Why we do what we do
On what motivates and drives me to contribute to Mozilla
During the Community managers open house, I met a friend who attended the event to understand volunteer motivations and recognition. He was volunteering as an evangelist at a popular mobile app company. He asked me about Mozilla and the work I do. He wanted to know what drives me.
This wasn’t an easy question to answer. This required a lot of thinking. It gave me time to reflect and put down my thoughts on why I volunteer with Mozilla.
I have been a Mozilla Learning contributor for more than 5 years now. We had our first ever ‘Introduction to Mozilla’ event at a friend’s house.
This, I suppose, was me explaining about the Webmaker tools and our plan for the forthcoming events.
This was me recruiting my team of Avengers.
So, coming back to why I still contribute. I’m going to list out some of them off the top of my head-
The mission
The Mozilla mission and the potential of an Open Web really excites me. The internet has evolved over the years and with more and more organizations and individuals realizing it’s power and potential, we need more organizations that safeguard the interests of netizens.
Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent.
You should also read about the Mozilla manifesto-
The Mozilla mission is what inspired me to start KidZilla. I’ve been hearing inspirational stories at our community calls from all over the world. Community leaders teaching the web at after school programs to creating curriculum to protect and safeguard people against cyber bullying to teaching the web in prisons.
Friendship & Network
I’ve made some great friends and built some greater relationships with existing friends because of Mozilla. We have so much to talk about since we’re involved with Mozilla. The community, events, developers, products, swags and so much more!
My network grew(is still growing) exponentially after getting involved with Mozilla. On an average, I get atleast 1 message or email from someone who came across my profile on the Mozilla contribute page.
I met some great people and they’re all great friends now. What’s the biggest perk of having such friends?
You have someone who’ll offer you a place to crash or company to hangout with, all around the world🌏.
And of course, with some of them, you don’t need to ask- just tell..or show up at their 🏠.
Fun
This is clearly an un-ordered list because if that wasn’t the case, this should’ve been on the top of my list. I participate in this community because it’s FUN!
We’ve had community members participate in calls even during a party!🎉
The excitement was viral and to be honest, it made me really happy on a Thursday night after a busy day at work. It’s amazing that we manage to have so much fun during online events too.
I don’t think I need to mention the amount of fun we have at offline events. Be it speaking at events, setting up a booth, putting together a hackathon or participating in a session- all of them are equally fun.
Of course, this isn’t the case when you’re on the organizing end of the event. You’ve got to make sure the attendees are happy, the speakers are happy and everyone is happy while juggling with the entire event itself. Makerparty Chennai was one such crazy 🤹🏼♂️ act where we had 700+ attendees, lots of partner organizations & food vendors to deal with.
Improving my skills
I still remember the first time I went on stage in my school. I was reading the news during the morning assembly. I found it really hard to take the 5 steps forward to reach the mic 🎤.
Now you’d think- it’s news reading, he’s reading it off a paper, what could go wrong?
Well, you don’t underestimate me 😏, is all I’m gonna say.
Anyways, that’s for later.
Fast forward ⏩ to this day- I usually don’t even need a mic to speak at events. This is a something that you can’t read off the internet and be good at one fine day, but a skill that you develop by speaking at events. The Mozilla community was a great start because people wanted to know more about Mozilla and Reps were great resource people to invite.
If I can speak in front of a crowd right now, Mozilla has a strong role to play in that. Also a shout out to the Mozilla Tech Speakers program.
Community
Everyone needs to be a part of a community. The feeling of belonging is valuable for all human beings. If you’d love to be at the intersection of technology, open source and communities, Mozilla is a great start.
What’s next?
I’m working on a project as part of the Mozilla Open Leaders. I’d love for you to contribute to the project. You can check out my project here. There are many other projects that you can contribute to. They’re listed here.
I’m also helping an amazing team to put together a Curriculum Design workshop in Bangalore. If you’re around, you should apply! You can find more information below.
This blog is a part of my “One Blog Per Week” resolution. Contains random rambling, learning and experience. If you have any inputs/thoughts or just want to say Hi, shout out🗣 to me at @dun3buggi3.
