Update: Copyright Campaign

[Andrea Wood]

*This message is for L10N volunteers who have been working on the Mozilla
Advocacy Copyright campaign. This email may also be useful to anyone who
may want to learn more about the work of the Mozilla Advocacy team.*

Hello,

I wanted to share some breaking news on EU copyright and provide some
answers to some questions I've received about process. After you read this
email, I have set up an open Google Document here where I want to invite
you to ask questions directly to me, Andrea Wood
<https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/andrea/>, and the Advocacy team.

*First -- I want you all to know that our small team is very thankful to
have your help. *Our processes are not perfect and our deadlines tend to be
much more urgent than most other projects at Mozilla, and I know that has
created difficulty and frustration. But please know that without you, this
campaign would not be successful and we are so grateful for your help and
your patience.

The urgency to launch on August 24th was strategic. As a result, Mozilla's
petition was live at an incredibly important breaking news moment in the EU
-- a draft of the copyright reforms was leaked on Friday 8/26
<http://www.cbronline.com/news/verticals/tmt/european-commission-plans-new-copyright-laws-for-search-engines-4989817>.
When we are able to have a Mozilla action like this out in the public
during these moments -- it accomplishes some critical things:

- *We can take advantage of earned media* that we couldn't normally get
without some significant breaking news. Our issues aren't generally "top of
mind" on an average day, but breaking news can be a critical leverage point
for us
- There's a *call-to-action for people who feel compelled by the news
stories to take a stand in this moment. *These are among the highest
quality Mozilla supporters.
- Mozilla looks (and is) incredibly smart and strategic here. We are
demonstrating that Mozilla is a thought-leader (which we are). This
has a *net
positive impact on our brand*, *even if the petition experience itself
has some imperfections for end-users*.

*The partnership between policy + advocacy + marketing + L10N + many other
individuals last few weeks was hard and stressfull at times -- but all that
work absolutely paid off big time.* As of today, we are up to 30 US and EU
news stories about our campaign, nearly all positive and none negative.
Many link directly to our petition.

I want to share this news, because it points to why Advocacy localization
projects are very different than Firefox, Firefox OS, other product
releases, or marketing campaigns. *Our goal for this Copyright campaign and
future campaigns is to have real impact on laws and policies around the
world that Mozilla (and people like you who support us) care about.*

Advocacy campaigns are different than most that Mozilla has taken on
before, because:

- *Our work is tied to legislative calendars and news cycles; timelines
are often out of our control.* We can't always know when legislation or
policy is going to be introduced, get a vote, or move forward in a
legislation body like EU Parliament. Our policy team has their sources and
keep track as much as possible, but often it's very unpredictable.
Sometimes we have to move, fast.
- *Most people don't care that much about our issues (yet).* Most people
outside Mozilla are not as interested in these issues as we are. One of the
most difficult things we have to do is get people to "care" about things
like encryption and copyright. When a big news story breaks -- like the
Apple/FBI case or the EU reforms leak this past Friday -- we have to be
ready, and we have to move fast to take advantage of the news cycle.
- *Our localization choices are about impact, not product. *Unlike with
a product like Firefox, we don't always need or want our campaigns in as
many locales as possible. In the case of EU Copyright there are target
locales because* elected leaders in the locales we've chosen are more
important to influence because they have a greater role in the outcome we
want for copyright reforms*. Some leaders are already fully supporting
Mozilla's positions, we don't need to target them with a petition as much
as other MEPs who are on the fence.
- *Our team is very small.* With a team of just 11 people, our small
Advocacy team can't service nearly as many languages as a large marketing
or product team like Firefox has. The Firefox marketing team has over 75
people. We have 2 full time marketing people on Advocacy.
- *Timing is often more important than perfection. *We don't need every
detail to be correct or perfect on an advocacy campaign website or petition
in order to have important impact. We can launch and then fix things after
the fact. Sometimes, as in the case of the Copyright petition, it is hugely
important to go live and in market with a "minimum viable product" than to
wait until everything is perfect. This is why we were not as worried about
some details on the petition (such as country lists not being localized).
We have a detailed list of things to fix, but we have to balance the big
opportunity against the small details. Updates and edits can be ongoing.

Please know that we do want to improve processes and give as much notice as
possible before sending localization requests to volunteers. We will always
listen to community requests and feedback -- and you can help to improve
our processes, but we do often need to move much faster with less notice
than most other teams. I hope this email helps explain why.

If you have questions about Advocacy, again, I want to invite you to list
your questions in this document
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wb3jEUXvH80O76x4-WQvjJOsszBNndsEE0SNeX2OfxI/edit#>
and I will work to provide answers as soon as possible. *We really care
about and value our relationships with the L10N community.* Our ability to
have real impact on the issues Mozilla cares about around the world relies
on your support and efforts.

Thank you so much for all that you do for Mozilla -- L10N is a wonderful
example of how community makes our work even stronger, and Mozilla's impact
in the world real.

Thank you

Andrea

Andrea Wood, Director, Online + Fundraising, Advocacy

P.S. If you want to learn more about the Mozilla Foundation's new 2016 -
2018 strategy, including Advocacy, please read our strategic plan here
<https://drive.google.com/a/mozillafoundation.org/file/d/0B87EwT3UvJkMU3RrUFFxc1VrYk0/view>
.


---
Andrea Wood
Director, Digital Organizing + Fundraising
Mozilla

[v] +1 510-922-0181
@valiant