avatar_WEBNever doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
– Margaret Mead

Mead’s quote never ceases to inspire me! I thought a lot about this during AIDS LifeCycle a week or so ago — a few thousand people raised close to 11 million dollars for the S. F.  AIDS Foundation and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center — plus, rode 500 miles!  It’s pretty amazing to come back from that experience  to officially launching Mozilla Service Week.  While most people experience a bit of a funk post-LifeCycle, there’s been no let down here!

Not only does Mozilla Service Week create new opportunities for people to become part of the Mozilla Community and contribute (see Mark Surman’s post), but it gives folks a chance to look outward to their local communities or favorite public benefit organizations to see how they might put their web-saaviness or tech skills to good use!  I encourage everyone to take a pause from the hustle and bustle, and think about how  you can help out your local community or a non-profit — a few ideas:

  • Teach senior citizens how to use the Web.
  • Show a non-profit how to use social networking to grow its base of supporters.
  • Install a wireless network at a school.
  • Create Web how-to materials for a library’s computer cluster.
  • Refurbish hardware for a local computer center.
  • Help a non-profit update its website or database.
  • And, more!

We’ll be adding more languages and partners over the summer with the actual week of service happening Sept. 14 – 21, 2009.  I’m really looking forward to the difference we can make.  We set a Guinness World Record after all!

Just getting the program together has been an awesome collaboration.  Austin King does a great job explaining everyone’s contributions, but I did also want to call out everyone who helped.  Thanks team!

  • Austin King
  • Jane Finette
  • Stephen Donner
  • Krupa Raj
  • Michael Morgan
  • Axel Hecht
  • Pascal Chevrel
  • Ryan Doherty
  • Fredrick Wenzel
  • Mark Surman
  • David Boswell
  • John Slater
  • The Royal Order team
  • Craig Cook
  • Ladonna Willems
  • Seth Bindernagel
  • Wil Clouser
  • Stas Malolepszy
  • Les Orchard
  • Alex Buchanan
  • Reed Loden
  • Nicole Loux
  • Melissa Shapiro
  • Barbara Huppe
  • Raymond Agbeame
  • Jeff Balough
  • The Idealist.org team
  • The Betterplace.org team
  • Peter Deitz & Mike Everett-Lane of Social Actions