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