{"id":5574,"date":"2010-10-18T16:59:03","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T23:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/5.504"},"modified":"2010-10-18T16:59:03","modified_gmt":"2010-10-18T23:59:03","slug":"concept-series-a-time-to-evolve-into-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/2010\/10\/concept-series-a-time-to-evolve-into-something-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Concept Series: A time to evolve into something new. What is it? How will it work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/mozillalabs.com\/conceptseries\/files\/2010\/10\/Crowdsourcing-Logo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"219\" height=\"243\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-511\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The present day Mozilla Labs Concept Series has been a hit with our community. Today though, we\u2019d like to call on you to help us shape its future!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Mozilla Labs <a href=\"http:\/\/mozillalabs.com\/conceptseries\/\">Concept Series<\/a>, with an <a href=\"https:\/\/mozillalabs.com\/conceptseries\/2009\/07\/30\/introducing-the-concept-series-call-for-participation\/\">open call for participation<\/a>,  has been around for a while now. We\u2019ve seen awesome projects  emerge and had thousands join the community, share  ideas, develop  concepts and give feedback shaping the future of many Web explorations.<\/p>\n<p>The Seabird \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/mozphone.com\/\">Open Web Concept Phone<\/a>\u2019 alone, by community member <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billy-may.com\/\">Billy  May<\/a>, has had more than 1,000 <a href=\"http:\/\/mozillalabs.com\/conceptseries\/2010\/09\/23\/seabird\/\">blog comments<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oG3tLxEQEdg&amp;feature=watch_response\">2 million Youtube views<\/a> to date.<\/p>\n<p>Despite its initial success we feel it\u2019s time to evolve the Concept  Series  into a larger scale program \u2013 take it to the next level and make it a  whole lot bigger and better!<\/p>\n<p>Aided by a team of global volunteers <em>[0]<\/em> working on the <a href=\"http:\/\/mozillalabs.com\/conceptseries\/2010\/10\/07\/crowdsourcing-project-%E2%80%93-team-1-3-phase-2\/\">Crowdsource<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/mozillalabs.com\/conceptseries\/2010\/10\/06\/crowdsourcing-project-team-2-phase-2\/\">Crowdsourcing<\/a> project, we\u2019ve explored this  goal and had an initial go ourselves. Their hard-work and tremendous insights have largely aided the initial proposals below.<\/p>\n<p>Today we\u2019d like to share our proposals and call on you for feedback to aid in shaping the future of the \u2018new\u2019 Concept Series.<\/p>\n<p><em>[0] Coleman Foley, Roei Yellin, Jo\u00e3o Menezes, Jan Dittrich, Ryan Bubinski, Ajay Roopakalu, Peter Organisciak, Euge Ortiz, Jimmy Chion, Abraham Taherivand, Piyush Kumar, Zach Williams, Chao Xu &amp; Ola M\u00f6ller<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Questions<\/h2>\n<p>To help outline our proposals we\u2019ve attempted to answer 3 questions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li> What is the \u201cnew\u201d Concept Series program?<\/li>\n<li>What are the aims of the Concept Series program?<\/li>\n<li>What defines the pieces which make up the Concept Series program?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>1. What is the \u201cnew\u201d Concept Series program?<\/h3>\n<p>The Mozilla Labs Concept Series lays the foundation for an engaging  innovation hub which will live on the Mozilla Labs website. It will be  fueled by a community with a common passion for the open Web.<\/p>\n<p>As a program the Concept Series will form the core foundation of  activity, consisting of multiple initiatives, referred to as channels.  These channels, like the ever popular Design Challenge, will provide  various challenges and topics by both Mozilla and collaborating  partners.<\/p>\n<p>Each channel will create  an environment of interaction within the  community (designers,  developers, students, teachers etc.) \u2013 really anyone  that uses the Web whether they have  just an idea, some thoughts, wise  feedback or some technical skills to  implement these on the Web.<\/p>\n<p>A quick overview of the proposed channels:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>{Mozilla Labs} Jam Days<\/li>\n<li>{Mozilla Labs} Student Outreach<\/li>\n<li>{Mozilla Labs} Community Concepts<\/li>\n<li>{Mozilla Labs} Design Challenge<\/li>\n<li>{Mozilla Labs} Open Web Library<\/li>\n<li>{Mozilla Labs} Prototype Challenge<\/li>\n<li>{Mozilla Labs} Local Frequency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>2. What are the aims of the Concept Series program?<\/h3>\n<p>We  aim to create a hub of innovation channels, fueled by community   interaction and collaboration \u2013 ultimately leading to the creation of  varying artifacts (research, ideas, wire-frames, concepts, solutions,  prototypes etc.)<\/p>\n<p>We envisage these artifacts, under open licensing, will  lead to a formidable educational library, a resource that is freely  available and sharable for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Each channel will engage community activity by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>provoking thought<\/li>\n<li>sharing ideas<\/li>\n<li>facilitating discussion<\/li>\n<li>collectively innovating<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This community engagement will inspire the future vision of the Mozilla project, Firefox, and the open Web as a whole.<\/p>\n<h3>3. What defines the channels which make up the Concept Series program?<\/h3>\n<p>Each channel needs to aid in the aims of the overarching program to  create an innovation hub fueled by community interactive and  collaboration.<\/p>\n<p>The following are the initial channel proposals with a little more information\u2026<\/p>\n<h4>3.1 {Mozilla Labs} Jam Days<\/h4>\n<p>A channel providing support and an initial framework for the organisation of physical un-conference like Jam Days.<\/p>\n<p>This encourages interaction between local community members tasked with investigating challenging topics for the Web.<\/p>\n<p>These events could include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Design Jams<\/li>\n<li>Hackdays<\/li>\n<li>BarCamps<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>3.2 {Mozilla Labs} Student Outreach<\/h4>\n<p>A channel to expose students thinking from co-created course modules between Mozilla and education institutions.<\/p>\n<p>We  aim to directly work together to propose and structure a engaging   course  module that&#8217;s relevant to the institutions own goals, interests   and timing schedules. Full support will be provided  during the  duration  of the course including community feedback, guest  lecturer  and mentor  appearances throughout the project.<\/p>\n<p>Potential student audience departments include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Human\u2013computer interaction (HCI)<\/li>\n<li>Computer Science<\/li>\n<li>Robotics<\/li>\n<li>Engineering<\/li>\n<li>Social sciences<\/li>\n<li>Arts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>3.3 {Mozilla Labs} Community Concepts<\/h4>\n<p>A channel aimed at molding proposed ideas and concepts from the  community into potentially viable features, applications or products.<\/p>\n<p>Once vetted for quality and viability by an expert panel, the concept  originator or team is given full control to lead the projects evolution by  engaging the community with updates of progress (mock-ups, prototypes,  videos, blog posts etc.)<\/p>\n<p>Providing this platform helps expose the concept to the community and  the feedback and other input given improves the chance of success.<\/p>\n<h4>3.4 {Mozilla Labs} Design Challenge<\/h4>\n<p>This channel exists today but we\u2019re looking to revamp and enhance the  offerings. It will be aimed primarily at all design folk with a love and  passion for the entire user experience design process.<\/p>\n<p>Education, exposure, portfolio pieces and recognition are a major driver for this channel.<\/p>\n<p>Challenges and topics will be split into phases and exposed across a number of categories including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Web<\/li>\n<li>Mobile<\/li>\n<li>Social<\/li>\n<li>Hardware<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Feedback and mentor-ship from the community as well as industry  professionals will prove to be invaluable for students, junior designers  as well as anyone else keen on experiencing a design process.<\/p>\n<h4>3.5 {Mozilla Labs} Open Web Library<\/h4>\n<p>An educational channel resource for topics promoting the open Web.  Content will be delivered virtually by leading authorities via  video and audio.<\/p>\n<p>These resources could include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Training courses<\/li>\n<li>Q&amp;A sessions<\/li>\n<li>Workshop exercises<\/li>\n<li>Lightning talks<\/li>\n<li>Conferences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An enhancement to this offering would be the translation and  subtitling of the original content into local language, thus making it  even more accessible to a global audience.<\/p>\n<h4>3.6 {Mozilla Labs} Prototype Challenge<\/h4>\n<p>This is a channel based very much on the mechanics of the Design  Challenge. It\u2019s however more aimed at the developer engaged community.<\/p>\n<p>The major driver for this channel will be the posing of engaging and  difficult engineering problems. We\u2019ll provide the questions and  let you  get back with the possible solutions.<\/p>\n<p>These challenges will be posed either virtually or as actual events and could take the format of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Quizzes<\/li>\n<li>Developing Design Challenge outputs<\/li>\n<li>Hackdays<\/li>\n<li>Demo nights<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>3.7 {Mozilla Labs} Local Frequency<\/h4>\n<p>A channel showcasing video and audio content from local tech events and meetups across the globe.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of these events take place daily, all containing valuable  educational content. It\u2019s unfortunate though that if you weren\u2019t able to  attend that this knowledge sharing is lost.<\/p>\n<p>We  propose enlisting trusted local events and empower the  coordinators to  create and upload video &amp; audio content and have it  exposed to a far wider reaching audience.<\/p>\n<p>Once again this offering could be enhanced by the translating and subtitling the original content into local language.<\/p>\n<h2>Closing Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>Phewww, apologies! That was slightly longer than expected. We hope  that you are all as excited by these proposed channels as we are.<\/p>\n<p>Just remember that your feedback is highly valued and appreciated, so  go ahead and add your thoughts, comments, ideas, anything really!  We  promise to go through it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The present day Mozilla Labs Concept Series has been a hit with our community. Today though, we\u2019d like to call on you to help us shape its future! The Mozilla Labs Concept Series, with an open call for participation, has &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/2010\/10\/concept-series-a-time-to-evolve-into-something-new\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":465,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16576,9141,19262,19304,4548],"tags":[16577,19484,19110,19577,19580,19595],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/465"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}