I feel very strongly that the Mozilla project is about more than simply
producing new versions of Firefox. Firefox is important, of course, and
our major focus right now. However, Firefox is also important to
achieving a boarder goal, and I believe it’s important for the project
to articulate that goal.

With the help of a number of Module Owners and other project leadership,
I have created a draft document called the Mozilla Manifesto. The
Manifesto sets out a vision of the Internet as a piece of infrastructure
that is open, accessible and enriches the lives of individual human
beings. It includes a pledge from the Mozilla Foundation about taking
action in support of the principles of the Mozilla Manifesto. It extends
an invitation to others to join us, either by working directly with the
Foundation or through other activities that support the Mozilla Manifesto.

My hope is that the Manifesto does the following:

1) articulates a vision for the Internet that Mozilla participants want
the Mozilla Foundation to pursue
2) speaks to people whether or not they have a technical background
3) makes Mozilla contributors proud of what we’re doing and motivates us
to continue
4) provides a framework for other people to advance this vision of the
Internet.

The Mozilla Manifesto has been reviewed and vetted by an initial group
of core contributors. I hope to get input from more Mozilla
contributors. I am posting the current draft of Mozilla Manifesto to
this newsgroup in a subsequent message for review and comment. If you
have the time and interest, I invite you to review this draft of the
Manifesto and provide input through this newsgroup. I know feedback is
needed for the type of questions below; and of course you might think of
other topics where you have feedback.

-- Does the Mozilla Manifesto meet the goals stated above?
-- Would you be comfortable with / proud of / distressed by the Mozilla
Manifesto as a formal statement bearing the Mozilla name?
-- Would you be pleased to see the Mozilla Foundation pledge to support
the principles of the Mozilla Manifesto?

Assuming the answers to these are positive, I’m also hoping for input on
the questions of:

-- Should there be a “call to action” for others? Right now the Mozilla
Foundation makes a pledge and invites others to participate. Should
there be more?
-- What sort of Call to Action would make sense?

Please let me know what you think.

Mitchell

Here’s the draft Mozilla Manifesto. Please see the goals and feedback
request in the previous message.

Mitchell

++

THE MOZILLA MANIFESTO

INTRODUCTION

The Internet is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives.

The Mozilla project is a global community of people who believe that
openness, innovation and opportunity are key to the continued health of
the Internet. We have worked together since 1998 to ensure that the
Internet is developed in a way that benefits everyone. We use an open,
community-based approach to create open source software and communities
of people involved in making the Internet experience better for all of us.

The Mozilla project is best known for creating the Mozilla Firefox web
browser. Our community is delivering world class results using our open
style and our vision of the Internet as a public resource.

As a result of these efforts, we have distilled a set of principles that
we believe are critical for the Internet to continue to benefit both the
public good and the commercial aspects of life. We set out these
principles in the Mozilla Internet Manifesto presented below.

These principles will not come to life on their own. People are needed
to make the Internet open and participatory -- people acting as
individuals, working together in groups, and leading others. The Mozilla
Foundation is committed to advancing the principles set out in the
Mozilla Manifesto. We invite others to join us and make the Internet an
ever better place for all of us.

PRINCIPLES

1. The Internet is an integral part of modern life -- a key component in
education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and
society as a whole.
2. The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and
accessible.
3. The Internet should enrich the lives of individual human beings.
4. Individuals’ security on the Internet is fundamental and cannot be
treated as optional.
5. Individuals must have the ability to shape their own experiences on
the Internet.
6. The effectiveness of the Internet as a public resource depends upon
technological interoperability, innovation and decentralized
participation worldwide.
7. Free and open source software promotes the development of the
Internet as a public resource.
8. Transparent community-based development processes promote
participation, accountability, and trust.
9. Commercial involvement in the development of the Internet brings many
benefits; a balance between commercial goals and public benefit is critical.
10. Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the Internet is an
important goal, worthy of time, attention and commitment.

ADVANCING THE MOZILLA MANIFESTO

There are many different ways of supporting the principles of the
Mozilla Manifesto. People and organizations can support the Manifesto
through activities that match their expertise and interests. For
individuals, one very effective way to support the Manifesto is to use
Mozilla Firefox and other open source products that embody the
principles of the Manifesto.

MOZILLA FOUNDATION PLEDGE

The Mozilla Foundation pledges to support the Mozilla Internet Manifesto
in its activities. Specifically, we will:

• build and enable open-source technologies and communities that support
the Manifesto’s principles
• build and deliver great consumer products that support the Manifesto’s
principles
• use the Mozilla assets (intellectual property, infrastructure, funds
and reputation) to keep the Internet an open platform
• promote models for creating economic value for the public benefit
• promote the Mozilla Manifesto principles in public discourse and
within the Internet industry

Some Foundation activities – in particular the creation, delivery and
adoption of consumer products -- are conducted primarily through the
Mozilla Foundation’s wholly owned subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.

INVITATION

The Mozilla Foundation invites all others who support the principles of
the Mozilla Internet Manifesto to join with us, and to find new ways to
make these principles a greater part of our lives.

(v0.8.2)

Hi,

I think you forgot to mention the link to the manifesto Mitchell ;-) ,

Regards

On 1/17/07, Cédric Corazza <cedric.cora...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/17/07, Mitchell Baker <mitch...@mozilla.com> wrote:

Mike

You should see the actual Manifesto draft in this thread now.  At least
i do :-)

mitchell

You should see the actual Manifesto draft in this thread now.  At least
i do :-)

mitchell

I'd suggest to emphasize Open Standards, not Open Source Software, as
those standards act much more as a key, than OSS. OSS is a great
thing, but I think its affection on the Internet is quite indirect.
Open Standards are much more crucial here.

My 2¢.

RQ

Mitchell Baker a écrit :

It's a detail, but maybe replacing "open-source" with "libre software"
or "free software" or "open source/free(or libre) software" will be more
accurate as you can open your source code but can prevent to modify it
for instance; that's not the case of the Mozilla project. (I'm also a
localizer of the gnu.org site ;) )
(same for 'open-source' in all the Manifesto).

Regards

Greetings All,

As people express opinions on the manifesto, I will be capturing each
different suggestion, comment and concern in the Mozilla bugzilla.

To review the list of open issues, visit
http://zak.greant.com/manifesto-feedback

--
Cheers!
Zak Greant
Mozilla Foundation Ombudslizard

Does the Mozilla Manifesto meet the goals stated above?

Yes, it's very easy to comprehend for persons of all
Internet experience levels, and it clearly demonstrates that the
Mozilla Foundation's principles are solid ones and they're
inviting to others who are not currently a contributor.

-- Would you be comfortable with / proud of / distressed by the Mozilla
Manifesto as a formal statement bearing the Mozilla name?

Proud of, It supports the same values that I believe in and it
introduces me
to new ones. Mozilla never puts its name on anything if it were not the

best of whatever it may be. It would look great in the media also. ;)

-- Would you be pleased to see the Mozilla Foundation pledge to support
the principles of the Mozilla Manifesto?

I think that Mozilla always has pledged to support the standards
outlined in the document.

Assuming the answers to these are positive, I'm also hoping for input
on
the questions of:

-- Should there be a "call to action" for others? Right now the
Mozilla
Foundation makes a pledge and invites others to participate. Should
there be more?

I'm not aware of how Mozilla invites others in so it's hard to
answer.

Will I be quizzed on this. :)
Ken

I think it meets the goals as it is now Mitchell. Especially in terms
of talking non-technical about the importance from a human perspective,
that the web as a public resource is maintained.

I think maybe a simple and easy call to action that could make sense
,would be to ask both individuals and corporate entities to demonstrate
their support of the Mozilla Manefesto by linking to it in order to
help raise awareness of its existence and in doing so, pledging their
alignment to its principles.

I have set up a page on the Mozilla wiki at
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mozilla-Manifesto to act as a clearing house
for these discussions.
--
Cheers!
Zak Greant
Mozilla Foundation Ombudslizard

I am not sure on the missing piece yet, and my feeling is that it has to
do with an individual's response in the system ( referred as content in
this note ). This note may be related to goal items 1,2,4 in [
introducing the Mozilla Manifesto ].

 From the principles scenario it's not clear how _content_ relates to
the software entity, the Internet medium, and/or the individual entity.
It's clear that the Internet and software as being open, but I would
also put a word on our support to the information/content part.

We probably don't want to be too strict in the text in favor to open
content because it would impact the balance between commercial and
public today. But I think it is possible to be stronger on our
endorsement to Open processes, and possibly processes to promote greater
interoperability with information in general.

For example item 6) states the technological interoperability. Maybe if
we could expand this item to be a bit more precise on the type of Open
aspect that can promote better interoperability for the Internet and its
individuals and systems.

/\/\

I am with Ken here. I share the opinions stated here and do feel that we
as human kind have a responsibility to the right thing for the planet.

In daily life, and as such, also in the creation of a new sphere (if you
like) of our extended planet. Information flow should be free, for all,
and bring us forward as such...

I am also with Ken that I do not like quizzes ;o)

One question here (other than adding my support to this):

- [IF/HOW] will the Manifesto be "signed" by individuals, companies
Mozilla collaborators as an outward statement?

Marco

Looks great overall.  Comments that follow mostly refer to the writing
rather than the content.  I blame my former adviser for this.

I got a bit lost on this paragraph.  What is its purpose in life?  "We
make fantastic software"?  How is that related to the Manifesto?  I was
also unsure whether "world class results" referred to Firefox
specifically or the broad range of things the project creates.  I
suspect the latter was intended, but would probably interpret it to mean
the former if I didn't know any better.

This needs something more...  The first 2 sentences seem sufficiently
vague as to be not helpful.  For instance, if I like carpentry and am
good at it, does that support the Mozilla Manifesto (it would match my
expertise and interest)?  Is the point that a whole array of activities
can (and do) advance the Manifesto's principles?  If so, then saying
that more directly along with a couple concrete examples would help out
a lot.

And then the paragraph gets real specific.  But how does using Mozilla
Firefox (and open source in general) support the Manifesto?  Firefox
specifically ties in strongly with #4 and #5 with a good dose of #7.
And how does just using open source software in general help?  This is a
tough one and the answer seems mostly outside the scope of this document
(marketshare, etc).

But who is this targeting?  If we're trying to get Joe User to advance
the Manifesto, I think we probably lost him at "Open Source".  You
mentioned that you hope the document speaks to people who don't have a
technical background.  But "Open Source" doesn't really mean much to
non-technical people and this document does not define it or state
how/why it's good.  Without that, a non-technical reader would come away
knowing that we /have/ a Manifesto and that we think what we're doing
benefits everyone else.  But I don't see them motivated to advance the
Manifesto.

So... if the paragraph doesn't have to try to motivate non-technical
people, the paragraph can touch on activities people can do that would
have greater impact than just using Firefox (contributing, evangelism,
collaboration, extensions).

--
Andrew Schultz
ajsch...@verizon.net
http://www.sens.buffalo.edu/~ajs42/

A fine beginning. There is a part that, to me, is glaringly missing. It
goes something like this:

We will at all times respond to the general users' needs and wants. The
web is the domain of the general user who greatly outnumbers Mozilla
Fooundation/Corporation members and those contributing to the effort. We
will remember at all times that it is the user who determines the
success and popularity of a product. We will not simply act in our
self-serving needs, but will listen, through surveys, bugzilla, etc., in
order to determine those needs and wants. If those needs and wants
should conflict with self-serving interests, the general users' needs
and wants will take precedence.

--
Gus

I suggest providing links or end notes to clarify unfamiliar or
complex terms. Using the simple wikipedia (1) or creating a Mozilla
definition for the technical term. While the goal is to have a
document that is readable by non-technical people some words
unavoidable such as open source.

(1) http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Kevin Brosnan

Open standards have come up a couple of times. I didn't specify them
directly, figuring they are a part of "technical interoperability" in
principle 6.

As part of this discussion we can figure out how much specificity to add
to the principles, or whether we should have a set of annotations (as we
did with the early Mozilla Public License, and as the FSF is doing with
GPL comments) that state more fully what we think the principles require
at this moment in time, or whether there is some other mechanism that
would be helpful.

Or maybe principle 7 should say open standards specifically . ...
mulling this over.

mitchell

Open standards have come up a couple of times. I didn't specify them
directly, figuring they are a part of "technical interoperability" in
principle 6.

As part of this discussion we can figure out how much specificity to add
to the principles, or whether we should have a set of annotations (as we
did with the early Mozilla Public License, and as the FSF is doing with
GPL comments) that state more fully what we think the principles require
at this moment in time, or whether there is some other mechanism that
would be helpful.

Or maybe principle 7 should say open standards specifically . ...
mulling this over.

mitchell

(quotes reordered, so that clearest changes are first, viewpoints last)

Suggestion: insert "standards, choice" after "openness".

... "and avoid services that lock into the use of a certain software"

This is an internal organizational structure, I think originally due to
US tax laws, I would not put that into the manifesto. I don't see an
inherent reason to put consumer products in Mozilla Corporation. What
happens when some Mozilla project members want to create an end-user
product? Would that be part of Mozilla Corporation's scope? Could it be
sponsored by Mozilla Foundation?

Standards:

There is something that I would like to see added in the manifesto: That
we stop using services ad-hoc, creating clients for what's there, but
instead actively move to a world that TBL drew, where services have
well-defined protocols, industry-wide, and they can be mixed and
combined, instead of the website/webapp world we have now. We write
clients for these standard protocols. We avoid using proprietary
protocols (e.g. to eBay, Flicker or Google Maps), even if they are open,
but invent open, *standard* protocols or URL schemes and try to push
vendors and services to use these, or if not possible, create workarounds.

The broader idea here, which I would also like to see expressed
explicitly, is that the goal of the Mozilla project is to create
software which is the best for its purpose, but not the *only* one. For
example, I like the fact that there's Opera and Konqueror/Safari, it
gives users more choice and stops us from going astray too far.
Similarly, there should be a generic photo upload/download protocol, so
that e.g. my GTK/KDE digicam management software can use it as well, or
the photo feature of my TomTom navigation device can download them. If
there's no such protocol, we need to push for it, actively go to
services providers and pursue them with our weight. If found impossible
for some companies, we should create converters to the standard
protocol, e.g. in XSLT.

I think that completely fits with "openness, choice and innovation", in
fact that's the goal. It's just making explicit that it also means us
actively allowing and helping competition to ourselves (as long as that
competition is also in line with the manifesto).

Concretely, I'd suggest as wording:

"Promoting openness and innovation also means that we welcome
competition to our own software by others, and we will actively work
towards making that possible and feasible, as long as the competition is
in line with the manifesto, e.g. by using standards, creating them in an
open way where they don't exist, and promoting them towards service
providers. This allows a wide diversity of interoperable clients and
services to bloom, fitting very different needs and circumstances, not
all of which can be covered by the Mozilla project."

I already see the Mozilla project doing that, in some way, e.g.
npruntime, WHAT WG etc..

("intellectual property" = copyright, patent, trademark, and similar law)

Please avoid the term "intellectual property". The term and the whole
concept was invented and is promoted by those people who want to achieve
the exact opposite of the manifesto goals. The idea of "property" is
"it's mine, and you may only use it when I decree to allow it". That
doesn't really fit with ideas/"intellectual". Science wouldn't have
gotten where we are by keeping things to ourselves. Thus, the whole
notion is a red flag for me. I hear the term mainly from those who
charge universities 100 Eur per science magazine issue, put DRM on it,
and disallow libraries to provide remote access to it. Or those who use
it to prevent others to use certain protocols or devices.

I personally don't completely agree, but the base idea of RMS was to
completely get rid of copyright, and the GPL was specifically crafted to
prevent copyright, by copyright. Thus, I can imagine that the term would
upset the Free Software / FSF crowd.

BTW: Mozilla Foundation does not hold the copyright of the Mozilla
source anyways.

I *do* like that you specifically mention in brackets which assets you
want to use, particularly including reputation. This implies that
Mozilla Foundation raises its voice when there are external threats to
the manifesto, e.g. the W3C/IETF RAND patent question.

I think that "integral" promotes too much of a lifestyle.

The Internet being an integral part of one's life has a serious
downside: the increased dependency on others and esp.
services/companies/technologies. You start to notice this when for
example the government starts monitoring all Internet activity and you
have no way to escape it anymore.
In other words, reliance on the Internet reduces individual independence.

I do want and need to have tools which *allow* me to use the Internet.
In a way that is as independent as possible (as you specify later on).
But I do not want the Internet as part of my life being *promoted*. In
other words, I'd like the reliance on Internet services and the network
communication to be *minimized*, not extended. This is something
embedded - often unsaid - on all levels, from principles like
decentralism to Internet protocols up to user interface.

For example, I don't want to go to Flicker to see my own photos (or
those which my mother sent me via mail). And if I do decide to publish
my photos to the world, I want to use an open standard protocol that
works with any such service, not to have to use a certain client (even
if it's an open-source Firefox extension).

--
When responding via mail, please remove the ".news" from the email address.

Hi Cedric

Thanks for the suggestion.

Principle 7 includes both open source and free software, to be sure to
be inclusive.  I think this is the only reference to differences in
licensing.  I added it here because the principles are the key element.

In general,  I'm extremely reluctant to add the complexities of
licensing (preventing private forks through GPL or allowing through
Apache, or MPL middle ground) to creep into this document.  For
principle 7, is there a general preference to use "libre" instead of
"free" for the english version of the document?

mitchell

No quizzes!
And many thanks for the precise feedback.

mitchell

Ian Hayward - Glaxstar wrote:
Ian

The linking idea is very interesting; I like it a lot.
Anyone else have the same reaction?

mitchell

Thanks Zak, this is great

ml

Reference: Tim Berners-Lee, Semantic Web
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web
I mean the idea, not RDF, I'd rather use XML, but only with standard
DTDs/schemas, for now.

It just came to me: It's also helping us, we're also stealing ideas from
them. E.g. the tabs, which are now a major reason for users to switch to
Firefox, were invented by NeoPlanet (90's, based on MSIE engine), then
went on to Opera -> MultiZilla -> Firefox -> MSIE7. Innovation
pacman-ing its way :)