about:mozilla - Half a billion served, T-shirt design contest, award news, and more
In this issue…
- 500,000,000 served, help us celebrate at FreeRice.com
- Firefox 3 t-shirt design contest
- New add-ons site preview
- Mozilla Messaging: how to get involved
- Window Snyder one of the most influential in security today
- Chris Beard is in Tokyo
- Firefox is a Webware 100 finalist
- EFF Pioneer awards
- Developer calendar
- Subscribe to the email newsletter
500,000,000 served, help us celebrate at FreeRice.com
Firefox just reached 500,000,000 downloads, an absolutely phenomenal milestone for Firefox. It is sort of hard to imagine what that number means. For some perspective, half a billion is roughly the audience size of 10,000 Roman Colosseums combined. It would be the weight, in kilograms, of 8,500 Boeing 747 airplanes. In dollars, for $500 million you and 15 of your friends can fly to the International Space Station. Alternately, you can effect change and invite those 15 friends to play a game and feed 25,000 people. With your help we can break another milestone with FreeRice.com by working together to donate 500,000,000 grains of rice to people in need. Help us celebrate by helping feed the hungry while picking up some new vocabulary, too!
Firefox 3 t-shirt design contest
Mozilla has launched the Firefox 3 T-shirt Contest! Our challenge to the Mozilla community (and beyond) is to create the coolest, most interesting Firefox 3-inspired t-shirt design. The winner will be determined by a public vote, and will have his/her work sold in the Mozilla Store as our official Firefox 3 t-shirt, the proceeds of which will go to benefit the Mozilla Foundation. Design submissions are due on March 16th, so get those creative juices flowing and send in your best stuff! For more details and information, see the contest page at Spread Firefox.
New add-ons site preview
The Mozilla Add-ons site (addons.mozilla.org, or “AMO”) is being given a new look and the team needs your help to polish it off in time for the Firefox 3 launch. To check out the site go to preview.addons.mozilla.org, and play with the site for a while. To give feedback, you can just tell the AMO team what you think or file a bug for more serious problems. You can also join the #amo channel on irc.mozilla.org, and keep an eye on progress by following along at the Webdev weblog. For more information, including details about what’s new and different, check out the Webdev blog post.
Mozilla Messaging: how to get involved
Mozilla Messaging launched last week and they’re looking for help. There are lots of ways to get involved with the Mozilla Messaging project, by spreading the word, helping with development, working on testing, or lending your time to translation work. More information about getting involved is available on the Mozilla Messaging website, so if you love Thunderbird and would like to help make email great, check out the site and get involved today.
Window Snyder one of the most influential in security today
Window Snyder, Mozilla’s “Chief security something or other”, has been named as one of the 15 most influential people in security today by eWeek.com. “A former Microsoft security strategist, Window Snyder borrowed a page from Redmond’s playbook and introduced a comprehensive-threat modeling and penetration testing routine to Mozilla. Snyder’s behind-the-scenes security efforts — which include outside hacker teams conducting simulated attacks on Firefox 3 — are sure to pay off for the open-source alternative Web browser.” For more information, and to see who else made the list, check out the eWeek article.
Chris Beard is in Tokyo
Gen Kenai blogs that Chris Beard, VP of Mozilla Labs, will be in Tokyo this week for two speaking engagements. On Feb. 28th, Chris will be keynoting at ZDNet Japan’s “builder techday: open apis and beyond“, where he’ll be speaking about the “open web” from Mozilla’s perspective. On Feb. 29th, Chris will be keynoting at the Open Source Conference (Tokyo) - Spring 2008 event. He will be providing an overview of recent activities at Mozilla including information on exciting new Mozilla Labs development projects. He’ll also talk about his vision for the future of the Web and the role of open source in improving our online lives. For more information about these events, please see Gen’s blog post.
Firefox is a Webware 100 finalist
Firefox has been named a finalist in the “Browser” category of the “Webware 100″ awards. Voting for the awards is done by the public, which started yesterday. Winners will be announced on April 21st, the day before the Web 2.0 Expo opens in San Francisco. For more information, and to cast your ballot, see the Web 2.0, Webware 100 awards website.
EFF Pioneer awards
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently announced the 2008 winners for the “EFF Pioneer Awards”, and Mitchell Baker and the Mozilla Foundation was named a winner. “Mitchell Baker is the Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting openness, innovation, and opportunity on the Internet through its sponsorship of the open-source Mozilla project. The Mozilla Foundation provides grants, legal services, and other support for development projects involving the Firefox browser, the Thunderbird email application, and other Mozilla software.” For more information about the awards, including this year’s other winners, see the EFF Pioneer Awards site and blog post.
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