The Mozilla Blog

Calling all Web developers! We’re looking for developers from all over the Web to help us build the Mozilla Developer Network.   Firefox is an important tool for many developers and as the Web continues to evolve as a platform, we need your input to enable better communication and collaboration to push the Mozilla project forward and make the Web better for everyone.

To learn more about the initial steps we’re taking to connect with Web developers, check out Chris Blizzard’s post on the Hacks blog.

Last month our artful collaboration with Infectious produced some awesome Firefox inspired art for our community to enjoy as laptop and iPhone skins, wallpapers, t-shirts, and Personas.

Today the community will have a chance to get involved and get creative.  We’ve launched an Infectious design challenge around the theme: “People & Robots: Best Friends Forever” to give everyone an opportunity to showcase their work and a chance to win some great prizes!

The Mozilla community is all about people and technology working together, and we’ve already seen some cool robot art during the beta releases of Firefox 3 and Firefox 3.5, so the People & Robots theme was perfect… and the design challenge is a great way to introduce our community to the Mozilla Creative Collective.

So get involved as a creative contributor and show the world why you love robots!

Our ongoing efforts to encourage participation in all facets of the Mozilla project led us to the vibrant community of artists at Infectious.  We wanted to bring artists and art lovers together through a Community Art Project to inspire creative contributors to join us in making the Internet better for everyone.

Today we unveil some amazing designs by 5 Infectious artists that we asked to help kick off the project.  We challenged them to create art inspired by Firefox and the values that drive the Mozilla project. The result? Zeptonn, David Lanham, Reuben Rude, Etsu Meusy and Paulo Arraiano responded by contributing original art pieces that reflect the innovation, openness, opportunity and idealism that Mozilla represents.  The diversity of these artists is what makes this initial collection so unique and each piece showcases the artist’s distinct style

We’re excited to share their designs with our community and have made them available in a variety of ways:

1. Laptop skins, iPhone skins, car decals, desktop wallpaper, and iPhone wallpaper through Infectious.com

2. T-shirts at our Mozilla Community Store

3. Personas for your Firefox browser

As we get closer to the launch of Firefox 3.5 (currently in Beta), this art provides a fresh interpretation of what Mozilla is all about.  It also serves as an example of what’s possible when you bring creative minds together to share their talents and passion for art and technology.  Another nice bonus: Infectious and the contributing artists are collectively donating 20% of Firefox product sales at Infectious.com to the Mozilla Foundation.  It’s great to see that kind of generosity from our partners and the artists we work with.

And this just the beginning.  Our collaboration with Infectious continues in July with an open design contest that will give everyone a chance to show off their skills and contribute to the Community Art Project for a chance to be featured on Infectious.com and win some cool prizes.

All of this fits nicely into our plans to launch the Mozilla Creative Collective later this summer, and we hope everyone that participates in this round with Infectious will join us is building a strong community of creative contributors for the Mozilla project.  More information to come soon, so stay tuned!

The Mozilla Campus Reps program saw a lot of growth in 2008 and we plan to build on that momentum by helping students around the world get better organized and do more as they spread Firefox and the Mozilla mission around campus and their communities.

We’re going to start by providing them with a Campus Reps Guide, which is currently in the works.  We’ll make it available both online and in print when it’s ready later this year.  The guide will highlight what the Campus Reps program is about, provide examples of activities and challenges that students can take on, and outline a framework for starting a Mozilla Club on campus.

Clubs are a great way to bring passionate people together to accomplish more than any one person could possibly do on your own…and it makes everything a lot more fun!  For a great example of a successful Mozilla Club, check out mozillaclub at the Jordan University of Science & Technology (JUST).  They had a very busy 2008 and I look forward to seeing more great things from them this year.  Great job guys!

I hope our reps will find inspiration from what the JUST mozillaclub has been able to accomplish and take advantage of the Campus Reps Guide and continued support from us to replicate the Mozilla Club model in 2009.

One of our Mozilla Campus Reps came up with the idea last year, and today we launched the Mozilla “On the Street” Interviews project!  It’s the first experiment we’re doing for the 2008-09 school year and we want our campus reps to grab their video cameras and interview people around town, on their campus, or even at local landmarks.

Our Mozilla Campus Reps community is growing quickly, with students on the ground at many campuses around the world… so this project will be a great way to broaden our reach and learn more about the people that are using Firefox, those that aren’t, and even the few that don’t know anything about it (hard to believe, I know).

I think this project will be an interesting, and fun, exercise to find out what people from different places have to say about Firefox.  By going straight to the people, we can also get a better sense of how much they know about Mozilla and spread the word about Firefox 3 to those we might not be reaching online or through our other marketing efforts.

Stay tuned for some great videos, which will be broadcast on Air Mozilla shortly after the submissions deadline on November 30.

This is great opportunity for our Mozilla Campus Reps to get creative with just a video camera, a few questions, and people nearby to show us their part of the world and share a bit about their local communities with us.  I can’t wait to see what they come up with.