The Mozilla Manifesto contains the ten principles that guide Mozilla's mission:
“Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent.”
I spent my third week with Mozilla in Austin for the All-Hands meeting. There, Mitchell Baker mentioned she was working on what she called 'an addendum' to the Manifesto. Today we see the results of that Addendum, in anticipation of Mozilla's 20th birthday. Four new topics have been added to the Manifesto:
- We are committed to an internet that includes all the peoples of the earth — where a person’s demographic characteristics do not determine their online access, opportunities, or quality of experience.
- We are committed to an internet that promotes civil discourse, human dignity, and individual expression.
- We are committed to an internet that elevates critical thinking, reasoned argument, shared knowledge, and verifiable facts.
- We are committed to an internet that catalyzes collaboration among diverse communities working together for the common good.
As the blog post puts it, "We do this to explicitly address the quality of people’s experiences online". When I first heard talk of these four points at the All Hands, I knew I had found somewhere special to work. I'd also encourage you to read Mitchell Baker's Op-Ed from this morning, as it contains some of the background thinking. I quote it below:
“All this is ambitious, given the current state of the internet. These ideas won’t come to life on their own. As in any human institution, real transformation will come from a huge diversity of sources. ”
When I was job hunting, I was first and foremost looking for a job with interesting projects, and a business I could live with. Instead, what I have found is an organization suffused with values I appreciate, that are core to the organization. I still kick myself at my fortune on a regular basis.
Recently I spent four days in Mountain View, digging into the culture of Mozilla, its history, it's mission, purpose and future. I won't get too deep into the program, other than to say it was excellent. Time and time again, we returned to the manifesto and the mission. The manifesto suffuses through the work of Mozilla. Today, with the addendum, I'm particularly happy to say I'm a Mozillian.