Mozilla Firefox Wins Webware 100 Award!

A few months ago, I blogged about Mozilla Firefox being a finalist in the 2008 Webware 100 Awards.

Today, the winners were announced and Firefox won in the Browsing category. Over 1.9 million votes were cast to select these Webware 100 winners and the most votes were cast in the Browsing category.

Also, sending out congratulations to the friendly folks over at the Participatory Culture Foundation. Nice to see Miro win in the Video category.

Metablogging.

I’m sitting down to write a blog about bloggers coming to yesterday’s blogger event at Mozilla. I’m thinking about liveblogging, microblogging, and metablogging. I’m thinking I don’t know too many other PR people who would get the opportunity to write this post. I'm thinking about how much tech PR has changed since I started my career path a decade ago (though that’s probably a separate post).

The unique part of yesterday’s event wasn’t about a tech company opening the doors and inviting in a bunch of bloggers. I have been a part of those types of events in the past. What made yesterday’s event unique was that there were no embargoes, everything was on the record, and we had a bunch of non-media trained folks participate.

This is rare in PR and corporate communications. It’s much easier to do things that have proven track records for success – such as embargoes, limiting media interaction with non-spokespeople, holding events in fancy restaurants, sticking to a powerpoint deck and a strict agenda, etc. But Mozilla exists in a different space. We live in a fishbowl. We thrive in the open. We are a public benefit, mission-driven organization. And mission presented on paper doesn’t have quite the same impact as mission presented in person.

Bloggers traveled from as far away as LA and as near as Atherton. We had 10 visitors total and about 10 Mozillians there. John Lilly kicked off the event by providing some background and history on the Mozilla Project. Then Mike Schroepfer, our VP of Engineering talked about Firefox 3. We had an open Q&A session running throughout the event. I noticed this at SXSW this year as well. Running Q&A instead of formal presentation followed by formal Q&A is all the rage these days. :)

We ate some pizza and then split up by interest, not by agenda, so people were free to gravitate toward others with common interests. A lot of people met for the first time at the event but had been following and commenting on each other’s blogs for years.

I asked participants (both bloggers and Mozillians) for feedback after the event. The general consensus was that we should do more of these. So don’t worry if you missed the first one - we’re planning to have another one soon!

Mozilla wins EFF Pioneer Award, Finalist in Webware 100 Awards

Last week was chock full of good news. I got a call to alert me that Mitchell Baker and the Mozilla Foundation were awarded the EFF Pioneer Award, a prestigious honor reserved for individuals and organizations that have made significant and influential contributions to the development of computer-mediated communications and to the empowerment of individuals in using computers and the Internet.

Additionally, Mozilla Firefox was listed as a finalist for the Webware 100 Awards. Voting is now open for these awards and I encourage everyone to stop by the website and vote for Firefox in the Browsing category. Voting is open until March 31.

Another great email...

I got another great email from a Firefox community member. This one comes from Rosa and was too funny not to share.

Dear Firefox team,
After installing the new beta version this morning (thanks btw!), I realized that I had no more time to make lunch to bring to work. So I decided to pick up a quick sandwich in our new neighborhood sandwich-shop; " Lu-sub"recently opened by a sweet Vietnamese old man "Lu" who had his filtered-water-shop there before. As he showed me proudly his new printed poster of the menu on the wall (see picture attached), my eyes where especially caught by the "steak" sandwich; with " Mozilla cheese" who knew!!! Being Dutch, I am a big cheese fan, and also a big Mozilla fan, finally my two favorites together;-)
Thank for your new product guys (and girls) , you just keep surprising me over and over again...

We went from ice cream to cheese! The Mozilla community is clearly not lactose intolerant.

Quote of the day

I love this bit of writing...

I do think it behooves all of us to be skeptical of news organizations that behave like adolescents, no matter where your political allegiances lie. As all of us remember I'm sure, teen-age hormones and mood swings are very unpredictable. That boy may love you today, but loyalty isn't his strong suit. Tomorrow, he will kiss and tell, turn his back and take up with another without a second thought. News organizations that behave this way are not good for our democracy. This isn't the homecoming game -- it's an election.

source

Mozilla Community

As PR for Mozilla, I'm on the email alias for press inquiries. This means that I frequently see more spam in a day than most people see in a week. I get a ton of misdirected email and filter through it all to find the media requests that require attention. Through all the noise, I occasionally get an email that stands out, one that demonstrates the passion that people feel for Mozilla and Firefox.

Today, I got the following email from a boy named Brody:

Dear Mozilla,
I am fond of you internet service.
In fact, I drew it.
The notebook paper drawing is simply just the logo.
The other one-
Well, that's Scrap Paper from today's test.
It's a picture of the FireFox licking an Ice Cream.
The Caption reads:
We're so nice,
We'll even make you ice cream.
MOZILLA FIREFOX.
Well,
Good job.
Clicking away:
--Brody K. B.

Brody and I emailed a bit and then I talked to his dad (hi Don!) who agreed to let me share Brody's drawings with the entire Mozilla community. A big thank you to Brody for sending in his drawings!

haircuts

i came into this world bald as a ping pong ball. b-a-l-d. until i was about three, strangers would walk up to my parents and say, "my, what an adorable little boy" because i was bald. my first haircut is somewhere in my parents house. despite how creepy that sounds, i genuinely think it's because they were so relieved that there was finally enough of it to cut.

i've always hated haircuts...
that is...
until i met glenda.

glenda just cut off nine inches of my hair.

i haven't had hair this short since i was about five years old.

it's nice. i'm using a lot less shampoo.