Mozilla Service Week
Mary Colvig
* Use the Web
* Have better access to the Web
* and, have a better Web experience overall
This will include a whole host of activities, such as helping a school set up a wireless network, refurbishing and donating hardware to a community center, creating documentation and tutorials on how to get started on the Web, helping a non-profit refresh its website and more. The possibilities are endless for people of all skill levels to jump in and make a difference.
We’ll be posting more details on how the week will work and how you can all pitch in. In the near term we could use some help on localizing the program name. We’re looking to roll this out in as many languages as possible, including German, Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish. “Service” can have very different connotations when translated directly and might not come close to meaning “volunteerism.” So here’s how you can pitch in:
* Work with your fellow local community members to come to a consensus on an appropriate translation for “Mozilla Service Week” (i.e. discuss in your IRC channel, this list or other forum)
* Comment with a recommendation on my blog (http://chickswhoclick.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/mozilla-service-week-be-the-difference/)
* Provide a translation for our preliminary start page snippet if you’re on a roll: “Be the Difference! Better your community during Mozilla Service Week, June 22-29. Find out more.”
* Let me know if you want to help translate or get the word out!
More details to come, but we’re all really excited to see what sort of impact we can make. As Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” This certainly rings true of the Mozilla community and we’re not so small anymore!
chris hofmann
Mary Colvig wrote:
> Hi all: As discussed on a recent marketing call, we're planning a campaign called Mozilla Service Week (formerly "Community Take Action Week") -- we’re looking to see how we can harness the amazing energy and skills of our community to help organizations and individuals in need. The week will take place from June 22-29, 2009 and invites you to use your skills to help people:
>
> * Use the Web
> * Have better access to the Web
> * and, have a better Web experience overall
>
> This will include a whole host of activities, such as helping a school set up a wireless network, refurbishing and donating hardware to a community center,
> creating documentation and tutorials on how to get started on the Web, helping a non-profit refresh its website and more.
On this one we could direct people to the work that is being done by the
FLOSS Manuals Project. http://en.flossmanuals.net/
Some Background
------------------------
A community of volunteer designers, editors, writers and interested
contributors have created a book about Firefox that could be used as
tutorial and training guide. With David Tenser's and the SUMO community
work the group has also been able to leverage and repurpose SUMO content
into more narative and book form and update the content to synch it up
with Firefox 3.0
You can see the current state of this project at
http://en.flossmanuals.net/firefox
There are a few branding, licensing, attribution, and editorial things
to finish cleaning up but then it will be ready to invite wider
participation. The goal of all that is to have a base of content where
the branding is correct and the content can be freely remixed to help
support a clarities of trainning and education goals.
The big advantage in this system is that the content updating and
publishing can happen within hours and days, instead of weeks and months
making it much easier for on-line and printed books to stay in sync with
the most recent release of the software.
Its also easy to get involved and contribute using the FLOSS Manuals
System. If you create an account on the site you can start contribute
to the project just like contributing to a wiki.
Next Steps and Use of the Content at the FLOSS Manual Firefox Project
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The FLOSS Manual system allows individuals or groups to freely print
copies of the content formated in book form. You can also buy bound
paperback books off lulu.com
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/firefox/6480979 with the
proceeds going back into improvements in the system and as a way to
sponsor efforts to improve and expand the books produced by the
project. So anyone anywhere could just print off manuals to hand out at
training workshops.
Work is also off the ground to support localization of all the book
content. There are examples here http://nl.flossmanuals.net/firefox
and here http://fa.flossmanuals.net/firefox The FLOSS Manual group will
be ramping up to support more languages soon. We could organize
translation sprints of the current content during Service Week.
As we get closer to the release of Firefox 3.5 the content will also
need updating to synch up with that release.
It may be too much to try and focus and direct all, or most of, "the
documentation and tutorial" parts for Service Week into this project but
we ought to consider it.
-chofmann