Background on Discover Shiretoko and interFORest

Gen Kanai — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:59:43 +0000

As some of you saw on the Foxkeh blog and the Mozilla blog, the Japan team has launched a new promotional campaign called Discover Shiretoko in collaboration with the non-profit Shiretoko Nature Foundation of Hokkaido, Japan.

The Discover Shiretoko site itself showcases four stories which show how both Shiretoko (the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Japan) and Shiretoko (the code-name for Firefox 3.5) have a number of commonalities and, as my colleague William Quiviger said more eloquently than I did,

“aims not only to inform the public about the philosophy, mission and activities of Shiretoko Nature Foundation and Mozilla, but also to make clear that the power of many can change our environment’s future.”

Please visit the site to see the stories about Firefox and Shiretoko.

To promote this collaboration between Mozilla and the Shiretoko Nature Foundation, we worked with the Yasuaki Kakehi Laboratory, of Keio University to create interFORest, a site where participants can receive a banner to promote Firefox and Shiretoko on their own websites and blogs as well as see the other promoters. (Those of you who are keen will note that we worked with Dr. Kakehi’s team last summer to promote Firefox 3.0 as well.)

The interFORest site is pretty interesting so I wanted to point out a number of features of the site that are described on the about interFORest page but that might not jump out at you immediately unless you knew to look for the features.

On the home page of the interFORest site (see image above, also known as “Bird’s Eye View”, it shows a virtual map of the Shiretoko peninsula of Hokkaido, Japan):

Bird’s Eye View: The trees represent websites who have joined in the promotion of Firefox and Shiretoko.

Bird’s Eye View: If you see movement in the trees, that means that there are users who are accessing that site at the same time that you see movement in the tree.

Bird’s Eye View: The keywords floating in the purple background are generated from the sites that users are using to promote the Discover Shiretoko website.

Click through to any tree to get to the “Close up view“:

Close up view: The weather and sky light shown on the virtual map is generated by weather data taken from the sky above the Shiretoko Peninsula. If you visit during the day Japan Standard Time, you will see a daytime landscape. If you visit during the night time, JST, you’ll see a night time landscape. If it is sunny at the Shiretoko Peninsula, you’ll see clear skies. If it is raining, you’ll see clouds and rain.

Close up view: You can use the 4-way arrow in the sky to move on the mini-map in the upper left-hand corner. This allows you to move around the map to see all of the websites that are promoting Discover Shiretoko.

Then click on the tree again:

Illustrated tree view: If you click on one of the trees, you will see a virtual book open up with information about which site is promoting Discover Shiretoko. Name of the site, web address, place of origin, and then “number of roots” and “number of leaves.” The “number of roots” is a count of the number of times visitors have clicked on this particular tree on the interFORest website. The “number of leaves” is the number of clicks on the banner which drives people to the Discover Shiretoko website.

Illustrated tree view: You can turn the pages of the book by double-clicking on the white spaces on the page to move through the pages of the book to see all the sites that are promoting Discover Shiretoko.

Also we’ve made a point to build the interFORest site with web standard technologies, specifically Canvas, which is currently unavailable in Internet Explorer. If you visit a site that is hosting a Discover Shiretoko banner with IE, you get a sad Foxkeh who hopes you will visit with a browser that supports Canvas, which would be Firefox, Safari or Chrome.

We’ve already seen a number of Japanese Internet media sites pick up the story:

「知床の自然もFirefoxもボランティアが育てる」—MozillaがWebサイトDiscover Shiretokoを開設

樹が育つ不思議なバナーで広めよう！世界遺産「知床」と「Firefox」の感動ストーリー

Mozilla Japanと知床財団、環境保護を訴える共同サイトをオープン

知床財団×Mozilla Japanによる「Discover Shiretoko」キャンペーン

モジラジャパン：クリックで木が育つ　知床環境保護のネットプロモーションを開始

Mozilla Japanと知床財団は6月23日、共同で「Discover Shiretoko」キャンペーンを実施すると発表した。

Mozilla Japanと知床財団、新感覚のネットプロモーションを開始

Firefox 3.5と世界遺産・知床の関係　樹木が育ち、森になるバナーをどうぞ

In addition to these Japanese media, in the first 24 hours since the launch of this campaign, we’ve had over 500 sites join our promotion, which is wonderful.

This promotion runs through August 31, 2009 but may be extended if the community deems it important to do so.

Please visit Discover Shiretoko, sign up for a banner at interFORest and help us promote Shiretoko and Firefox.

Mozilla sponsoring ROFLCon, April 25-26, Boston

Gen Kanai — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:12:50 +0000

Just a quick note to those of you who are in or near Boston.

Mozilla is sponsoring the first (?) conference on Internet memes: ROFLCon.

Mozilla Partners Up With ROFLCon

A number of friends of mine, including Anil Dash, Matthew Haughey, David Weinberger, and Joshua Schachter will be speaking so I highly recommend you go. I’m sorry to miss this one.

Jimmy Wales supports Firefox

Gen Kanai — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:03:13 +0000

The New York Times Magazine profiles Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and interviews him about various aspects of his life including his computer:

It’s a MacBook, and I put stickers on it from all the conferences I attend and things I support. In Japan, for example, the Firefox web browser has this cute mascot. It’s a fox with a flaming tail, and I have those stickers.

Jimmy, we appreciate your support. Foxkeh thanks you for putting him on your laptop as he enjoys traveling the world and meeting lots of people who are interested in online culture.

Jimmy Wales – Wikipedia – New York Times

Foxkeh August wallpapers

Gen Kanai — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:04:03 +0000

The Foxkeh August wallpapers are now available for download from Foxkeh’s blog.

Foxkeh English blog launched

Gen Kanai — Sat, 05 May 2007 11:09:54 +0000

As seen elsewhere in the blogosphere, Foxkeh, our mascot for Firefox in Japan has launched an English blog. Foxkeh’s been very popular in Japan and we hope that he might help Spread Firefox even outside of Japan.

Mozilla in Asia » Foxkeh

Background on Discover Shiretoko and interFORest

various links 14 April 2008

Mozilla sponsoring ROFLCon, April 25-26, Boston

Jimmy Wales supports Firefox

Foxkeh August wallpapers

Foxkeh English blog launched