And now for a different idea :-)
Thinking more about this, I come back to the key goals and I wonder:
perhaps we want *everyone* who identifies with our mission and wants it
to succeed to think of themselves as a "Mozillian" and we want a
different or additional term to identify the core set of people driving
Mozilla and our mission forward.
Here's my thought process:
1. We want a way to identify the people most engaged with Mozilla,
working as part of Mozilla to move the mission forward. We need this
for (at least) two reasons:
a. As a way to identify the team, and who is doing what, practical,
operational reasons.
b. As a badge of honor. we don't talk about this often but it's good
to do so. we are proud of what we do, open source and community based
work has a piece of recognition, and leadership via reputation and
recognition. We're big enough that the informal way of "everyone knows
who's leading what" won't work for us now.
2. We want more people identifying with the Mozilla mission, thinking
"yes I want that!" Not all of these people will be as deeply engaged.
For example, I might consider myself a environmentalist, be a (paying)
member of an organization like the World Wildlife Fun, and respond when
they issue a call to action. That means I've self -identified and am
engaged. I am still however, not the core team that is making things
happen. My focus is elsewhere (i.e., Mozilla), and my support is key,
but I'm not the central moving force leading the larger group to action
or impact.
Mozilla could have many such people. People who see the Mozilla mission
as important, may tell their friends about us,might donate a bit, might
respond to a Firefox "snippet," or any number of otter actions. The
main focus of their time and energy and activities is not Mozilla, but
they understand, recognize and count themselves as supporters of our
efforts.
Right now we're using "Mozillian" to mean item 1. The earlier
discussion has a flavor of protecting the name "mozillian" to that
group.
Perhaps we should be bold and encourage "mozillians" to be a large
group, and find a term that identifies the core set of people and serves
the "bad of honor" goal as well. In this world, everyone in the
'mozilla-verse" other than "users" and "contributors" could be welcomed
as a mozillian, and we would find a way to identify the core group. That
means getting used to the idea that "mozillian" isn't as exclusive or
exclusionary, it's the "big tent;" and we'd identify the core group with
a different term.
I imagine that could feel disconcerting to some, but I'm coming to like
the idea.
Thoughts?
Mitchell
On 12/6/13 4:49 PM, Mitchell Baker wrote:
Hi folks
I've got two messages on this topic. The first is the question of why a
"million mozillians." In this one I want to address the concerns were
making a definition to get to a number, and that the idea is
self-servicing. The second msg will be a follow up to my post with the
diagram.
First, why are we talking about "a million mozillians?" "A Million
Mozillians" is a way of making the activity "Empower Communities"
concrete. I see this as a fundamental, absolute requirement for
Mozilla. A big part of a long-term legacy, as well as important to the
success of our product initiatives. Done right, communities of people
who identify with the Mozilla mission, are committed and capable of
making it real, can be a bigger legacy than any particular product. (I
spoke about this in a bit more detail in the 2013 summit opening talk --
https://air.mozilla.org/nature-of-mozilla/ -- at about 28:20 into it.)
I also see the best way for Mozilla to empower communities is to build a
joined effort between paid contributors and volunteer contributors in
our core work. That means that building products, teaching, learning
and empowering communities are deeply intertwined.
"Enable communities" is a key pillar of what we do, but it is a bit
abstract. "A Million Mozillians" is one approach to start to make it
concrete and real. What would it look like if Mozilla continues to be
successful in empowering communities? One criteria of success is that
more people -- hopefully *many* more people would identify with the
Mozilla mission and would say "yes, I want that. Count me in." Maybe a
million. Maybe many millions -- Mark Surman is fond of the Girl Scouts
and Boy Scouts / Guides example.
Some portion of those people will be deeply engaged, becoming part of
the core team. Many more will be more loosely engaged. We want to
inspire and empower more people to identify and support the mozilla
mission *at all levels." Imagine if 1/10 of our user base became aware
of our mission, identified with it, and responded to one call of action
per year. That brings new possibilities. And imagine if we are able to
increase understanding, involvement and capabilities across all levels
of Mozilla's activities. That's the goal.
So I think of "a Million Mozillians" as a way to make that goal
concrete, to aim for something ambitious, and to help us organize to
make this real.
"A Million Mozillians" does raise the question of who is a mozillian.
I'll put my thoughts on that question in the next msg, to keep the
topics separate.
mitchell
On 12/4/13 9:11 PM, [email protected] wrote:
A single
"yes/no" decision -- yes, you're a mozillian, or "no, you're not" can't
capture all of this well.
I think this is a good way to frame this. We are moving a binary
yes/no application of the definition to something that can be applied
in a graduated way.
I'm not so sure each and every category or word is correct, but I'm
pretty convinced that something like this would help us.
It's really interesting to see your drawing and I agree that working
on these categories is the next step in the discussion.
There's going to be a group exercise on the levels and names of
Mozillian at the Community Builders event next week and we'll report
back about what comes out of that.
Thanks,
David
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