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__NOTOC__  
__NOTOC__ '''this is an INCOMPLETE DRAFT - Jan 2 2009'''  
'''this is an INCOMPLETE DRAFT - Dec 29 2009'''  


--
''Context: [[Foundation:Planning:2009OpsPlan | 2009 MozFdn ops plan]]''
2009 was a productive year for Mozilla Foundation. We now have a major new program ready to go and a stronger ability to support the core Mozilla community. The Foundation team and the organization are on much more solid footing than they were in 2008.


In early 2009, we developed a set of [[Foundation:Planning:2009OpsPlan|operational goals and priorities]] to guide the work of the Mozilla Foundation team. The top level goals included:
At the beginning of 2009, we decided to engage in a number experiments and conversations to uncover new program possibilities for the Foundation. The ideas we explored included education, research, open video, open government, hybrid orgs and more. We stepped back to assess in the summer. Building on our learning from the first half of the year, we agreed to develop one large, ambitious program that would grow a new community of Mozillians. This new community would not focus on building core internet technology, but rather on *using*  this technology in novel ways to make the web more open. This program became Drumbeat.  


*'''Communications:''' Develop clearer messages and better systems to explain Mozilla's open web mission to a broad public.  
Early in the year, we also decided early that we needed to build up our ability to support the existing community. Much of this effort focused on telling the Mozilla story more effectively and resolving community issues in areas like governance. Our aim was to simultaneously improve our ability to support the work of the broader Mozilla community and rebuild community confidence in the Foundation.
*'''Community:''' Work with other Mozilla organizations to strengthen and grow the Mozilla community, especially in key geographies.  
*'''Programs:''' Develop a small handful of programs that go beyond software as a way to promote Mozilla's mission (e.g. education).
*'''Organization:'''Consolidate and strengthen the Foundation team, and develop a long term vision that clarifies the Foundation's role within Mozilla.


The following is a '''review of achievements and learning''' related to these goals. Notes for each goal and priority are written in italics. Feedback is much encouraged, especially from Mozilla community members. Please post comments in response to [this blog posting]
As a result of these efforts, Mozilla Foundation's goals for 2010 and beyond are now clear. The new Drumbeat initiative will help internet users around the world  better understand, participate and control of their online lives. And the foundation will also continue to carry the Mozilla flag as the leading public benefit organization promoting an open internet and serve as a governance and support structure for existing community efforts.


''Note: regular status reports related to these goals and priorities were posted on Mark Surman's wiki throughout 2009. See: [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/whats-up-w-mofo-january-update/ January] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/february-update/ February] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/whats-up-w-mofo-march-update/ March] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/whats-up-w-mofo-may-update/ May] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/whats-up-w-mozfdn-july-update/ July] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/whats-up-w-mozfdn-september-update/ September] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/november2009updat/ November]''
This report provides a brief overview of MoFo achievements and learning from 2009 as well as a preview of where we're headed in 2010. For people interested in more detail, see also: [[Foundation:Planning:2009OpsPlan | the original 2009 plan which this document uses as a framework]] and MoFo  [[Foundation:Planning:2010Plan | 2010 plan]].


=== 1. Communications  ===
== Things we achieved ==


Goal: '''Develop clearer messages and better systems to explain Mozilla's open web mission to a broad public.'''
1. We agreed on a vision for Mozilla Foundation's primary new effort for the coming years: Drumbeat. Premised on the idea that there are many ways to make the internet better and more open, Drumbeat will dramatically expand the ways that web users can get participate in the Mozilla community. Our many small program experiments and community conversations from the first half of 2009 helped to shape Drumbeat.  


*''add summary bullets related to overall goal''
2. We built up our skills as flag carrier for Mozilla's story -- clearly communicating our role as the leading public benefit organization promoting an open internet. This included the successful re-launch of www.mozilla.org as well as a number of efforts to improve the language and branding we use to describe Mozilla. We also built the foundations for a new fundraising and engagement program that will roll out during 2010. 
*''x''
*''y''
*''z''


Specific priorities:
3. Our experiments in education to the expansion of Mozilla courses from a single college in Canada to x colleges and y students on z continents. Students are working on both core software projects like Firefox and on promising projects like Processing.js which are on the outer edges of Mozilla's work. This effort taught us the collaborating with universities isn't just a 'program' -- it's a ongoing skill and function needs to be integrated into the Mozilla community.


a. '''Redesign www.mozilla.org''' to better communicate Mozilla's mission and provide an entry point into the Mozilla community.  
4. By the end of the year, we found focus and traction with core community support efforts. In particular, we helped resolve several long-standing governance issues, developed tools to help people innovate how they use Bugzilla and created new methods for recruiting volunteers to work on core Mozilla technology projects. During 2010, the plan is to develop community feedback loops that make this work more nimble and responsive.  


*''Completed in xx, 2009. Positive response has put mozilla.org back on radar as community resource. Also, good foundation for future work in areas like fundraising.''
5. With the global financial crisis as a backdrop, we streamlined finances and found cost savings. While we did much more in 2009 than in 2008, we were still able to lower operating and program expenses by 15% ($1.8m in 2008 vs. $1.5m in 2009).
*''Learning: Redesign alone was not enough to fully realize our 'better communicate Mozilla's mission' goal. Significant writing and elimination confusing overlaps w/ mozilla.com still needed.''
*''2010 focus: compelling new content on Mozilla mission, overlaps with mozilla.com eliminated and key pages localized into at least five languages.''


b. Update '''communications materials and web sites''' to better educate and excite the public about the Open Internet.  
In addition, we also explored a number of additional program ideas -- hybrid orgs, Mozilla Research, Powered by Mozilla amongst them. These ideas were either dropped or put on hold by then end of 2009. See the MoFo 2009 goals and priorities review for more details.


*''Defined a more unified approach to using Mozilla's brand across the community. Updated touchstone communication materials such as boilerplate blurb describing Mozilla.''
== Challenges we faced ==
*''Learning: 'fixing' the way we tell the Mozilla story is not possible -- or desirable. The diversity of the community means there will always be diverse expressions of this story. That said, we still need a key set of touchstones and assets to guide the story telling process.''
*''2010 focus: add stuff related to Chelsea's goals, also Mozilla style guide''


c. Explain and promote '''Mozilla's hybrid organizational model''', making the link between our mission and how we are organized.  
1. With the exception of some success in education, we did little to meet our goal of expand Foundation programs to key geographies such as Europe, Brasil and India. This was due to both the small scale nature of our program experiments and the lack of team members focused on regional outreach. Drumbeat should help us make progress on this front in 2010.


*''Achievements: Organized 'hybrid summit' in Mountain View plus wrote a ''[http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/what-is-a-hybrid-organization/ ''series''][http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/whyhybrid-orgsmatter/ ''of''][http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/hybridoldnew/ ''blog''][http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/hybridchalleges/ ''postings'']''on the topic.''
2. We had limited success attracting new volunteers and community members to work directly on Mozilla Foundation efforts during the first part of 2009. While few people stepped forward to work on www.mozilla.org, we had difficulty deploying them. Early indications are that Drumbeat is changing this: a number of new community members have already stepped forward with project ideas and offers of help.
*''Learning: while event was useful and well received, promoting the broader cause of hybrid orgs not critical to Mozilla's open web mandate.''
*''2010 focus: Nothing formal. Mark (and Mitchell?) may do some lightweight writing and speaking on the topic.''


d. Develop a '''fundraising and engagement program''' with an aim to getting more people involved in Mozilla.  
3. Our first fundraising and engagement experiments didn't yield the results we'd hoped for. In particular, neither Service Week nor One Web Day yielded significant donations or new community members. There are a number of likely reasons -- the wrong 'cause' for Service Week, ad hoc strategy for One Web Day and overall lack of fundraising and engagement web instrastructure. We have plans to address all of these issues in 2010 fundraising efforts.


*''Hired fundraising and engagement manager mid-summer. Small campaign experiments in fall with One Web Day and Mozilla Service Week. Mozilla Parks campaign plus extensive planning and infrastructure development in November and December.''
== Where we're headed next ==
*''Learning: first campaign experiments went poorly, especially from fundraising perspective. Need strong plan, infrastructure and calls to action if we want to succeed.''
*''2010 focus: roll out plan that systematically goes after 'low hanging fruit' general Mozilla fundraising while simultaneously building up new calls to action around Drumbeat projects.''


=== Community  ===
We have three main goals for 2010:


Goal:'''Work with the Mozilla Corporation and Mozilla Messaging to strengthen and grow the Mozilla community, especially in key geographies.'''  
# '''Mozilla Drumbeat.''' Introduce Drumbeat to the world. Build compelling projects and vibrant community.
# '''Mozilla Core.''' Find simple and novel ways to make the existing Mozilla community more productive, cohesive and understandable.
# '''Fundraising and engagement.''' Strengthen Mozilla's position as the leading publicly supported charity building and protecting the open Internet.


Specific priorities:  
See more detail on our [[Foundation:Planning:2010Plan | planning page]].


a. Work with others across Mozilla to pilot '''Mozilla Service Week''' as a method of creating new ways for people to be involved in Mozilla.
--


*''Service Week produced mixed results. 10,000 hours were 'donated', but only after significant organizing effort. Some community members were confused by the initiative.''
'''Feedback is very much encouraged''', especially from Mozilla community members. Please post comments in response to [add link to blog posting]
*''Learning: asking people to use the web to help any and all social causes was probably the wrong call to action. Our 'cause' should be the open internet -> it's our mission and is more likely to galvanize participation.''
*''2010 focus: use Drumbeat and open web cause as ways to get new people involved in Mozilla.''


b. Make it easier for community members to organize '''small local events like MozCamps''' that allow more people to find out about and get involved in Mozilla.
''See also 2009 status reports: [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/whats-up-w-mofo-january-update/ Jan] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/february-update/ Feb] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/whats-up-w-mofo-march-update/ March] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/whats-up-w-mofo-may-update/ May] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/whats-up-w-mozfdn-july-update/ July] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/whats-up-w-mozfdn-september-update/ Sept] | [http://commonspace.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/november2009updat/ Nov]''
 
*''Ran a few small experiments, mostly in Europe. Some were dedicated Mozilla events (e.g. MozCamp Utrecht) while others were shared events with other groups (e.g. open source meetups in Munich).''
*''Learning: getting Mozilla-specific events off the ground was hard, probably because we didn't have clear enough goals or content. In contrast, more organic events like the meetups were easier and more successful.''
*''2010 focus: efforts to build a ground game through small events has moved to Drumbeat, with a significant focus on 'piggybacking' on existing events like BarCamps and Ignites.''
 
c. Grow and connect the community of organizations involved in the '''Powered by Mozilla''' program.
 
*''Dropped this as a priority mid-year. No plans to pick up for 2010.''
 
d. Collaborate with others to develop a set of '''Mozilla community metrics''', and find a way to regularly sample and draw insights from metrics data.
 
*''Dropped this priority mid-year. May pick up some aspects in relation to mozilla.org work in 2010, but not a major focus on its own.''
 
e. Help '''strengthen the Bugzilla community''' by aiding in the development of a sustainability plan, promoting innovation and contributing to useful features.
 
*''Focused on two activities: developing a Bugzilla API as a way to promote innovation complete and working with Bugzilla community leads to develop a fundraising plan.''
*''Learning: Bugzilla API well received and is resulting in people coming up with new Bugzilla hacks. However, not clear how much MoFo should focus on core community technology infrastructure of this nature. Fundraising plan hard to agree on but is now 90% complete.''
*''2010 focus: promote Bugzilla API use, and move on. Roll out fundraising plan. Assess whether it is working mid-year.''
 
=== Programs  ===
 
Goal:'''Develop a small handful of programs that go beyond software as a way to promote Mozilla's mission (e.g. education).'''
 
Specific priorities:  
 
a. Develop a '''Mozilla Education program''', including an effort to expand the impact of the Seneca / Mozilla course model.  
b. Refine Mozilla's '''accessibility strategy''' to focus on ubiquitous zero-cost accessibility for Firefox and Thunderbird, accessible innovation and design in Mozilla, integration of accessibility into standard web development tools.
c. Pilot a small scale '''research program''' that builds networks of researchers who want to work on specific issues of broad interest to Mozilla and the Open Internet (e.g. security).
 
=== Organization  ===
 
Goal:'''Consolidate and strengthen the Foundation team and develop a long-term vision that clarifies the Foundation's role within Mozilla.'''
 
*''add summary bullets related to overall goal''
*''x''
*''y''
*''z''
 
<br> Specific priorities:  
 
a. Develop a long term '''vision and roadmap''' that clarifies the role of the Foundation within Mozilla.  
b. Build '''nimble, effective Mozilla Foundation team''', by clarifying roles and engaging in team building throughout 2009.
c. Improve Mozilla's '''grant making process''' through better guidelines, coordination and information sharing.
d. Consolidate and improve '''organizational systems''', especially related to grant tracking, fundraising, and internal communications.

Latest revision as of 15:20, 19 January 2010

this is an INCOMPLETE DRAFT - Jan 2 2009

Context: 2009 MozFdn ops plan

2009 was a productive year for Mozilla Foundation. We now have a major new program ready to go and a stronger ability to support the core Mozilla community. The Foundation team and the organization are on much more solid footing than they were in 2008.

At the beginning of 2009, we decided to engage in a number experiments and conversations to uncover new program possibilities for the Foundation. The ideas we explored included education, research, open video, open government, hybrid orgs and more. We stepped back to assess in the summer. Building on our learning from the first half of the year, we agreed to develop one large, ambitious program that would grow a new community of Mozillians. This new community would not focus on building core internet technology, but rather on *using* this technology in novel ways to make the web more open. This program became Drumbeat.

Early in the year, we also decided early that we needed to build up our ability to support the existing community. Much of this effort focused on telling the Mozilla story more effectively and resolving community issues in areas like governance. Our aim was to simultaneously improve our ability to support the work of the broader Mozilla community and rebuild community confidence in the Foundation.

As a result of these efforts, Mozilla Foundation's goals for 2010 and beyond are now clear. The new Drumbeat initiative will help internet users around the world better understand, participate and control of their online lives. And the foundation will also continue to carry the Mozilla flag as the leading public benefit organization promoting an open internet and serve as a governance and support structure for existing community efforts.

This report provides a brief overview of MoFo achievements and learning from 2009 as well as a preview of where we're headed in 2010. For people interested in more detail, see also: the original 2009 plan which this document uses as a framework and MoFo 2010 plan.

Things we achieved

1. We agreed on a vision for Mozilla Foundation's primary new effort for the coming years: Drumbeat. Premised on the idea that there are many ways to make the internet better and more open, Drumbeat will dramatically expand the ways that web users can get participate in the Mozilla community. Our many small program experiments and community conversations from the first half of 2009 helped to shape Drumbeat.

2. We built up our skills as flag carrier for Mozilla's story -- clearly communicating our role as the leading public benefit organization promoting an open internet. This included the successful re-launch of www.mozilla.org as well as a number of efforts to improve the language and branding we use to describe Mozilla. We also built the foundations for a new fundraising and engagement program that will roll out during 2010.

3. Our experiments in education to the expansion of Mozilla courses from a single college in Canada to x colleges and y students on z continents. Students are working on both core software projects like Firefox and on promising projects like Processing.js which are on the outer edges of Mozilla's work. This effort taught us the collaborating with universities isn't just a 'program' -- it's a ongoing skill and function needs to be integrated into the Mozilla community.

4. By the end of the year, we found focus and traction with core community support efforts. In particular, we helped resolve several long-standing governance issues, developed tools to help people innovate how they use Bugzilla and created new methods for recruiting volunteers to work on core Mozilla technology projects. During 2010, the plan is to develop community feedback loops that make this work more nimble and responsive.

5. With the global financial crisis as a backdrop, we streamlined finances and found cost savings. While we did much more in 2009 than in 2008, we were still able to lower operating and program expenses by 15% ($1.8m in 2008 vs. $1.5m in 2009).

In addition, we also explored a number of additional program ideas -- hybrid orgs, Mozilla Research, Powered by Mozilla amongst them. These ideas were either dropped or put on hold by then end of 2009. See the MoFo 2009 goals and priorities review for more details.

Challenges we faced

1. With the exception of some success in education, we did little to meet our goal of expand Foundation programs to key geographies such as Europe, Brasil and India. This was due to both the small scale nature of our program experiments and the lack of team members focused on regional outreach. Drumbeat should help us make progress on this front in 2010.

2. We had limited success attracting new volunteers and community members to work directly on Mozilla Foundation efforts during the first part of 2009. While few people stepped forward to work on www.mozilla.org, we had difficulty deploying them. Early indications are that Drumbeat is changing this: a number of new community members have already stepped forward with project ideas and offers of help.

3. Our first fundraising and engagement experiments didn't yield the results we'd hoped for. In particular, neither Service Week nor One Web Day yielded significant donations or new community members. There are a number of likely reasons -- the wrong 'cause' for Service Week, ad hoc strategy for One Web Day and overall lack of fundraising and engagement web instrastructure. We have plans to address all of these issues in 2010 fundraising efforts.

Where we're headed next

We have three main goals for 2010:

  1. Mozilla Drumbeat. Introduce Drumbeat to the world. Build compelling projects and vibrant community.
  2. Mozilla Core. Find simple and novel ways to make the existing Mozilla community more productive, cohesive and understandable.
  3. Fundraising and engagement. Strengthen Mozilla's position as the leading publicly supported charity building and protecting the open Internet.

See more detail on our planning page.

--

Feedback is very much encouraged, especially from Mozilla community members. Please post comments in response to [add link to blog posting]

See also 2009 status reports: Jan | Feb | March | May | July | Sept | Nov

Retrieved from "https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?title=Foundation:Planning:2009OpsPlan:yearinreview&oldid=194972"