Contributor Engagement Town Hall

As promised in last week’s news about the new contributor engagement team, we’re going to host a few “Town Hall” sessions to share out early plans, get feedback and brainstorm. We’d like to make this a regular happening.  To start we’ll host these initial calls over the next two weeks and in different timezones to accommodate as many people as possible.  Rough line up:

• Week of Jan 31:  North/South America with Mary Colvig, Amie Tyrrel,  David Boswell and Juan Becerra (Juan will help with Spanish and am looking for someone to help with PT-BR)
• TBD: Asia with Gen Kanai
• TBD: Europe & Africa with William Quiviger

For next week’s call I’d like to find a time that works best around work and school hours for community in No. and So. America.  If you’re in these regions and contribute to Mozilla, please note the times that work best for you on this “Doodle.”  They are:

Wednesday, Feb 2nd:

• 12:30 PST/8:30 PM UTC
• 2:30 PST/10:30 PM UTC
• 3:30 PST/11:30 PM UTC

Thursday, Feb 3rd:

• 12:00 PST/8:00 PM UTC
• 1:00 PST/9:00 PM UTC
• 2:00 PST/10:00 PM UTC
• 3:00 PST/11:00 PM UTC

Please spread the word about this call — an RSVP will go out as soon as we settle on a time. William and Gen will be following up to set up the Europe, Africa and Asia timezone-friendly calls soon!

2011: Getting off to a great start!

I’m pretty giddy about starting off the year with a new job role and team at Mozilla: Contributor Engagement.  We’ll be focused on further empowering and supporting Mozillians – individuals that passionately support, champion and contribute to the Mozilla project.  This isn’t a new area for Mozilla, by any means — but I’m now part of a team that is 100% dedicated to Mozillians.  My comrades to start are David Boswell, Gen Kanai, Amie Tyrrel and William Quiviger.

Getting this new role is like finding out I don’t have to eat my vegetables to get my dessert.  I get it all the time now!  (Not sure that’s the right analogy, but hope you get what I mean.) Our community — it’s zaniness, talent, passion and diversity — has always been my favorite part of Mozilla. Frankly, it’s been my day-to-day interactions with volunteers that have kept me afloat in some transitional times and brightened a bad day here and there.  No one is part of Mozilla because they have to be — they are here and engaged because they care — hard not to let that rub off on you.  It’s only fitting that we’ve “code named” ourselves Team Baked Goods!

Photo courtesy of Gen Kanai

Enough about dessert.  What will we do everyday?

• Provide new opportunities and “on ramps” for participation in Mozilla.
• Make it easier for us to to find and communicate with each other.
• Work across teams (both expertise and regions) to help bring even more people into the Mozilla community and foster them.
• Create and update shared resources to make contributing to Mozilla even better. Examples: a  web-based community directory for Mozillians; the about:mozilla newsletter; ways to measure and reward participation; toolkits and content to help new and existing Mozillians get up to speed quickly.
• And, more!

There’s a whole lot to do — especially setting up some foundational basics — but I’m looking forward to some AWESOMENESS this year.  I’ll be posting ways to get involved and help shape contributor engagement shortly. In the meantime, if you have any ideas, feedback or questions please let us know here: http://mzl.la/fzbinn.