Mozilla as a socially responsible business

I attended the Economic Summit 2007 conference on Monday, June 11 hosted by the Cal State East Bay SBDC. The conference brought together several leading social entrepreneurs to discuss nuts and bolts of starting a socially responsible organization. I represented Mozilla on a panel and was able to articulate what makes Mozilla special and why we are, in fact, socially responsible.

More and more people in the world of social responsibility are pointing to Mozilla as a leading example of a socially responsible business. Many companies, like Intel, Microsoft, HP, Sun, The Gap, Patagonia, McDonalds…the list goes on and on…have all invested in some form of corporate social responsibility and have either hinted at or stated plainly that it is a strategic imperative for their business. When most hear socially responsible or corporate social responsibility (CSR) or social entrepreneur, a few questions begin to surface:

• What is all this lingo and who cares?
• Do corporations really act responsibly or is it just marketing?
• What is the business case for social responsibility?

I’d like to start a series of blog posts over the next few weeks that begin to discuss these topics, surface other questions, and start to point out why Mozilla is and always has been socially responsible.

How do we fit in and what is all this business lingo (does it really mean anything)? Mozilla’s pursuit of preserving choice and innovation on the Internet is itself very socially responsible.

In fact, I believe we are a leading socially responsible business and a leader in social responsibility. Mitchell and many others at Mozilla might also be classified as social entrepreneurs. I’ve added the wikipedia links to show that these terms are generally accepted inside the world of social enterprise. Maybe you’ve also heard the term corporate social responsibility. Each of these concepts has a nuanced difference that is worth understanding, but they all point to a larger effort for people and companies to become more responsible and conscious corporate citizens.

So much of our community blogs about what they are doing to change the way people experience the Internet and why Mozilla means so much to them. Perhaps you read Tristan’s post last week, or John’s post about what Mozillans wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

Or, maybe some of you read the ending of Shaver’s taking it on the road post on June 11. There, he comments:

I’m emotionally invested in the web, I take threats to its integrity personally and seriously, and I think there’s a fight brewing over the future of how people use technology to communicate, collaborate, do business, and share experiences. I hope to infect some people with my passion on this trip, and come back with a more comprehensive sense of what makes the web special to everyone else.

These are specific types of sentiment that help articulate why Mozilla is socially responsible and concerned about several other pursuits rather than earnings that pile up at the bottom line of an income statement.

By participating in conferences like Net Squared and the Economic Summit, I am beginning to see that Mozilla is gaining more visibility while gaining a reputation of being an innovator in the field of socially responsible business for the Internet and the www.