Hello people, we, who do not wish to be identified, yet, have a lot to tell-or rather, EXPOSE!
Friends, Mozillians, Open Web enthusiasts! Lend me your ears; Mozilla Community is one among a few communities that preaches an Open web that strives for transparency over the internet. But! Let’s rather introspect whether we are maintaining the mentioned TRANSPARENT and OPEN nature within our self. Here are some instances that's recorded in our mind that makes us think about it. But why do people not say it out in the Open? It’s because the so-called community is “Dictated” and controlled by a few members who cannot be Opposed or Questioned! [1]Selection process for MozFest Since a while now, the Mozillians subscribed on multiple lists have been receiving updates about the candidates selected for MozFest 2014 one of the largest events hosted by Mozilla! All the Mozillians who’ve seen the “so-called” criteria for the selection process listed in the wiki would definitely agree with us when it comes to the transparency and some of the members chosen. Very valid is the comment given by one of the Mozillians who asked for a justification or rather a short note on why each and every person was selected for the same. The reply from council was great but wasn't up to the request. With the growing contributor base, the same set of people invited over and over for these events instead of giving a chance for new contributors. This can be argued upon by saying “The selection is based on Experience” which is a paradox because the experience CAN only be gained when the person gets a chance to attend events! WE ECHO A DEMAND ON THE NOTE WHY EACH MOZILLIAN WAS SELECTED FOR MOZFEST ALONG WITH A MORE DETAILED SELECTION CRITERIA. [2]MozCamp Beta India The MozCamp Beta, one among the reformed events and the first of it’s kind in the world. A team of 6 members (so called core team) have “chosen” and reviewed over 109 volunteers to select a total of 90 for the event from India. NOTE that there was NO FORMAL application for the same found in the mailing list, Moilla wiki or Community wiki. So from where did these applicants come from? If you don’t get what we’re saying, please check the attachment : https://www.sendspace.com/file/2an1e5 COULD THE CONCERNED PEOPLE PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS? [3]Budget requests The Mozilla Reps program started to empower the Mozillians to become leaders in the community and inspire volunteers is turning out to some thing else especially with Budgets. The budget request made by the so called Community leaders for any event is always accepted without any questions while community members who have or had “issues” ( on Opinion or any other ) with their community leaders face problems in getting their budget approved, which mostly happens in the last moment! Allow us to cite and example here of an event that was recently conducted Women’s only event in Bangalore, IN with a budget of over 3000 USD! The criteria for a normal rep to get the budget approved would be based on the “metrics”. So we happened to see the "SUPER AWESOME" metrics of this Women’s only event- few thimble and popcorn makes. Isn’t that great!? NOT! To add on, this Mozilla Rep, during one of her talks, also mentioned that she’s traveled to more than 12 countries in a short span of 2 years. Agreed that this may be to encourage new contributors with the perks, but is it actually the right approach? DO WE TELL PEOPLE TO CONTRIBUTE TO OPEN SOURCE BY TELLING THEM THAT THEY COULD TRAVEL ALL OVER THE WORLD AND STAY IN STAR HOTELS!? A small issue that caught fire on twitter : https://twitter.com/koolhead17/status/493017466449059840 In case the tweet got removed : https://www.sendspace.com/file/fsprzb [4]Localization project The Mozilla L10N project that aims at localizing various projects. Do we even consider these as a project that Mozilla supports? What made us think so is because of the series of quality events that were cancelled due to budget issues for the L10N team. To RE-AFFIRM this point, one of the so-called ‘Community leaders’ and “Evangelist” in the community openly disagreed the support of the L10N team-thereby meaning that the volunteers who contribute to the same are just “jobless”. Yes, this might be justified by saying that these are his personal views, BUT ARE THEY REALLY THINGS THAT SHOULD BE SAID BY AN EVANGELIST!? Would love to have your thoughts on this Mr.Christian Heilmann. [6] Leadership change Yes, WE FINALLY MEAN THE COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE. Taking the wonderful example of Philippines community where they change the Community leader within a period. Unlike some communities that have liaisons that want literally everything in a community to pass through them. Agreed that this is good, but the same would be expected out of this person so that the community gets to know about future plans. TRANSPARENCY in all the projects, programs and selection process is expected in the Community. [7]Cancelling Grow Tunisia When an event of such a scale is planned, the amount of efforts taken by the 10’s and 100’s of community members and volunteers is exponentially MUCH more than that of one or two staffs and so called CORE MEMBERS ( identified for no specific reason in most case) who’ve been assigned to take up the event! And just few days before getting the selected list of volunteers, we see a mail saying that ALL THE GROW EVENTS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED. Mozilla, the organization, is what it is today because of the community and the volunteers who strive to better it day after day! A decision was taken on this just by an internal panel who apparently ‘discussed’ things with team was not convinced by the structure of the same. ANY DECISION AS SUCH SHOULD AT LEAST BE DISCUSSED WITH THE VOLUNTEERS/REPS. Files If missed : http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/yK4Ii%2BzgSoyHaz7FPRd%2Fsg We would like to make a note that this isn't any issues with Organization, its just a few members of the current community that is deviating the mission / goal of Mozilla, we hope a small discussion over this will get the problem solved. better to act now than to be sorry later Regards Fellow Mozillian _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
