Can we make better use of MOSS?

[Akshay S Dinesh]

Dear MOSS mentors/selection committee/governance,

This is a two part email. The first part is about transparency and very important. The second part is my idea on how to make better use of MOSS and may be skipped.

PART 1 - transparency in MOSS

I believe the MOSS GMP India track winners have been selected already because the applications were in 2017.

I have checked the following links for the result

https://wiki.mozilla.org/MOSS/GMP_India

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/01/03/moss-2018-year-in-review/

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/moss/mission-partners-india/

It is nowhere on the google indexed internet.

There is a partial list of MOSS recipients being maintained at https://wiki.mozilla.org/MOSS#Recipients

Now, I understand that gerv was maintaining these wiki pages and therefore his passing away is one of the reasons why these pages aren't getting updated with newer recipients. But, Mozilla is giving away so much money under MOSS grants, and transparency should automatically come with that.

I believe we should maintain a complete list of all MOSS winners with at least the date of winning and the money won. More details on the MOSS contract are desirable, if that does not cause any unintended side effects.

This is not just for transparency, it helps in improving the projects' visibility and gives the projects much valuable external validation.

Part 2 - giving better recognition for MOSS projects (optional)

Money alone does not help free software projects. These projects are developed by lonely developers working in isolation. What really helps to propel development is other developers working with them. Now, I'm not asking Mozilla to assign Mozilla engineers to work on MOSS projects.

But let us not forget that a large, extremely large number of young programmers are attracted to Mozilla every day. The contribution opportunities for them is currently restricted to Mozilla's projects listed on https://codetribute.mozilla.org/ or https://whatcanidoformozilla.org

But if, like our plan with MOSS, these projects advance Mozilla's mission then they should also get bigger prominence in our contribution opportunities. We should consider anyone who contributes to any of the MOSS projects as "Mozillian". This allows a large number of mentors (through MOSS projects) to enter Mozilla community and also gives young programmers a wide variety of projects to work on.

CC'ing Lucy Harris of community development team to consider this idea.

Akshay

[Akshay S Dinesh]

Can anyone tell me who is in charge of MOSS now?

[Jochai Ben-Avie]

Hi Akshay,

My name’s Jochai Ben-Avie and I’m the MOSS Administrator. Thanks for your email and your suggestions for improving the MOSS program.

We completely agree with you that all MOSS projects should be publicly listed. As a result of Gerv’s stepping away from MOSS before his passing last year, the program has been transitioned to a larger team and much of the day-to-day management of the program now happens on the Mozilla Foundation side of the house. Our ability to list MOSS projects was temporarily held up by work on the new Foundation website, but rest assured, we will be listing all of the MOSS projects -- and highlighting many of them in a far more prominent manner on our site -- very soon.

With regard to providing pathways for Mozilla community members to contribute to MOSS, our view is that MOSS projects should have built and be on track to grow a healthy community of developers that draws from beyond the Mozilla community. One of the things the committee looks for is a clear articulation of the project’s strategy to grow its community. In the future, we plan to provide projects with additional guidance and resources to help them do this as well. Of course, if you or someone in the community feels inclined to contribute to a MOSS awardee’s project, by all means, please feel free to work with them to do so.

Thanks again for your suggestions and interest in the MOSS program.

Cheers,

Jochai

--

Jochai Ben-Avie

MOSS Administrator

Mozilla Corporation

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[Akshay S Dinesh]

Thank you Jochai for the response.

I believe the same foundation website work is continuing to hold up the list from getting published.

Could we at least have the wiki updated: https://wiki.mozilla.org/MOSS

I believe the wiki is exactly meant for these purposes (like large tabular data with frequent edits that may be maintained partly by the community)

Akshay

[Sumana Harihareswara]

I updated the list of recipients based on
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/01/03/moss-2018-year-in-review/ with
the project names from the 2018 year in review. Looking forward to
reading the full list of 2018 recipients and hearing about 2019 recipients!

--
Sumana Harihareswara
Changeset Consulting
https://changeset.nyc

>>> *PART 1 - transparency in MOSS*

>>>
>>> I believe the MOSS GMP India track winners have been selected already
>>> because the applications were in 2017.
>>>
>>> I have checked the following links for the result
>>> https://wiki.mozilla.org/MOSS/GMP_India
>>> https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/01/03/moss-2018-year-in-review/
>>> https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/moss/mission-partners-india/
>>>
>>> It is nowhere on the google indexed internet.
>>>
>>> There is a partial list of MOSS recipients being maintained at
>>> https://wiki.mozilla.org/MOSS#Recipients
>>>
>>> Now, I understand that gerv was maintaining these wiki pages and
>>> therefore his passing away is one of the reasons why these pages aren't
>>> getting updated with newer recipients. But, Mozilla is giving away so much
>>> money under MOSS grants, and transparency should automatically come with
>>> that.
>>>
>>> I believe we should maintain a complete list of all MOSS winners with at
>>> least the date of winning and the money won. More details on the MOSS
>>> contract are desirable, if that does not cause any unintended side effects.
>>>
>>> This is not just for transparency, it helps in improving the projects'
>>> visibility and gives the projects much valuable external validation.
>>>

>>> *Part 2 - giving better recognition for MOSS projects (optional)*