Operation Firefox
It was July 22 and I was in India with Chofmann. We had just strolled downstairs for a hotel breakfast in Mumbai to have our last meal before coming back to the U.S. (If you’ve hung out with Chofmann, you quickly realize that his personality is one that both entertains and invites just about any conversation, whether it’s about football, Firefox, or Fathead stickers.)
On this particular morning, conversation had drifted toward sailing, something that Chofmann and I have both done a bit of. I mentioned to him that it had been a dream of mine to sail to work one morning, from Berkeley to Mountain View. During that sail, I was going to affix a Firefox Fathead sticker on the sail and call the local news anchormen to tell them I was sailing to work. Chofmann laughed encouragingly, but I soon got to thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool to host a contest where community members could buy the big stickers from our store, place them in a cool location, snap a shot…and the best picture could win?”
I got back to the U.S. and mentioned it to some of our creative folks, and it was received with some enthusiasm. It also happened to coincide with our summer interns need to find a fun marketing-style project to execute as part of their internship. The interns got word of the idea, asked if they could expand on it a bit, and Operation Firefox was born. The next few weeks, John Slater (Mozilla Creative Director), the interns, and I sat in a few creative meetings, hammering out ideas and creating a plan.
Aside from the early conversations, I had only a piece of the huge responsibility in pulling this off. Many, many thanks and much recognition goes to Rishi Mallik, Sarah Arora, Catherine Brady, David Rolnitzky, Justin Scott and the web dev team, John Slater, our web design friends, and Andrew Stein, who is one of the interns who actually stayed on board after his summer internship to see this project to execution.
So, do you have what it takes to win Operation Firefox? Spread the word! Gather your friends and enter. We need as much participation as possible for this to be successful. Your ideas are due on November 9. If you’re chosen, we’ll send that sticker your way and you can execute the plan. The pictures will be judged and the best will be awarded prizes. All the details are in the site, so please take a look.
Finally, here is a quick list of all the things you can do to get involved today:
- Dream up your entry plan and submit.
- Digg this article.
- Join the Operation Firefox Facebook group.
- Tell friends to participate!
- Spread the word…anyhow…anyway!
Cue the Lalo Schifrin music (preferably the mix from Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen, Jr. in 1995)!
1995 is right. Wow, images and tables! Meet the new Web, same as the old Web. But with a DOCTYPE.
– Chris
Shame there’s no Mozilla office in the UK yet.
What a really great idea.
However I must say it kind of falls on its face with the limited countries that can enter. I don’t quite understand the reasoning behind that, surely you are cutting out many possible submissions?
Also, the prizes seem rather, shall we say “small”? Not that they’re bad, I just would have expected a little more from something that will hopefully be a big project.
Other than that, I’m looking forward to this spreading virally and can’t wait to see the final pictures (because I can’t enter down here in Australia).
Hey seth, I’m curious, how long does the sticker have to stay up in the spot?
As long as it is legal, we thought it would be great to leave the sticker up. But, technically, it only has to stay up long enough to take the picture.
Alright, thanks Seth. Just submitted my idea a couple days ago, hope it gets accepted