I'm so excited
about product and empowerment
as our focus for this year.
We've heard so much about it.
and just before I get into
the last little bit, you've heard a lot,
just shake a little bit. Shake those ideas
into your head and then just move around
a little bit because it's a lot of sitting
Okay, those ideas are in my head now.
Okay, ouf, so one of the things
that's inspiring–especially about this new
task that we've just put before us
of a real user centered Firefox OS.
Is that people really deserve,
I think we all believe, but I know,
I believe, people really deserve to have
the full power of the web in their hands,
in their pockets.
That's what we want to build.
But, people also deserve to have
the full power of the web in their heads.
They really deserve to have the full power
of the web as something to know how to
wield and do, and that's about knowledge.
If we want to empower people it's not just
about having the right technology.
It's everyone knowing what they can do
with it. And so, that's why we've put
webmaker and Mozilla's learning products
up there as a product line. Is Mozilla has
a role to play not only in arming people
with the technology that can unlock the
full power of the web, but also helping
them know what to do with it.
So, that's what I want to talk about today
just briefly.
And I want to start with a story about why
I think that's important, that really
struck me when I heard it a few weeks ago
or maybe a month ago,
is this is some user research we're doing
in Kenya around a webmaker app
that we're building.
And one of the things we do in the user
research script. Most of these people have
already got, or, many of these people
already got a smartphone.
They've recently acquired it.
And we say, "Do you use the internet
on that phone?"
And, quite often, probably more than half,
people say, "What's the internet?"
And we say,
"What do you use the phone for?"
"Why'd you buy that phone?"
"Well, I use Facebook, I use Whatsapp."
And, we then say, "well, do you use the
Internet, do you use the web?"
"What's the Internet?"
I don't want to live in a world and I do
not think we can succeed with our mission,
if 3 billion more people come onto
the Internet saying, "What's the Internet?"
Or, never even ask that question.
I want to live in a world where people see
what the Internet can do for them.
And believe that we can actually help people
learn that and tap into it.
So, that's what I think the mission is
that we have in addition to building
products that unlock the web for people.
This is a picture of a bunch of Mozillians
many of them here today in Barcelona,
at the first Mozilla festival.
And that's when we first started
to grapple with this question:
How do we teach the web at a massive scale
and how do build the leaders of the web
who are going to shape that future.
The name of that event, as you see on the
T-shirt, was learning freedom of the web.
And we dug into those questions there,
and we started a lot of things that we are
still doing today. webmaker really came
from there, our maker parties, our hives,
many ways our fellows programs, and all
of those things had one thing in common,
which is, if we're gonna take on this task
of empowering people to learn what they
can do with the web, to be leaders who
shape the future. We have to actually do
it in a different way. This is not about
going into schools and teaching code on a
chalkboard. What is, is about getting
people to build, doing teaching through
sharing what we know, empowering people
Those words we used at the summit last
year: build, teach, empower, that's what
all of those programs have in mind,
or the approach they use. And
we've done a lot, and we've achieved a lot
with them and learned a lot since
then. So, what I want to do
–just very briefly– is say
where we're at with some of that work
some of what we're going to do next, and
how hopefully some of you can get involved
in helping us. So, the first and biggest
thing that we've done is really built
on the ground mentor networks, people who
want to teach the web with Mozilla.
And, the thing that you probably know of
most, although there are other things,
like, Hive, and other things,
under the webmaker banner.
But the thing you probably know about most
is Maker Party, and 3 year ago we started
this Maker Party idea as a way to just—
people getting together,s
Mozilla volunteers, librarians, teachers,
and sharing what they know about the web.
And we started really from nothing.
And over the course of 3 years what we learn
is how to do that over and over again.
How to relate to people who wanted to come
and do it with us, arm them and get them to
do this well. And so this year, it's just
2 months, Maker Party, this year we had
5 thousand volunteers, 25 hundred events–
and really impressive to me–is 450 cities.
And I'm very proud of that.
[cheering and applause]
That is us doing participation,
on the ground, in a way that
really inspires me and sets up
some of what we can do next.
And I'm very grateful, and say thank you
to all of you that made that happen.
So, what are we going to do with that next
year? That I think is our biggest asset.
We do next year is, make that strong.
Move from a two month campaign to all
year round, let's call them webmaker clubs
but really all year around being teaching
the web, so strengthening that asset
working with those 5,000 people.
Not just growing them, but getting them
to do stuff with us all year round
systematically, and growing our Hive
networks, which are very powerful networks
of teachers, libraries, schools, museums,
in more cities.
So, what we're doing next year, is really
building out that asset that we've begun
with Maker Party, and our mentor networks.
The second thing we've been doing, really
starting again in Barcelona and then we've
learned a ton, is learning products that
teach you how to make the web,
really comes from this philosophy that
making is the best way to learn the web.
Get your hands dirty.
And, a lot of what we did was build things
like Thimble which may have seen. They're
great for those Maker Parties, they're
great for face-to-face teaching,
they're very simple. But, we've also
learned, people want more from us.
People want to come and learn the web
with Mozilla even if they can't make it to
a Maker Party, or in their bedroom on
Wednesday night. Or, so on, and so we
hired Andrew Zelinski, from DIY.org,
which some of you may know,
who's one of the co-founders there,
to help us think about, how would we
actually build making and learning tools
that people want to use all the time.
That are fun that are simple where there's
an easy on-ramp that work on mobile
so we've spent about 3 or 4 months
thinking about that.
And you can see some of the mockups
here and you can talk to Andrew.
And we also know that the stuff we built
so far, doesn't work on mobile yet.
But, there's lots of people who, that's
the only way they are ever going to create
an app. Or, ever create a webpage, so
we work with an advanced team,
also with Andrew, and a number of others,
to say, "Let's build a making and learning
product that works on mobile." In fact,
when it comes out it will be the same as
the one on desktop. Crazy.
And so, for 2015, the plan is to really
add into the boots on the ground piece
also serving a mass market of learners
who want to come to us, make things with
us, learn with us. So in January, we'll be
launching a whole new webmaker product it
will include much of what I talked about
that Andrew has been working on, over the
course of the year. It'll include social,
of being able to learn, mentor, online.
And from the get-go it will include being
able to teach and learn on mobile.
[Applause]
And, come and see it, 'cuz like, we're a
long way, we've been working on it for
4, or 5, 6 months, like, it's exciting
where it's going.
So, last piece I just want to talk about,
that we've been doing, is building leaders
You know it's not just—in fact,
I was going to say that it's not just
that we want everyone to understand the
web, we do. We cannot get there ourselves
just with the people in the room. Our
volunteers, like these Kenyan volunteers
who helped us do those focus groups
other 10,000 web maker volunteers
around the world, are absolutely central
to doing what we're trying to do.
And the thing is, we need their help, but
they actually also want help from us.
And that is a virtuous circle, like most
of what Mozilla needs to do with its
community. And so, the things that they're
looking for from us are, "How do I become
better?" "How does this unlock a job
opportunity for me?"
"How do I become a leader?"
"How will I take these ideas forward?"
And so, informally we really do help them
with that, we have things called super
mentors, we have fellowship programs.
What we want to do in 2015–what we will do
–in 2015, is find ways to invest
systematically in these people.
Invest systematically in more leaders who
will become leaders of what we're doing
in learning with webmaker, but for all of
Mozilla, and for all of what we're trying
to do.
And so that will start with really trying
to harmonise our fellows programs,
which range in everything from news to
things that the office of the CTO
is doing, building up
mentorship programs for leaders.
I think we can be even more ambitious
there and we'll do that in 2015.
So, just to close, I want to leave us with
a question. And it's a serious question.
Is—you know, I'm proud of this stuff,
I'm proud of what we've learned since we
started this journey on learning
in Barcelona. I'm optimistic about what we
are doing with the mentor networks, what
we can do in a mass market making and
learning product–especially on mobile,
especially if we can make Firefox OS like
that and bundle them together.
I'm optimistic about our ability to build
leaders. But, do we need to do something
bigger?
And I think if we talk about
billions of people coming online not
knowing what the internet is, we talk
about a generation, whose only idea of
what the internet can do, is Whatsapp and
Facebook, and those people will be the
leaders of the future, we do need to do
something bigger. And the thing is we
already do a lot more than what I just
talked about. Things like MDM, user
education in Firefox, the remote program
has leadership development. Things like
this open news hackfest, and the open news
fellows program are learning programs in
their own right. We do a lot. So, is it that
we need to do more? Maybe, and I think we
need to do a bunch of things smarter. But
really what I think we need to do is say,
building the future leaders of the web,
building people's understanding of the web
is something that is part of our mission
that we stand for, we put a stake in the
ground as being the best in the world at,
and using learning to move our
mission forward, and have the future of
the web be open and free. And that really
is just about calling it out, I think.
And, you know, one example I just want to
close with is, an organization who's done
a similar thing, much more modestly than
us, but really is a beacon–at least for me and
many others. Just 'cuz of how they've
called out their mission. And this is the
Earth University in Costa Rica. What they
try to do is train the next generation of
leaders in sustainable agriculture.
Very similar to us in their methods.
Bunch of people get together, get their
hands dirty, and learn how to do
sustainable farming. What's different
about them, is they have called out their
ambition, to change the world of
agriculture, to save the environment by
building the leaders who will do it.
By building the leaders who will go back
and train farmers in their own country to
do it. And saying, "That is what we're are
going to do. We're going to shift the
whole terrain." And then they put up a
nice sign. And I think that's actually
what we need to do. We need to put a stake
in the ground and say, "Mozilla is about
teaching the next generation, and
generations for many to come, what the web
can be and putting a stake in the ground.
So, this year, I'm going ot lead a process
to do a Mozilla learning strategy that
tries to put our arms around all we're
doing and say, "We can make Mozilla
the place people come when they want to
understand what the web can do." We can be
the place that if you want to be a leader
in the digital future that you can come.
We can be the place where if you want to
shape where the web is going,
this is the place to come and do it.
Mozilla is the place to come and do it.
I want to do that this year, and I want
your help. [applause]