Personas 1.4 Released

Personas gets a set of new features that lets you discover new art, rotate through your favorites, and undo.
With feedback from the Personas community, Labs recently released Personas 1.4. Here is a video describing some of the features:

Introducing Personas 1.4 from Mozilla Labs on Vimeo.

What you can Expect from 1.4

1. More From the Designer: Say you’re browsing through the Personas gallery and pick a design you like. The next day, you want to know whether the designer has created any other cool designs. Before, you would need to go to getpersonas.com and either search for the designer name or find the design you liked and click on the designer by-line. Now, you can simply click on your extension (the little fox on the bottom left corner of your screen), mouse to the top of the menu, and then mouse right to the submenu.

2. Favorites: In the last version of Personas, we enabled you to easily favorite any Persona design in the gallery and have it instantly accessible in the “my favorites” section of your menu (see more about the 1.3 release).

3. More From the Category: Say you’re in the mood for a Holiday persona design. Within the extension menu, you mouse through the Holiday category but can’t find anything you like. Before, you needed to navigate to the Holiday gallery by navigating to getpersonas.com and finding the Holiday gallery. Now you can get there in one step by clicking “More From Holiday” in the extension.

4. Undo: Personas gives you the ability to preview a design before you select it. But still, maybe you chose a design and instantly regret the decision. Before, to undo you would need to go to “recently selected” designs in your extension menu and click on the last design you were wearing. Now, an undo notification bar drops down every time you select a design that you haven’t used recently, or haven’t marked as a favorite.

Get Personas 1.4

If you are already using Personas 1.3, Firefox will automatically update it to Personas 1.4 the next time it checks for add-ons updates. If you aren’t using Personas yet, or you want to get the new version immediately, install it at getpersonas.com.

Thanks!

Many thanks to Erik van Eykelen, Jose Bolanos, Ryan Doherty, Carsten Book (a.k.a. Tomcat), Toby Elliott, Zandr Milewski, and all the Personas localizers on Babelzilla (AtteL, dogi, drry, Ersen Yoldac, fernph, Funkin2x, funTomas, Joergen, jojaba, jooliaan, kkemenczy, kustodian, Lisman, lois, loveleeyoungae, moZes, pia, SiiiE, spjutster, steekid, stoyan, Wareczek, and wtspout), who did great work to make this feature possible, along with all the folks in the discussion forum who suggested the feature, tested early versions of it, and reported problems!

What’s Next?

We’re looking to make this feature even better and easier to use. To continue to evolve Personas quickly, and in the right direction, we need your feedback and participation. Join the conversation in the discussion forum and add helpful hints to the support wiki. And stay tuned to this blog for updates!

- Suneel Gupta and Myk Melez on behalf of the Personas development team

Here are a few ideas, but don’t feel limited!

• Spotlight: Borrow a projector and shine the Firefox logo on the wall during a Firefox party, or make a logo stencil and place it in front of a flashlight for a cool effect (think shadow puppets). Or, go crazy and get a searchlight to create your very own Firefox “bat signal“.
• Mash-Up: Think of the most interesting way you can combine Firefox and light. For example, create the logo out of candles on a birthday cake, program your very own lite-brite or light show, or create a fun wallpaper! If you’re really have a lot of time on your hands (and skills) you could even create a light show.  The more creative, the better.
• Mobile: Get the Firefox logo on your phone and take a picture holding it in front of a local landmark. Or, organize a bunch of friends for a big group photo with the logo on everyone’s phones.

Please upload all videos and pictures on Flickr with the tag “Firefox5″.  We’ll feature submissions on a special site launching on November 9th and the most creative actions will be rewarded with some cool Firefox swag.  Remember to have fun, but be safe and use common sense.  And, get permission before projecting our logo on public buildings!

If you’re looking for other ways to help celebrate the coming anniversary, here’s how:

• Host a party
• Join our Facebook group
• Sport a twibbon

We’re all looking forward to celebrating five years of hard work on the 9th!

Mark Surman’s thoughts on OneWebDay 2009 and why the Web matters.  Check out his original post here.

I woke up this morning to a feed reader full of I <3 the web photos from India. Got to the office: a bunch more from Europe. And a video from Toronto. Today is OneWebDay. And, slowly, a wave of celebration for the web is rolling around the world.

Why take the time to say ‘I love the web’? My reason: I believe it is worth stopping to remember that the web is not only a huge source of creativity, innovation and wonder, but it’s also something all of us help create everyday. The web may feel like oxygen, just there all the time. But it is oxygen that we all help to make. OneWebDay is about taking a moment once a year celebrate the (better and open) web we’re all creating.

It’ll be interesting to see if the I <3 the web poster wave builds. You can join in by posting a photo or changing your twitter, identi.ca or facebook icon. In the meantime, I want call out a few of the many awesome contributions so far …

Happy OneWebDay all. And make sure to join the wave by posting a photo or changing your twitter, identi.ca or facebook icon. Love the web. Share the love.

Thank you to each and everyone of you who participated in and helped promote Mozilla Service Week!    The Mozilla community didn’t disappoint – thousands of you got out, and made a difference in our communities and the Web. Kudos to all!

Now it’s time to see how we did.  Please take a moment to report your hours and share your stories by Sept. 25th (we’ll start displaying completed hours on our site tomorrow). We’re throwing in a little memento for those that do this!

Wondering what’s next?  Today is OneWebDay, a global celebration of the Web — which is a wonderful way to wrap up Mozilla Service Week!  Here’s how to celebrate:

• Print and share an ‘I love the web poster’. Or change your twitter of Facebook pic! Create a global wave that shows the Web is a precious public resource.
• Conduct an Internet Health Check. Find computers with Internet Explorer 6, and upgrade them to a more secure browser.
• Find a OneWebDay party or celebration near you!
• Donate to OneWebDay. Every time you donate, Mozilla will too.

Thanks for making a difference this week!  We’re hoping the spirit lives on all year long.

Today marks the last day of Mozilla Service Week.  We hope you’ve had an amazing time this past week, getting out in your communities and helping organizations and individuals better use the Web.  You don’t have to miss out on Mozilla Service Week — there’s still plenty to do!

• On your lunch hour or after work host a Web help desk at a local cafe, at your company or at school.  All you need is a laptop,  a sign and wireless wireless!
• Conduct an Internet Health Audit for a few friends or colleagues.  We’ve made the audit even easier, just visit our Health Check page and you’ll know if you need to update your browser.
• Find a service opportunity on Idealist.org or on Betterplace.org (if you’re in Germany) and start helping a non-profit when you have the time. You can also scroll through some of the stories and projects posted on the Mozilla Service Week website.

If you need some inspiration check out how other community members have heeded the call:

• Nipon Haque of India has set up a website for the The Uttar Banga Anath Ashram orphanage.  The founder Uma Mallick scrapes by to care for, feed and educate 28 girls.  Anjan Kumar Das, one of their supporters, felt the need for a  website to raise funds and awareness for this cause.  Great work!
• Joe McLaughlin has helped bring the Millvale Library (near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) to life by refurbishing computers and getting the library online.  Nice job!
• Abhinav Kishhore of India has taken the Web help desk idea online,  creating a help request form.  He’s volunteering to follow up and help you with your specific tech needs!  Creative take on the Web help desk.

Have a great last day of Mozilla Service Week and get ready to celebrate OneWebDay on September 22nd!

Yale Students for Free Culture help spread the word about the Open Web for Mozilla Service Week

We’ve just got three days left of Mozilla Service Week. It’s not too late to help!  Let’s take this weekend to get out and show people how to use the Web.  It’s easy — all you need is a sign, your laptop and a venue with wireless and you’re an instant Web help desk!

This week isn’t just about helping people better use the Web, but about celebrating as well.  That’s why we’ve paired up with OneWebDay to wrap up Mozilla Service Week.  OneWebDay is like Earth Day for the Internet. It’s a chance to celebrate the awesomeness of the Web, and make it better.

Here’s how you can celebrate your hardwork this week and the Web in general:

• Print and share an ‘I love the web poster’. Create a global wave that shows the web is a precious public resource.
• Conduct an Internet Health Check. Find computers with Internet Explorer 6, and upgrade them to a more secure browser.
• Find a OneWebDay party or celebration near you!
• Donate to OneWebDay. Every time you donate, Mozilla will too.

Have fun meeting and connecting with the other people that care about the Web.  And, as a gentle reminder, please share your stories and hours on Mozilla Service Week!

We’re kicking off Mozilla Service Week today with a bang:  we’re close to 10,000 volunteer hours, over 3,500 volunteer opportunities and the site is now available in 10 languages, including recently added Portuguese, Romanian and Catalan.  The Friends of Mozilla Service Week have also done an outstanding job raising awareness about our initiative, and we’re thrilled to announce that All for Good and Google have also signed on as friends.

There is literally an opportunity for everyone — whether you are a coder, writer, designer, social media maven, network guru or just plain love the Web.  So let’s roll up our sleeves and help organizations and people all over the world experience the joy of using the Web! If you still need a service opportunity, we’ve got one from you:

• Choose from a list of over 3,500 service opportunities on our partner sites (Idealist & betterplace.org).  There is a plethora of opportunities, including helping The Nature Conservancy of Chicago, IL with its photo archive, developing a LinkedIn group for Wardrobe for Opportunity in Oakland, CA, helping CARE, Germany’s largest NPO, develop a facebook app to send virtual CARE packages, and keeping Mexico’s Puente a la Salud Comunitaria’s website up-to-date.  Our partner OneWebDay also has a variety of service events taking place on and around Sept. 22nd, including a number of events in San Francisco.
• Join a challenge!  We’re looking to get a 100 people to conduct an “Internet Health Check” and host a Web help desk, and at least 50 people to host a social media seminar!
• Do it your way!  Find an organization that needs help or create your own event.  Long-time Mozilla community Ken Saunders reached out to Tutors for All and is volunteering to redesign their website, while Yale’s Free Culture Club is hosting an educational event on Free and Open Source Software.

Remember to register, pledge and report your hours, and help us keep track of all the Mozilla Service Week goodness by tagging posts on delicious and photos on flickr with “mozservice09″.  For added inspiration join our very first twitter chat today at 9 a.m. PDT – 10:30 a.m. PDT.

Have fun and make a difference this week!

Kick off Mozilla Service Week by joining in the MozService09 Twitter chat!

Mozilla is hosting a Twitter chat on Monday, September 14, at 9am Pacific (that’s noon Eastern time, 5pm London time, 9:30pm in India) and will go for about an hour and a half.

Joining the chat will be Mark Surman, Chelsea Novak, Mary Colvig and Jane Finette of Mozilla and Nathaniel James of OneWebDay.  In addition, many of our Friends and Partners will take part.

Here’s how to participate:

• Log on to Twitter from 9 a.m. PDT – 10:30 PDT on Sept. 14th.
• Search for the hashtag #MozService09 using a real-time Twitter search site (such as TweetChat, Twitterfall, or WTH.
• Join in! Ask (or answer) a question, and mark it with #MozService09 so that your tweet will be part of the conversation.
• Rock a Twibbon to show your support.

Here are the topics we’ll be covering (all times below are Pacific):

• 9:00am – 9:30am:  How can the Internet enrich the lives of people and communities?
• 9:30am – 10:00am: What is Mozilla Service Week and OneWebDay? How can one get involved?
• 10:00am – 10:30am: What are you doing or  have you done to enrich the lives of people and communities using technology? How are you getting involved with Mozilla Service Week and OneWebDay?

We look forward to celebrating the start of Mozilla Service Week with you!  See you on Twitter.

OneWebDay is a chance to reflect on how amazing the Web is and to think about how we can move it forward, making it awesome for everyone. It’s held annually on September 22, landing it on a Tuesday this year.

The web has a profound effect on how we live and work. As a OneWebDay partner, Mozilla and Mozilla Service Week want you take action, volunteer your time and help keep the Web awesome. Mozilla Service Week was created with the goal of helping not-for-profit organizations in need. OneWebDay is a great opportunity to extend those good deeds to anyone who could use a hand experiencing a better web. Everyone can help, the only requirement is to simply love the web.

So do you want to be counted amongst the millions of people who love the web and find their lives enriched by the way the web allows you to share, communicate, work or play? The ways you can contribute are only limited by your imagination, but we have a few suggestions to help you out if you’re pressed for time:

• Donate to OneWebDay. OneWebDay is organized by one, full-time, staff member and an army of volunteers. With your support, OneWebDay activities can be expanded to include more international locales and improved with better resources.
• Take action and perform an Internet Health Check. One of the ways Mozilla is supporting OneWebDay is by suggesting activities that are easy to do and make the Web better. Perform an Internet Health Check by updating less technically-savvy users to a modern browser. At the same time, update plugins like Flash, Java and Quicktime and help others keep their computers and the Internet healthy.
• Organize or attend a OneWebDay Event in your town! There will be OneWebDay parties, rallies and service activities taking place all over the world. If you don’t see one happening near you, organize your own. Have a look at what we’re planning here in Toronto if you need further inspiration (a party, a screening and a drop off for older computers for people in need).
• Donate your Twitter or Facebook status on September 22 and follow @owd on Twitter. It’s easy to do and can have more impact than you know.

Some other great ideas have cropped up in the comments of Mark’s OneWebDay blog post as well as some fun ways to show your OneWebDay love around your school or office.

Start getting ready. OneWebDay is less than three weeks away!