker Party. Mozilla Science Lab. Various professor and lab partnerships. Employee recruitment. Many of these are successful in their own right; there’s an opportunity learn from each of them, find connections, and imagine opportunity to scale their impact with a more coordinated approach.

    Photo credit: Tanha Islam and Trisa Islam

    The largest of these by student involvement, Firefox Student Ambassadors (FSAs) and Firefox Clubs, has been constrained by limited and variable employee support and a focus on marketing. Our student leaders have already been “hacking” this program to introduce advocacy, code contribution, support, localization, teaching and many other activities; official support for this has lagged.

    Our team came into this year with a key hypothesis as part of our strategy: That we can supercharge participation with a reinvented campus program.

    The Take Back the Web campus campaign focused on privacy and security has been our first effort to test this hypothesis. Already it’s showing great promise, with over 600 campus teams signed up (including hundreds of FSAs) to have impact in 3 areas. We’re focused on learning as much as we can from this campaign.

    The campus campaign is a step toward reinvention. But I think it’s now time to take a step back to ask: What impact can we imagine with a coordinated effort on campuses around the world? What do students, staff and professors want and need to be involved with Mozilla’s mission? How might we evolve our existing programs? What programs and structures would we design, and how do they relate to one another? How can we invite people on campus to innovate with Mozilla?

    These are the broad questions that will guide a process over the next 9 weeks. By July 15th we aim to have a clear articulation of the impact we can have, the programs we’ll invest in and how they relate to one another, and the opportunities for students, staff and professors to participate.

    We’re hoping that this process of reinventing Mozilla on campus will be participatory, and we’re inviting many voices to contribute. Lucy Harris on the Participation Team will be stewarding this process and shaping the final options. Mark Surman, Mitchell Baker, Chris Lawrence, Katharina Borchert and I will be involved in making a final decision on the direction we take.

    You can read more about the details of the process in this post, but let me summarize it and the opportunities you have to be involved:

    Phase 1: Listening (May 16-27)

    → provide thoughts on existing programs and opportunities you see

    Phase 2: Synthesis and options (May 27-June 10)

    → we’ll frame some tensions for you to weigh in on

    → we’ll shape a set of options for conversation during the London All Hands

    Phase 3: Final input (June 10-24)

    → we’ll articulate a set of options for you to consider as we move forward, and will be diving deep into these and key questions during the Mozilla All Hands in London

    Phase 4: Final Decision and Disseminate (June 24-July 15)

    → we’ll take all the input and decide on a direction for moving forward

    Let me finish by reiterating the opportunity. University campuses are a hotbed of innovation and a locus for creating change. Mozilla can tap into this energy and catalyze involvement in unleashing the next wave of openness and opportunity in online life. Finally, our team is excited about helping to shape a direction we can take, and investing in a robust program of participation moving forward.

    I’m excited for this journey of reinventing Mozilla on campus.

    Firefox 46 new contributors

    Josh Matthews

    8 responses

    With the release of Firefox 46, we are pleased to welcome the 37 developers who contributed their first code change to Firefox in this release, 31 of whom were brand new volunteers! Please join us in thanking each of these diligent and enthusiastic individuals, and take a look at their contributions:

    Participation Lab Notes: The Sweet Spot Between Constraint and Freedom

    Lucy Harris

    1 response

    Over the past few months you might have heard about a growing community called the Community Design Group. What sets this group apart from many of the other communities at Mozilla is that it does not exist in a region, club, or wiki page. It has only the loosest “membership” and you can come, participate, and leave without ever sharing your name.

    The Community Design Group is a sort of transactional marketplace that lives primarily on GitHub. Requests for design can be made by contributors and staff, likewise anyone can tackle or contribute to any design problem that emerges into the Repo.

    As Elio Qoshi, the community-side driver of the Community Design Group writes in his blog post:

    This allows for a quick contribution path for new contributors in a decentralized manner.  Different labels determine what kind of context issues have, neatly sorted in UX, IX, UI and general Graphic Design, to allow contributors from various backgrounds to jump in.

    Since it’s inception in mid-January 25 design problems have been closed ranging from the design of full websites, logos, and style guides. In the past 30 days alone the Repo has received over 2,000 views and 1,000 unique visitors and it exists and flourishes with only minimal staff and community-leader involvement.

    MozillaSecurityLogo

    CC-BY-SA Elio Qoshi

    Despite this early success there is still a great deal to be learned about this model. One of the early realizations about the Community Design Group was the tendency of the community to focus on the creation of logos. These fun and creative projects are excellent opportunities for designers to show their skills and learn from each other, but could potentially dilute the already somewhat crowded logo-sphere of Mozilla.

    CC-BY-SA Jenn Sanford

    CC-BY-SA Jenn Sanford

    Rather than put any stop-energy into the community, we are experimenting with sharing more high-impact opportunities for contribution, initially in the form of a challenge related to the re-branding of Mozilla. In this challenge we’re asking the design community to suggest a new iconic symbol for Mozilla that will shape the thinking of the Creative Team.

    In contrast to the well-defined, quick victory, of logos this challenge is ill-defined and complex.
    This challenge will close at the end of April and we will have the opportunity to see not only what emerges from the creative pool, but how this work is integrated into the work of the staff team.

    CC-BY-SA Sashoto Seeam

    CC-BY-SA Sashoto Seeam

    The basis of the Community Design Group project was to see what would come of a simple place with minimal rules, where a decentralized community could come to share and create. It is a testament to the power of minimal restriction and functional tools. Over the next quarter I look forward to seeing how far it will grow, and what amazing contributions will emerge from this new community.