Adam, thank you so much for your supportive words. I don't think anybody in the Mozilla community would disagree with what you wrote. The points were a valid argument might be had are precisely those you point out as being debatable.
Reading posts like yours and the responses colleagues and friends in the community have written to other, negative messages restores quite a bit of my optimism. We have suffered a great loss not only in Brendan, but also in the trust we need to fulfill our mission. It's heartening to see the fast and intense beginnings of the work to restore at least the latter. thanks again, till On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 9:19 AM, Adam Porter <[email protected]>wrote: > I've already posted a thread here criticizing Mozilla for what I think was > a failure to adequately support and defend Brendan Eich. > > Having said that, I don't think that uninstalling Firefox is the answer. > Perhaps Mozilla did fall short of defending him, but that does not mean > that everyone at Mozilla approves of what happened or how it happened, nor > does it mean that Mozilla has become a political organization--that is, one > oriented toward issues other than the freedom and openness of the Internet. > > I haven't expressed my position on gay marriage, because just as Brendan > said, it should be irrelevant here. I understand the feeling that Mozilla > has taken a position on it, but I don't think that being inclusive in the > workplace necessarily means supporting either position *as an organization.* > > People are rejecting Mozilla for the sake of free speech and an open > society in which one may exercise his right to free speech without fear of > reprisal from society's over-exercising its own right to free speech. This > is understandable and a worthy goal, however I don't think dumping Mozilla > helps it. > > While Mozilla as a whole may bear some of the blame, the vast majority > rests on those who dropped the match and fanned the flames. Even if there > was no master plan, it was effectively orchestrated in a cunning way: > discord was sowed, a mob was stirred, and then the claim could be > legitimately made that Eich could no longer lead effectively (though > whether that would have remained the case in the future is debatable). > Eich is not the only victim here: Mozilla is also, as are all those who > support a free and open society and Internet. > > I think much of the post-resignation anti-Firefox reaction comes from > those who see it merely as a product of a corporation, rather than as a > Free Software project of a symbiotic relationship between Mozilla and the > larger community. This is understandable: probably the vast majority of > Firefox users don't even know what Free Software is. > > Let's face the facts: were it not for Firefox and Mozilla, the Internet > and Web we have today would probably not be as open as they are. Despite > the majority of its funding coming from Google (which is also a competitor > with Chrome), Mozilla is the most independent browser vendor, and the one > that most explicitly supports openness and freedom. > > Thankfully, being Free Software, Firefox could be forked and keep going > under new leadership even if Mozilla were to disappear tomorrow (though > with an enormous deficit in expertise). > > But even so, we need Mozilla and Firefox. So does the Internet. So does > the world. Without it, we have Google/Chrome, MS/IE, and Apple/Safari--all > multi-billion-dollar mega-corporations whose primary goals are > profit-oriented. > > Mozilla made some mistakes here. Okay. But one of the things > demonstrated by this situation is that Mozilla is not a monolithic > organization. Let us all learn from the mistakes and continue moving > forward toward the goals we share with Mozilla: a free and open Internet. > > As it is said, to err is human, but to forgive is divine. This situation > was caused by failing to forgive. Let us not perpetuate this nature in > kind--let us choose the better path forward and lead by example. > _______________________________________________ > governance mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance > _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
