April 1st, 2008

Mozilla wishes itself a happy 10th birthday

Posted by Dana Blankenhorn @ 9:01 am

Categories: FOSS, GPL, General, Implementations, Strategy, management, mass market, values

Tags: Mozilla Corp., Internet, Open Source, Dana Blankenhorn

Mozilla turned 10 yesterday. (Illustration from Dave Titus’ t-shirt collection.)

The open source successor to the Netscape browser is now the world’s largest open source project.

Foundation chair Mitchell Baker threw herself a little blog party to celebrate, offering a state of Mozilla post which drew 250 responses at last count. (Our present — she’s now on our blogroll to the right.)

The chief take-away is that the Mozilla Foundation wants to broaden its mandate, from just an open source project to an advocate for users who wish to manage their own Internet experience.

She writes:

The Internet is now interwoven into modern life, and it will certainly grow to be more powerful. There’s no guarantee that it will remain open or enjoyable or safe. There’s no guarantee that individuals will be able to participate in creating or (for the general non-technical consumer) effectively managing their experience. There’s no guarantee that there is an effective voice for individuals benefiting from the increased power of the Internet.

Mozilla can and should fulfill this role. But not as a guarantor. Mozilla is an opportunity for people to make this vision happen. Mozilla is about opportunity and participation. Mozilla is people getting involved, “doing” things, creating the Internet experience we want to live with.

Short version: code shall make you free.

Baker’s view is that Mozilla can assure that the Web remains open, not just in the desktop but in mobile environments. She also sees the project as a new form of global organization, “where local involvement around the globe has increasing project-wide influence.”

It’s an optimistic, even idealistic vision. I like to think of spring as a time when such views are especially welcome. Play ball, y’all.