Better Together:Lessons in Open Source Community from Mozilla

Paul KimAutomattic

WordCamp New YorkNovember 14, 2009

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Over 300 million people use Firefox as their browser

Firefox market share as of 04/2009

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Mozilla’s Mission:

To promote choice and

innovation on the Internet

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Mozilla

a global, open source project

a mission-oriented organization

a public benefit company and subsidiaries

250 employees

40% of code comes from non-employees

20,000+ testing volunteers

over 300 million users

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2004

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New York Times Campaign10,000 donors, $250,000 raised

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Push (most) decision-making to the edges

Insight #1

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1. high agreement on core values2. decision-making rests with module owners3. groups will develop distinct ways of working4. many decision-makers outside the “official” org5. communication is central

Open source principles

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Anyone can comment on a proposal for a change

Chaos

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Anyone can submit a change to the code

Chaos

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OrderNot everyone can approve a change

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OrderStrong leadership structure

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OrderStrong leadership structure

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Identify and elevate smart contributors

Order

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Create small teams, led by strongcontributors, and give them responsibility

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Chaordic systemThe strongest open systems are chaords

1. distributed decision-making2. nodal authority3. ways to route around

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Communication will happen in every way possible(so make sure it’s reusable)

Insight #2

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Wikis

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Blogs

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Primary work channels: Bugzilla, IRC & newsgroups

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Increasing use of video and audio

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Lots of real life meetups

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Surprise is overrated

Insight #3

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Surprise is the opposite of engagement

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Increase the inner circle of participation ...26

... and strive to make everyone feel included

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Make it easy for your community to do the important things

Insight #4

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Not just for programmers - everyone can help!

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Increasingly, the focus is on making it easier for anyone to participate

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2009

“It’s too late to be a pessimist.” - Yann Arthus Bertrand

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Thanks

paul@automattic.comblog.numenity.org@pkim

All content CC-Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike

Ideas and materials borrowed with gratitude from:John Lilly, Mike Beltzner and the Mozilla community

Image credits:“Internet map” http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/Internet_map_1024.jpgAll other images from the Mozilla community

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