Mozdev.org

In the last 9 years, Mozdev has done a great deal to increase the adoption of Mozilla technologies and promote the goals of the Mozilla project.  We did this primarily by providing hosting and tools to developers. Recently the Mozdev board members have come to the conclusion though that the needs of the community have changed and project hosting is no longer a problem for developers.  A number of free sites (github, Google Code...) do a great job with this and the Mozilla Add-ons site has evolved to become the hub for extension developers.

In light of this, the Mozdev board is seriously considering dismantling the non-profit Mozdev Community Organization that runs the site.  The overhead of running a legal organization is no longer justified and is distracting attention away from the site itself.  We want the site to continue to serve the needs of the community and think that handing things to a new group of people who are passionate about Mozdev is the best way to make this happen.

We need you! First, this does not mean that Mozdev is shutting down. We are looking into creating a community council to replace the board of directors and welcome you to join that group and help shape Mozdev's future.

Once again, we'd like to stress that the goal here is not to shut down the site. We feel it still contains enormous value to our users. But because of logistical issues we need to wind down the non-profit structure and change the organizational nature of Mozdev. To get involved, post a reply here or or send an email to the address listed on the feedback page.

The Mozdev Board.

Here at Mozdev, we want to see more add-ons for Firefox Mobile (aka Fennec), so we are teaming up with Mozilla Europe to make a challenge. The task is straightforward. You need only at this time to propose porting your existing add-on to Fennec, or write a new one, with a commitment to finishing it (or at least having a solid proof-of-concept) in time for the Mozilla Maemo Danish Weekend on 30-31 May.

REQUIREMENTS

(We are on a tight schedule and have logistics constraints, so apologise for the deadline and geographical restrictions)
- Write a short proposal stating what your add-on name and current install location, why you think it would be useful to mobile browser users, and how you plan on going about implementing it. Send it to brian@mozdev.org by Friday 15 May, at 12:00 CET.
- This challenge is only open to developers living in Europe.
- The challenge open to current Mozdev project owners, and other developers who host their projects elsewhere.

PRIZE

- 10 developers will be chosen, and Mozilla Europe will sponsor your travel and hotel expenses to attend the Mozilla Maemo Danish Weekend.
- Entries will be judged by Mozdev representatives.

USEFUL RESOURCES

http://wiki.maemo.org/MozillaMaemoDanishWeekend
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/fennec/1.0b1/releasenotes/
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Extensions
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Architecture
http://starkravingfinkle.org/blog/tags/mobile/
http://www.mozdev.org/projects/applications/Fennec.html
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fennec/

Mozdev's goal is to make the the Mozilla Platform a viable one for developers, to help proliferate Mozilla technologies, and to align closely with Mozilla and their Open Souce and Open Web visions. Since 2000 we have done this largely via project hosting, and it has served us well. We have a first-class setup of tools for anyone to avail of, with 2 caveats. One, the project must in some way be related to Mozilla and two, the code must have an Open Source license. Hosting has served us well. Right up until Firefox 2, Mozdev was the first place users went to to extend their browser. Mozilla has since started their own initiatives, including Mozilla Add-ons and Mozilla Labs, but we still get a huge amount of traffic and a steady flow of new projects. We host software (extensions, themes, search, dictionaries, applications, and more) and content for over 20 Mozilla applications. Mozilla is a proven platform, so our role has largely been vindicated.

Yet we must not be complacent. We remain as passionate as ever about working in the Mozilla community, and are driven with a desire to mix things up, do some things differently, and perhaps move into uncharted territory. So in that spirit we would like to put before you two proposals, linked below, for consideration.

1. Project Hosting Re-invented
2. Facilitating Paid Add-ons

We would love to hear your feedback on these proposals. We have our own thoughts about each but, rather than bias your comments, will follow-up in a separate post about that. Is there a 3rd way forward for us? Note, please refrain from requesting adding feature xyz to the current site (though we'd still love to hear about them too via feedback), as we are trying to look at the big picture here. Thanks!

Just as there is a transition in the White House, there is also one happening here at Mozdev. At the last board meeting on Friday, 16 January, the following appointments were made:

• President - Brian King
• Treasurer - David Boswell
• Secretary - Eric Jung

Enormous thanks to David Boswell for being President since 2005 and working tirelessly to help Mozdev scale and continue to be the primary resource for hosting Mozilla development projects. Eric has been on the board since 2006, and Brian has been with Mozdev since 2002 and brings experience from over 9 years in the Mozilla community.

We look forward to thrusting Mozdev into the center of the Mozilla Developer Network in 2009 and beyond.

Mozdev was in esteemed company at the OSCON 'State Of' lightning talks yesterday, including Mark Shuttleworth speaking about Bazaar, Louis Suarez-Potts on OpenOffice, and many others. Thanks to Josh Berkus of the PostgreSQL Project for the organisation. It was a challenge to get our message across in 5 minutes, but we feel like we achieved it as the horn blew mid-way through the last sentence.

Here are the slides:

Well, if the Songbird folks can do it, so can we!

Mozdev will be at OSCON this year from Weds 23 to Fri 26 July. Representing are David Boswell, Doug Warner, Eric Jung, Myk Melez, Nigel Howard, and Brian King. We are partly sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation, and would like to express great appreciation for that.

What will we be doing there?
- Leading a BOF session on extension development, at 19:30 on Wednesday, the 23rd.
- Giving a "State Of" Lightning talk with other non-profit organisations.
- Having a Mozdev board meeting, the first ever in person.
- Volunteering at the Mozilla booth.

We hope to see current Mozdev project owners and site users there, but also would like to get new people on board. The Mozdev mission fits nicely into the OSCON ethos, and meeting people from other communities will be beneficial.

For one day a year only, Mozdev goes green. If you stumble upon this post some day other than March 17, here is what it looks like:

Themes are not new to Mozdev. There are at least 12 that you can check out in the Gallery. And unless you apply your own CSS and layout, applying the theme to your project pages is a snip. Add a file called local.conf to your www/ folder and put in the following 2 options:

$local_conf_ignore_holidays=OFF;
$now = time();

See the local.conf documentation for more details on shaping your Mozdev project pages to suit your needs.