New Labs discussion groups!

The Labs team is constantly on the look-out for better ways to do things, better tools, and better infrastructure. One thing we realized is that the forum system we were using for project discussions wasn’t working as well as it could, so we decided to change it about a month ago. The old forum we were using was OK, but it didn’t really give us the flexibility we wanted. With the new system, discussions can now be read via Web, RSS feeds and email, and responded to by email or on the Web. Our hope is that this will make it easier for everyone to participate in and become part of the Labs community, and we’ll continue looking for other ways to improve it further.

New Mozilla Labs discussion groups:

  • Mozilla Labs – If there’s a Labs project, idea, or topic you would like to talk about and there doesn’t seem to be another place for it, post it here!
  • Bespin – The Bespin project is developing an open, extensible web-based framework for code editing. (project site)
  • Concept Series – Concept Series and Design Challenges. (project site)
  • Personas – A new add-on that gives Firefox a dynamic, lightweight theme system. (project site)
  • Prism – Prism is an application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop. (project site)
  • Snowl – Snowl is a prototype extension that integrates messaging into the browser. (project site)
  • Test Pilot – Test Pilot is an idea for a new user testing program for Mozilla Labs that aims to build a 1% representative sample of the Firefox user base for soliciting wide participation and structured feedback for Labs experiments. (project site)
  • Ubiquity – An experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily. (project site)
  • Weave – Weave is a Mozilla Labs project to explore ways in which the browser can broker richer experiences on the Web, by integrating more closely with online services. (project site)

Another project we’re currently working on (along with the WebDev and QA teams) is a revamp of the existing Labs website, with a whole new look and feel and a more flexible backend infrastructure. We’re tracking progress and keeping docs and whatnot on the Mozilla Wiki here: Mozilla Labs Site 2.0. This is a multi-stage project, and we’ve just started the development phase of stage one.

If you have any questions or comments about the new discussion forums or the Mozilla Labs site project, please leave a comment here, email me at deb-at-mozilla-dot-com, or post a note in the Mozilla Labs discussion group.

— Deb Richardson, on behalf of the Mozilla Labs team

4 responses

  1. Abi wrote on :

    FYI, there are two more Ubiquity groups (both low-traffic) – http://groups.google.com/group/ubiquity-core (originally, for Ubiquity core devs when there were a lot of queries about Ubiquity command dev in ubiquity-firefox; now, not used very often) and http://groups.google.com/group/ubiquity-i18n (for internationalization; active).

  2. jamey boje wrote on :

    I talked to Pascal Finette last week I was told some good things are coming I wont say here “just in case” its a secret 😉

    I am 100% sure anything mozilla labs does is going to be great

    New
    http://drupal.org/project
    is for the most part drag and drop now
    drupal is a great choice or recommendation
    http://mollom.com with the FREE spam module from dries buytaert of drupal
    openID module
    micro blogs module ie twitter,facebook
    with a new template 😉

    we use mollom on http://spreadthunderbird.com
    393896 blocked from even getting posted

  3. deb wrote on :

    @beltzner – Pascal Finette is heading up a project to experiment with a new tool for that, codenamed “Chocolate Factory”.

    Pascal talks about it on his blog: http://www.finette.co.uk/blog/index.php/tag/chocolate-factory/ , and there are some specs on the wiki https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Site_2.0/Concept_Series_Tool_-_Specs2.0

  4. Mike Beltzner wrote on :

    I, too, am also looking for better tools. Sadly, I don’t know if the NNTP-faithful would let us do this with the Google Groups that we already have for Mozilla development discussion, but I really like the way your page introduces the various projects. Well done!

    Next up: some better way of attaching and iterating on sketches. Flickr works surprisingly well for this, I wonder if we need to go any further than that?