Chicks Who Click

Contributor Audit: Findings are in!

Mary Colvig — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:42:44 +0000

Update: Please join us on Air Mozilla to watch and listen, and #airmozilla on irc.mozilla.org for questions. You can also dial in:

US/International: +1 650 903 0800 x92 Conf# 8600
US toll free: +1 800 707 2533 (pin 369) Conf# 8600
Canada: +1 416 848 3114 x92 Conf# 8600

Happy New Year! To kick off 2012, we’ll be sharing the findings from the audit Dave Eaves has been working on for Mozilla. We asked David to assess the experience of volunteers at Mozilla to help inform our efforts to grow Mozilla and improve the contributor experience. He’ll present them and host a Q+A on Wednesday, January 18th at 9 a.m. PST/ 17:00 UTC.

I’ll post broadcast details shortly. We’ll plan on archiving for those that can’t make it.

Mozilla Volunteers: We want to hear from you!

Mary Colvig — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:29:31 +0000

As I mentioned in late summer, Contributor Engagement is knee deep in a contributor lifecycle audit with Dave Eaves. Our charter as the Contributor Engagement team is to help grow Mozilla and this poses a challenge if we don’t step back and assess the experience of volunteers at Mozilla. Enter the audit: we aim to get a sense of why people do or don’t get involved with Mozilla, why or why they don’t complete a project, why they stay or leave, how we can make the whole experience better and more.

He’ll be providing a set of recommendations that will help us improve the contributor experience and polling our volunteers is absolutely critical to this exercise and will shape our efforts for the rest of 2011 and into 2012. So if you’re a current or past contributor, please take some time to fill this survey out (http://mzl.la/pCnv4Q). Be thoughtful, be candid. Share it with your follow volunteers and get the word out. Reponses should be in by Oct. 21st. (Note: we’re in the process of ensuring that forums like surveys and townhalls are a regular happening.)

I appreciate your help with the survey and of course, all you do for Mozilla. Let’s make contributing to Mozilla even more ~~awesome~~ splendid.

Contributor Engagement: New people, updates + more

Mary Colvig — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 04:11:28 +0000

The Contributor Engagement team, which aims to inspire and empower individuals to participate in Mozilla, has had a busy summer making strides on key projects such as Mozilla Reps and the Phonebook (not without the help of many teams of course!). We also added three new team members:

Jason Haas who focuses on student outreach and reviving Student Reps.
Mozilla veteran (both volunteer and staffer) Aakash Desai who is overseeing the Mozillians engagement platform.
Paul Booker, veteran Spread Firefox volunteer and much more, as lead writer and coordinator for the about:mozilla newsletter, our main contributor communications channel.

Our overarching goal as a team is to grow contribution to Mozilla by an order of magnitude. In order to get there we’ve had to step back and put some foundational pieces in place. As such our topline goals for this summer and early fall are:

Launch the Mozillians community directory or phonebook which will be coming in September. This is critical to making the overall Mozilla community feel more connected and to provide baseline numbers such as how many contributors we have and in what functional areas and regions. We encourage everyone to signup for the launch alert here.
Continue to grow and train Mozilla Reps, key to extending leadership to the edges of the Mozilla Project and making it easier to advocate and represent Mozilla around the world. By summer over 250 core contributors joined the ranks with a goal of over 500 by the end of 2011. Join today!
Launch a contributor lifecycle audit with the help of David Eaves to assess the experience of volunteers within the Mozilla sphere. The aim here is to get a sense of why people do or not get involved with Mozilla, why or why they don’t complete a project, whether they stay on or not and more. He’ll be providing a set of recommendations that will help us improve the contributor experience. Stay tuned for surveys targeted at both paid staff and volunteers that will help fuel his research.

Kick off townhalls to discuss the many happenings and news within the Mozilla project, as well as improve our communications flow as we grow. We’re currently working with Mitchell Baker on a series of townhalls with community leaders to discuss Mozilla in the new era and held our first last week with Europe. We’ll be rolling out more in mid-September on this same topic and then jumping to a regular schedule on various pertinent topics.

These are just a few things that we’re working on. You can check out Q3 goals for more information and our weekly video updates. I’ll be posting much more regular updates. We’re looking at a very exciting and busy fall – especially with the coming of MozCamp Europe (Berlin, November 12 – 13) and Asia (Kuala Lumpur, November 19 – 20).

Catch our first rapid release launch live!

Mary Colvig — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:46:31 +0000

Just three months ago we launched Firefox 4 and we’re at it again as part of our new rapid release cycle. Tomorrow, June 21st, we’ll launch the next version of Firefox for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android!

If you’d like to catch it live and learn more about the new Firefox, and our rapid release process and what it means, join us on Air Mozilla at 6:45 a.m. PDT to 8:00 a.m. PDT. We’ll be taking questions in #airmozilla on irc.mozilla.org, as well as on Twitter (please use the hashtag #airmoz).

You can also join us via phone:

+1 650 903 0800 x92 Conf# 8600 (US/International)
+1 416 848 3114 x92 Conf# 8600 (Canada)
+1 800 707 2533 (pin 369) Conf# 8600 (US Toll Free)

Looking forward to tomorrow and marking this special milestone for Mozillians! As an added bonus – not that our scintillating broadcast needs more – we’ll be giving out shirts to some viewers.

Firefox 5 and you

Mary Colvig — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:59:17 +0000

Next week will mark the first release for us in our new rapid release cycle – huzzah! We’ll be launching Firefox 5 for both desktop and mobile on June 21st. This will also mean a special edition of Air Mozilla, providing a look at what went into shifting our release cycle and offer a chance for you to ask questions. I’ll post shortly with the timing and details, but please note anyone you’d like to hear from in the comments below.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s Mozilla project call we’ll also host a community marketing call tomorrow, June 15th at 10 a.m., on Firefox 5. We’ll cover what’s important about this release, the different ways to get involved in promoting this milestone and brainstorm a few ideas. Details can be found here.

I’d be remiss in not addressing the question of launch parties. By no means do I want to discourage anyone from hosting a launch party. Please feel free to get together fellow Mozillians and Firefox fans! However, with this new quarterly release cadence it will be a challenge both financially and logistically to provide swag for hundreds of parties every three months. One idea we’ve kicked around is to shift the focus from marking the launches and releases to Firefox’s birthday, other anniversaries or major milestones or to kick off/wrap up major campaigns. I’m completely open to ideas and don’t shy away from celebrations so share your thoughts below.

Update: Spread Firefox is taking a breather

Mary Colvig — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:56:07 +0000

Today we took Spread Firefox offline as I shared earlier. I want to thank everyone that has worked hard on Spread Firefox over the years. When it took off in 2004, it was truly innovative as a social network and organizing ground for our grassroots marketing efforts.

This doesn’t mean we’re turning our backs on community-driven marketing. In fact, it’s stronger and more in-depth than ever with over 300 people joining our Firefox 4 launch team and over 4 million supporters on Facebook. If you’d like to help out with our efforts, you can get in touch and find opportunities on our Get Involved page. You can also grab Firefox site buttons for your blog or website here. Users coming to Spread Firefox will be redirected to this Get Involved page and the new button page. Stay tuned for a banner that will notify users of this change when redirected.

What’s new with Contributor Engagement?

Mary Colvig — Mon, 16 May 2011 05:13:00 +0000

The team and I – inspired by status reports shared by Stormy Peters and Michael Verdi - are experimenting with a report we can share each week. We’re looking to create something fun, interesting and informative from both a content and format perspective. This week we’ve put it into HTML slides. Take a look and please provide feedback. We’re going to aim to do a quick video update for this coming week and see how people respond!

If you’d like to learn more about contributor engagement at Mozilla, we’re hosting a brownbag this Wednesday. Here are the details:

*12:00 p.m. PDT

* Dial-in Info: +1.650.903.0800, followed by 92# and then 7391#

* Or you can use our toll-free number: +1.800.707.2533, followed by 369# and then 7391#. If you’re outside the US, use Skype to call in with our toll-free number.

* You can also watch the meeting live on Air Mozilla

* For those that can’t make the call or want to participate online, join us in #mozillians on IRC (irc.mozilla.org)

See you on Wednesday!

Re-evaluating Spread Firefox

Mary Colvig — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:28:14 +0000

As both Jane Finette and myself shared last year, we’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how we can amplify participation around Firefox and empower our Firefox users. In particular, looking at how we can lower the barrier of entry for anyone to declare their support for Firefox and Mozilla, or take small, quick actions to make a difference. As part of this, Jane and team launched the nascent Join Us program and mainstream newsletter, and I worked with folks last year to create a participation page that was linked to Firefox product pages and easier to discover.

As we’ve gone through the process of evaluating our participation channels, naturally we’ve had to examine Spread Firefox. While the model we put in place in 2004 was truly innovative – essentially, a social network and breeding ground for grassroots marketing – it’s now ailing. There are several technical challenges around the site and we’ve seen participation decrease dramatically over the years.

For instance, we’ve seen the advent and huge success of Facebook and other social media channels. Privacy issues aside, Facebook has become a powerful platform for advocacy and communication. Over four million people “like” Mozilla Firefox on Facebook and countless community pages have popped up to share news and communicate with regional fans. Overall, Firefox advocacy has grown, but become decentralized.

At the same time, the competitive landscape has changed substantially since 2004. While we still relish, support and celebrate grassroots marketing activities, Mozillians have been collaborating to create an extended marketing team that spans paid and volunteer staff. The team grew to over 300 around the Firefox 4 for desktop and mobile launches and has the heft of a major commercial software marketing organization.

In response to all of these factors, we’re taking Spread Firefox offline to further explore what makes sense in terms of volunteer engagement. Affiliate buttons have moved to the Get Involved page for now. If you’d like to help out in the near term, please help us track pages or content that should be saved and note sites that direct to Spread Firefox here. Feedback and ideas can also be added in the comments below.

To be clear – this doesn’t mean we’re minimizing our focus on community marketing, but growing it. In line with our pioneering spirit, we’re looking to open up new programs and venues for engaging people globally and to empower them as Mozilla and Firefox supporters. Please keep an eye on the contributor engagement wiki for more info.

Who’s ready for another launch? Catch Mobile on Air Mozilla!

Mary Colvig — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:24:43 +0000

I’m still reeling from the awesomeness that was and is the Firefox 4 for desktop launch last week. Don’t get me wrong, setting a world record was pretty amazing — more than 8 million people mobilized to download Firefox in 24 hours. What sets Firefox 4 apart for me is that the community of Mozillians is even more vibrant and diverse, and we’ve gained even more momentum past the first 24 hours. It’s been a huge team effort and I’ve been lucky to work with so many bright, funny, thoughtful and passionate people. If you missed the launch, here is an uncut snapshot. [Editor's note: a shortened, open video-friendly version coming shortly.]

And, did I mention we get to do it all again tomorrow with Mobile? You can catch the fun on Air Mozilla starting at 6:45 a.m. PDT on March 29th [check the @firefox with the hashtag #airmoz.

In addition to Q&A, we’ll interview a host of Mozillians again!

Special thanks to Guillermo Huerta, Spencer Hui, Hilary Hall, Eljon Balangue, Julius Berry, Henry Langi, Matthew Claypotch and Eljon Balangue for making this happen, as well as all of our speakers and participants.

Note: We’re unable to use the HTML5 video tag in this particular case — the technology to support a high-volume live stream using open codecs simply doesn’t exist yet. Because we wanted to make the launch as inclusive as possible we made the decision to use the same video solution as the one used for Firefoxlive.org. We’ll ensure that the archived videos are available in open video formats.

Catch the Firefox 4 launch live!

Mary Colvig — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 03:35:07 +0000

Calling all Mozillians and Firefox fans! Firefox 4 has been an incredible team effort and it’s your browser so we wanted everyone to have the opportunity to experience launch HQ activities. We’ll broadcast from Air Mozilla starting at 6:30 a.m. PDT/2:30 p.m. CET/1:30 p.m. UTC on March 22nd. Curious as to what actually happens during a launch? Find out and get your questions answered live. Join #airmozilla on irc.mozilla.org to post questions or tweet them to @firefox with the hashtag #airmoz.

In addition to Q&A, we’ll interview a host of Mozillians from around the world, including Kenya, Argentina, Slovenia, The Philippines, Indonesia and more. We even have a few surprises in store…

Ok…so maybe not an Oprah giveaway, but I guarantee fun.

Special thanks to Guillermo Huerta, Spencer Hui, Hilary Hall, Matthew Zeier, Michael Morgan, William Reynolds, Henry Langi and Eljon Balangue for pulling this together on such late notice! As well as all of our speakers and participants.