Attack of the Blog!

The Mozilla tree has undergone a lot of evolution over the last several months, and it was really amazing to see the final version unveiled on Tuesday morning at the keynote. When I first started working at Mozilla, Mitchell handed me a doodle with a tree on it. She didn’t know exactly what it was for, but she asked me to look at it and see if it could be cleaned up or developed in a way that might be useful. My reaction to this image isn’t any different now than it was then. I thought it was a solid concept when I first saw the rough draft, and watching it grow and evolve has been a lot of fun.

Mozilla’s structure and vision is drastically different from that of most companies, eschewing a top-down, pyramidal structure for a more organic approach to creating software. Mozilla functions far more like a fruit tree, with numerous useful branches carefully grafted in to create a dynamic, cooperative organization that takes a holistic approach to the internet.

The rootstock of Mozilla are its broad reach into the online community and the basic inspirations for our work. Leadership by Reputation, Distributed Authority, Collaboration, License to Participate, Peer Review, Transparency, Public Benefit, and a Shared Work Product all spread like roots in the virtual world, drawing on the talents and abilities of users and giving back to them in the same way that tree roots both draw nourishment from the soil and act as nitrogen fixers, benefiting other organisms outside itself. This aspect of Mozilla, like the roots of a tree, are the most difficult to see, but they are critically important. Tree roots spread just as far and deep as the branches above spread wide and tall. Without a firm anchor in the community, relying on it for input and collaboration, none of Mozilla’s products would be possible to create.

The most visible part of a tree are its branches, which nourish the trunk and roots through their leaves in return for nutrients and support given from below. It is here that Mozilla’s most recognizable features– End User Consumer Products like Firefox and Thunderbird, the employees of the Mozilla Corporation, the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, and revenues brought in from numerous sources– are found. Each of these are like a healthy, productive branch grafted into the rootstalk, each bringing unique attributes and yielding results that benefit the entire organism as a whole. The success of each of these grafts depends upon the constant support of Mozilla’s roots in open source development. Without nourishment in the form of peer review and global community collaboration, none of Mozilla’s products would bear fruit.

Initially, the difference between the roots and branches may not be that evident, but if you take a closer look, you can see that while branches can be trimmed, grafted, trained, altered, and even removed, roots cannot. The core values that keep us anchored to our purpose cannot be changed. But Revenue can vary. Employees can come and go, and the fruit the tree bears can vary in quality and quantity. The roots offer stability; the branches flexibility.

The trunk of Mozilla’s tree is the vital connection between human beings and technology, allowing an ongoing human connection through the internet. This is where the flow of input and output of energy and creative power intermingle and work together for the benefit of the whole.

This image taken from nature is a much more accurate way to describe Mozilla, its structure, and its goals than a simple map or diagram. To dissect Mozilla along hard lines would do nothing but slice it into useless chunks. Mozilla functions as a living organism, with every part of itself equally important and critical to the success of the whole. The result is organic software– products that respond to and are sculpted by the people who use them.

We just concluded the discussion of Mozilla identity led by Mitchell and Mark Surman. The conversation focused on community. What is it? How do you define it? Who gets to be included in the concept of “community”? This discussion made the relevance of the biological metaphor even greater. “Community” is a collective word, in the same way “ecosystem” is. Just as nutrients are cycled through the various parts of an ecosystem, so is code, the end user, the contributor, and the decision maker in the Mozilla Project. Define it, dissect it, and it ceases to exist.

Yesterday I had the chance to chat with the localizers who work on the Kurdish and Irish Gaelic versions of Firefox. We ended up discussing a lot about how minority languages face a big challenge in online life. Irish Gaelic has clung on for survival despite very deliberate attempts to stamp it out in the years that Britain controlled Ireland. It was illegal to have a shop window with Gaelic words on it, and the Irish were forbidden to speak their own language. Today the same attempt is being made on Kurdish speakers. In Turkey the word “Kurd” is never used, leaving a blank where there ought to be recognition of an entire people.

In the past, it’s been difficult to overcome the fact that language itself is a political act. There’s no way to sugar coat it; throughout history, whoever was in charge got to decide what language can be used. The language of those with education, economic power, and political clout has always been the one that wins out on official means of communication, and it made it easier to control the disenfranchised portion of the population. After all, how can you think, write, organize, or participate in politics, culture, or the economy if you lack the most basic means of expression? The Turkish government can attempt to obliterate Kurdish national identity much in the same way that Britain attempted to drive Irish culture to extinction, but the Internet offers aid in the fight.

While the large numbers associated with Firefox may draw the most attention, I think the small ones are more important. Minority language localizers are, in reality, some of the greatest defenders of civil rights on the Web. I can’t imagine how wonderful it must be for someone who must constantly hide their true identity in order to be accepted by the ruling powers that be to be able to sit at a computer and fire up a web browser that speaks their language. Firefox offers the astonishing possibility that no language, no culture, and no people can be forbidden. You can be yourself and speak to others with your own voice.

It’s especially critical to make sure that minority languages are brought to the mobile web. Internet access is generally cheap and easy for the wealthy and those who use dominant languages. But it carries a high premium for areas stricken by poverty, political repression, or social unrest. Just as in the past there would be one telephone for a poor town, now there can be mobile devices that serve the needs of an entire community. The Internet provides access to knowledge and information, and that is critical for opening a world of ideas to people in poor or unfairly restricted areas. In some cases, it may help keep their native tongues alive.

A major part of Ireland’s ability to break free from centuries of cultural extermination attempts by the British was a voluntary and conscious reclaiming of culture, particularly language. Unfortunately it may be too late for Irish to survive as a truly vernacular language, but hope remains and the Internet can play a big part in that. For speakers of Kurdish and other culturally threatened languages, now is the perfect time for the Internet to be opened and help them find a place for their voices and experiences to be heard.

When 400 computer geeks pile into one hotel conference room?

ALL YOUR BANDWIDTH ARE BELONG TO US.

Connectivity has been spotty for the last two hours, and rightly so. We’re sucking the everloving life out of the access points in this room. I think that an unforseen side effect of the Mozilla Summit is that the sheer volume of Intarwebz pull exerted by the attendees is creating a giant sucking black hole vortex that will absorb and condense all the Intarwebz in British Columbia and quite possibly the entire Pacific Northwest. The earth’s gravitational pull may be off for a few days. Plan accordingly.

One of the interesting things about creating software is that very little actual facetime with co-workers is necessary in order for it to be created. I’ve been greeting new arrivals as they descend on the Firefox Summit in Whistler, British Columbia, and have had a bit of fun shocking them. I’ve been able to identify plenty of people by their pictures, and they seem startled when I can greet them by name. Surprise! You’re famous!

The shake-up is healthy. We work so often together, but sometimes don’t have anything more than an IRC handle to identify anybody with. Perhaps the most important activity at the summit will not be the discussions themselves, but the fact that they can take place face to face.

I hate Zombies. In fact, all robots hate Zombies. Why? Many reasons. They suck at science. They make a big mess wherever they go. (You think my gleaming polished chrome casing will look good with putrid gut splatter on it? I don’t think so!!) Zombies eat brains, and that’s no good to us. How on earth can we be humanity’s robot overlords when all the brains are half-digested goo in some undead fiend’s gullet? You humans would have an excuse to be lazy, and that would suck all the fun out of enslaving you.

Normally I don’t turn too much attention to the threat of necromantic reanima because zombies are so slow, dull-witted, and careless that even moderate sized infestations are easy to contain. But a new phase of evolution has begun among zombiekind, illustrating the dangerous possibility that they may have gained something in intelligence. I give you ZombieHarmony.com, the place for zombies to meet and gather online. I know that I shouldn’t get too concerned about this; after all, a zombie would need at least one eye and a hand in order to read the screen and click the mouse. But still! We cannot be too vigilant in our efforts to thwart these evil foes.

Don’t believe me? Let’s follow the logic train:

1. Zombies are allowed to meet through ZombieHarmony
2. Zombies have a lovely time expanding their social spheres, enjoying nice meals of espresso and Kindergarten teachers while chatting about the advantages and disadvantages of the lifestyle of the modern urban undead
3. Zombies form an unstoppable horde
4. Zombies take over the world
5. All scientific activity stops
6. Robots are never invented
7. The robo-apocalypse never comes

Zombies pose a physical as well as strategic threat to you, my robot minions. Zombie Goo (sanguinary ichor) contains compounds that are highly corrosive to most servos. And my human minions should beware as well, lest their tender cerebrums end up on a sushi platter shared by two lovey-dovey ghouls who met on ZombieHarmony.com. Zombies are the common enemy to us all. As the UNSC and The Covenant had to set aside their differences to destroy The Flood, so must human beings obliterate this mutual threat lest it undo us all.

So I leave it to you, my loyal army of minions. Arm yourselves with a shovel or a cricket bat and seek out the undead hordes that threaten all of robotkind. Should you see one of these fiends logging in, wait until after they have succeeded. Then proceed to destroy the zombie in the way that seems best to you. I prefer a wood chipper. Then attempt to access the zombie’s contacts, make arrangements to meet, and obliterate the zombie’s entire list of friends. We cannot be too cautious. Humans are not the only threat to our dominance of the universe, and lest our pride bring us down we must be vigilant.