Building "Mozilla Learning" together in 2015

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]