Obviously the community hasn’t been part of this decision. I am sure you are aware of that. Mozilla prides itself of being inclusive and decentralized, yet the Firefox OS decision has been taken as if we would be a company, not a non profit. Sometimes you cannot cater to both users and contributors, and this has happened several times in the past. Are you aware that Mozilla is losing a great amount of volunteer manpower by working in closed environments like this? We obviously have stepped on our own toes.
Let me try to clarify. So we sunset the smartphone program. No more smartphone and smartphone OS from Mozilla.
B2G is an open source project that we aim at using in Smart TV and most probably in new exploration initiatives – at least parts of it.
Firefox OS brand will be used in the context of TVs. Where else – don’t know yet.
We would love to transition as many of the current Foxfooders as possible to the new connected device initiatives as they become available for testing. The initial phase will likely be surveys and questionnaires, which will help us make some decisions on the potential interest in these ideas. Eventually, we’d like to see our Foxfooders testing on devices once again. Raspberry Pi seems to be one place we could start. Stay tuned!
But Ari is new, we shouldn’t challenge him on issues of culture. If he thinks that’s how we do things it’s because he’s been told that, not because he had any hand in creating that policy.
The main issues here are about: communication and the future.
As soon as the Mozlando announcement was made, the writing was on the wall, developers started looking for alternatives. People don’t need to be spelled out directly, uncertainty created apprehension and that killed all the zeal and ethos at continuing.
Firefox OS is eating into valuable resources and that has come to threaten the entire organization. Everyone here wants what’s best for Mozilla. People are only concerned with the perception that decisions are made in secret and without consulting the community. Mozilla is three things: a foundation, a corporation and a community!
If Firefox OS is killed, it should be given a chance to continue as a community project. For that, there has to be a consultation project that details: how to make contributions easier, how to transfer knowledge from people who will leave the project, how to maintain a build, CI and other secondary infrastructure (which may not cost much).
Well, when I joined Mozilla for the first time I created an impression of the community around me. If that was correct, or if it changed after time is subjective and not up for a debate. I’m asking to understand an additional perspective.
What about development?, What hardware is recommended ?, I have understood that the concept of Open Web Apps will no longer exist, what comes next and how I can develop for IoT?
Community is an integral part of Mozilla. This is a unique differentiation, as I already said, compared to many other companies and projects. Community is the way we work, we influence, and we are relevant.
However, transparency and decision making are different things
Hello, I am from Bangladesh a developing country. I see CD as an opportunity for us to be used as tool for Development in Agriculture, Education, Public Services and many more. In our country the number of mobile subscribers is now 121+ millions. We see this a saturation point. Connected Devices could be a start from scratch in our country; there’s almost no activity in here, except handful of students and hobbyist. Engaging / exploring within that demography would yield slow and micro results. I believe CD would be a success for us if we can have a controlled boost in some region. So, my question to the SVP, “is there any possibility or plan to partner or work with the Government agencies in a large scale with Connected Devices.”
I see Raspberry Pi an interesting HW platform going forward. I would tinker with it now, get a few sensors, learn IoT protocols, technologies, and in a few weeks I hope I can be moe concrete. We are making directions more clear and technologies more concrete very soon … I also want to hear from you!
We are continuing to push web to be strong in mobile with progressive Web Apps. Strong effort with Google and Opera. Making web strong on TV is important including a strong content portfolio. These are in works at the moment.
If volunteers are just coworkers without salary, not involved in decisions. I think we need to found something new. A community of mozillians an CoMo instead of MoCo to get the balance right.
Connected Devices is not a brand we can identify ourselves externally well. How will we identify ourselves with external mediums avoiding the Firefox OS brand? Mozilla Connected Devices? Do you think we can get our point across from a Marketing perspective?
To my knowledge, the word “Mozilla” means The Mozilla Project and The Mozilla Community, linked by The Mozilla Mission – at large.
No question here, but I hope “business decision” won’t become a stamp that we put on every decision that we fail to include the community in, in the future.
This is interesting. I’d like to know more – i have more questions than answers here Most of our new ideas seem to come from connected home, entertainment and such. So to your question – if the right opportunity comes, yes.
I am currently with Arduino, but the closest thing to develop Javascript is Johnny Five, it would be interesting to use some of the WebAPIs already developed rather than relying on third-party tools.
There is huge disappointment in Mozilla leadership going on within the community right now. Do you think the leadership team can have open office hours to facilitate answers to questions without the community raising its voice via blog posts or mobilizing itself to do so? This would solve transparency issues in many cases.
