Drumbeat/campaignstorm/We Make the Web

We Make the Web

Building a community of bloggers, photographers and other 'people who make the web'. Using data to visualize and explain the web they are making. Helping them make better tech choices.

Goals

• Simplify and popularize 'internet as public resource' idea by pointing to the 100s of millions of individuals who post valuable content online. Visualize this.
• Encourage people posting content online to feel like they have a stake in the future of the internet. Help them choose technology and licenses that genuinely make the web better.

• Also: build a strong foundation for future Drumbeat campaigns. This is where we can most easily test and improve the model, build the community.

Key Messages

• 1st message: You make the web, so you have a stake and a role in defining it’s future.
• 2nd message: Good tech and licensing choices can improve your content and make the web better.

Audience and geography

• People who make the web -- bloggers, photographers, tweeters and others with a significant emotional connection to what they are building online. Many already using Firefox.
• Also, companies and individuals with similar mission to Mozilla's (e.g. CC or Wordpress). These are collaborators and also could provide newsletter content.

• The general nature of this campaign means it could work in many geographies.
• Could test intensively in: N. America, Europe, India, Brasil. Also, consider established content communities, e.g. global voices.

Activities

Core

• We Make the Web e-newsletter offering tips for individual content creators, oriented toward making more 'open' choices. Mass appeal and oriented towards people using hosted services. (Bongo)
  • Topic Ideas
• Visualizations of the participatory web, combining data and graphics to show the web we're building. (Bongo and Conga)
  • E.g. user generated content vs. professional media outlets, by country. examples
  • Local sprints for more technical and design oriented part of community to mockup, and possibly build.
• Simple, remixable presentations combining 'best of' from newsletter plus messaging on internet as public resource. Drumbeat community members to present at local events. (Conga)
• Meetup kits / campaigns for people who read the We Make the Web newsletter. (Conga)
  • Builds on local event plan scenario jointly by Mozilla and Creative Commons
• We Make the Web festival (or summit?), gathering unusual suspects to showcase good content / prototype visualizations / develop white paper on 'participation and the internet as public resource'. (Tympani)
• NB: need to create some way that people can 'join' beyond newsletter subscriptions in order to create a sense of belonging and agency.

Also possible

1. Tie in to One Web Day 2010, with stronger focus on participation and practical skills as part of the OWD celebration. (Bongo and Conga)
2. Open Web for a 6-year-old. Interview six year olds to help construct a simple (and fun) story about what the open web is. From MozCamp EU. (Bongo and Conga)
3. Celebrating the Web awards for creative online content simply (and humorously?) explaining the internet as a public resource. Use famous internet meme people ( “Chocolate Rain” guy) to judge. (Bongo)
4. Opinion research on values and attitudes about the internet as a public research. Feeds white paper for Tympani event, and also baseline to assess future progress against.

Assessment

• Fit: Strong. Jibes w/ Mozilla's overall mission, and makes public resource idea concrete.
• Leverage: High. Engages audience who a) already knows Mozilla (or Firefox) and b) understand participation on the web. Likely we can get community leaders and contributors to emerge from this.
• Timing: Not particularly time sensitive unless someone else steps into this space. Good news is basic elements could start very quickly.
• Appeal: Good on two fronts. Lots of people passionate about web content (and trust Mozilla). Also, attractive to others who share our values plus want to reach this audience.
• Impact: Even moderate success means better choices made by people who shape web in tangible way. Has bigger potential to shift conversation and establish 'internet as public resource' idea.

• Fundraising: Medium to high, depending on community size. Campaigns like 'fund the visualization you want to see' could work well.

Metrics

Early (activity)

• Newsletter subscribers: is there general public interest in this topic?
• Number of local events and presentations, number of participants
• Participation in visualization design process, plus related donations
• Media coverage of visualizations / big event / we make the web concept
• Number of active community members - people who have 'joined' Mozilla
• Reach of whitepaper / ideas coming out of We Make Web festival
• Web traffic for visualizations
• Fundraising - dollars raised

Over time (impact)

• Shift in media conversation, internet as public resource widely referenced
  • Use of visualizations in media and academic context, referring to public resource idea
• Technology and licensing choices shift amongst people who post content
  • More open source, more open web, more creative commons
• Governments and companies more actively engage 'people who make the web' in policy setting and product definition
  • Recognition in these processes that internet is public resource we're all contributing to

Things we don't know

• Who else is already in this space? How can we most helpful? ... fill in gaps?
• Is this audience really addressable in this broad way, or would we need to sub-segment?

raw notes