[IMPORTANT] ⚠️ Council Elections - Autum 2018 - Nominee Q&A

Reps
#1

Hey all,
This is the second step into the Election Process . In this thread the 6 nominees should post their answers to the following questions:

  1. What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?
  2. Identify something that is currently not working well in the Mozilla Reps program and which you think could be easy to fix. How would you approach a possible fix?
  3. What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?
  4. What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?
  5. Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?
  6. Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?
  7. Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?
3 Likes
#2

1. What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?

Strength :
I believe that Mozilla Reps are the individuals who are full of passion. A diverse collaboration to build an open web is the biggest strength of the Mozilla Reps program.

Weakness :
In my tenure at the Council, I have understood that there are a lot of Mozilla Reps who are currently active but we are not able to channelize them well. I believe that this weakness could be overcomed by a sustainable plan and strategy which can support everyone.

2. Identify something that is currently not working well in the Mozilla Reps program and which you think could be easy to fix. How would you approach a possible fix?

In my experience, there are many Reps who are doing an amazing job in a particular region or in a technology. Their efforts are not getting the proper visibility/recognition/attention. Currently, we have the ‘Rep of the Month’ recognition in place but looking at the current number of active Reps, a single recognition for a month is something which needs some more work. My approach to fixing this issue is to come up with a plan which can recognise multiple Reps for their contributions.

3. What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?

a) Recognition or Visibility of individuals
Every month when the nominations for the ‘Rep of the Month’ are opened, a lot of Reps get nominated and the one which gets the highest votes is declared as the ‘Rep of the Month’. The activities of the person who gets this recognition are shared but the ones who were nominated and had done an amazing work do not get the visibility as they should have got. If elected, I would like to work on the plans and strategies which will make the contributions more visible and transparent.

b) Participation
As highlighted earlier, there are a lot of Mozilla Reps who are currently active but we are not able to channelize them well. The Mentors can help the Reps and guide them in the areas of their interest. Thus, the mentors should be trained and skilled for such situations. I believe that the mentor-mentee interaction could ensure productive participation and I would like to work in this area.

c) Reporting
Currently, the only way to report the Reps activity is through the reporting mechanism available on the Reps portal. In my tenure as a Reps Council member, I have seen many Reps getting transitioned into Alumni in-spite of contributing to Mozilla projects in some or the other way or contributing to those areas inside Mozilla which are not a part of the Reps focus areas or have contributed to the Reps focus areas but have not reported their activities on the Reps portal. If elected, I would like to work on plans and strategies which will allow the Reps to report their activities in dynamic ways.

4. What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?

I feel that I have very strong Leadership, strategic perspective and good Communication qualities with ‘Ready to help’ approach which helps me to understand any issue and come up with a solution/fix. These qualities will help me to be an effective Council Member.

5. Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

I was a part of the Reps council and the Reps Review Team. I am also a Reps Mentor and have been managing the Mozilla India swag warehouse as well. I have worked towards improving the Reps program, reviewing the activities of the Reps as well as making the resources available to the Reps when required. I believe that my work might have helped many Reps and I would continue to help whenever and wherever required.

6. Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?

As a Mozilla Rep, I could deliver talks on Mozilla technologies, projects and products and inspire students to follow the Open Source way. I was the Rep of the Month for August 2016 and May 2018 and I am proud of this achievement.

7. Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?

I believe that the Reps are volunteers and follow unique practises to contribute towards Mozilla and the Reps program. Reporting form is just one tool which is available for Reps to report their activities. The reporting mechanism could be made dynamic where-in the Reps would have liberty to report their activities in some or the other ways.

3 Likes
#3

1. What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?

Strength : Mozilla Reps program is a program that proven successful in supporting the global community members, and become the motor to encourage volunteers to get more active in becoming part of the community.

Weakness : There are some parts that we can explore more, like how we can get more publicity on what Mozilla Reps has achieved by pushing more documentation and publication on events, and what’s happening around the globe.

2. Identify something that is currently not working well in the Mozilla Reps program and which you think could be easy to fix. How would you approach a possible fix?

We can do more and fix Mozilla Reps social channels. Beside of things that already works well such Newsletter, and Discourse, we can explore more in improving our social channels such Facebook and create new account for Instagram, to get better recognition by people from inside Mozilla Reps it self, and outside.

3. What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?

As mentioned before, 1st thing is how we can get new people come onboard to join the Mozilla Reps program and help them choose their path according to their specific skillsets. 2nd how we can explore on social channels and give more publicity for Reps that already done a great job. 3rd thing is how we can improve ideas of our campaigns.

4. What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?

I am working as web designer since 2009. I can easily reach out online. I already done many contribution, especially for our local community, in helping on building marketing tools relate to visual design, such poster for events, maintaining our website, etc. I can be useful on some marketing ideas. I also a person who believes that we can achieve more by working as a team, not as an individual.

5. Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

Together with other local community members, we run a Mozilla Community Space in Jakarta. Beside of making the space become the hub for other developer communities in Indonesia, we also focus on supporting Mozilla Reps program campaigns as our internal Mozilla related events. We try to reach out as many people to come and join the events happening in Mozilla Community Space in Jakarta.

6. Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?

I ran many events across my country, Indonesia. Gave talks to different schools, universities, and become guest speaker on some tech events representing Mozilla. I try to make people get to know Mozilla better than just a Free and Good browser, by telling them our vision and mission in protecting the web as an open resource and how we care about user privacy.

7. Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?

I think there are some difficulties that experience by Mozilla Reps when reporting their activities on the Reps website. 2 auth login maybe one of the factor. Then maybe we should evaluate and filter the categories of report to become more compact. If we have more resource, we can consider in building a mobile app to make it easier for Reps to do reports.

2 Likes
#4

1. What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?

  • Strength:
    The biggest strength is openness as anyone who has a passion for Open source, about Mozilla mission can indulge in the program and be mentored into being the best Rep one can be.

  • Weakness:

The biggest weakness I perceive is the lack of more voices on the communication channels, where we tend to see the same group of “loud” Reps talking most of the time and very little from the “quiet” ones, we should strive for everyone to have a voice and promote asynchronous communication channels a bit more.

Being a part of this program, I still feel that the recognition system was not able to scale & justify with reps program. It’s time to walk ahead from the current ROM system and find new innovative ways to recognize reps for their amazing contributions.

2. Identify something that is currently not working well in the Mozilla Reps program and which you think could be easy to fix. How would you approach a possible fix?

  • This is based on what I got the feedback from the Mozillians around that “ Mozilla changes constantly, there are so many projects that start and then disappears that makes it very hard for us to be up to date&rdquo, and this is somewhere true. We have an information to create new events or to publicize product launches, but, what happens after that? Without continuity we can’t engage or make new active collaborating members.
  • Moreover, communication can become a barrier sometimes when working on a level at which Mozilla works with all its contributors. We need to come up with solutions to smoothen the communication process.
  • We have the “ ROM” but it is only awarded to super active reps and others may or may not be nominated for it. Personal contributions are rarely noticeable so the council should work on new structures where each and every reps can be appreciated for their individual contributions.
  • Having a plan where expectations are established in the short, medium and long term would help us to engage more easily in new collaborators, and establish clear roles to achieve the stated objectives within the planning. I believe, “ Plan is not important, planning is important.”

3. What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?

  • Participation:

With time, we are witnessing a general lack of people’s dedication to the Reps program and to the overall community in general. In the recent past, we have seen many experienced reps voluntarily retire or get into a passive mode.

There is something definitely lacking in the program then. We are somehow unable to keep people motivated.

I know the council is already looking into it. But, according to me, we are currently in a red zone where we need to take actions super soon else we will end up losing a lot more of our dedicated and much-needed volunteers.

  • Contributors Journey, Opportunities & Recognition :

Providing a clear picture from day one to a contributor to make them believe in Mozilla Mission.

Always maintaining a connection and providing diverse opportunities for them to work on. I have seen ups/downs because of which many contributors go inactive due to less opportunity to participate.

For instance: Have a defined SOP for recognition. It can be as small as a “ thank you” but should come in a way that makes the contributor feel special. We are doing good on this part but still, we have to improve to make it more visible.

  • Reps Leadership Training:

This is the part where I would like to lead and make it better. because our reps are our spokesperson to the world. Reps are already leaders/mentors in their communities. But we need to provide them with proper tools and resources so that they can be even empowered more.

I would like to work on its efficacy. In the meantime, we need to be more aligned with the functional teams so that we can have some skill-based training in order to make the Reps program more effective.

For instance: We can hold some online training sessions or lightning talks within organization peers by inviting reps to participate. This way we can encourage them to speak and make them fearless wherever they go!

4. What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?

If I would like to describe in short then I’m open to talking things out and approachable for all matters, especially those where I’m a part of and If I’m not part of then at least will try to connect you with right group that can help.

And in brief;

  • I follow strategic processes and try to engineer my way through things I need to achieve. I will be happy to work with the council for making the reps program more impactful.
  • I always tried to be innovative and adaptive ad much as possible because one thing I learned that you can’t to talk with the same pitch with everyone, you should be sometimes funny, interactive by the way you can engage your audience. I always tried to get encourage younger generation by sharing my learnings & experiences.
  • I am practical and goal oriented in my approach towards projects and issues. This quality helps me achieve the required goals in time.
  • Commitment where a lot of people can vouch on this for me. I commit to things only when I am sure that I will be able to deliver. I will not claim that I have never failed a commitment, but most of the time, I try and complete the task bestowed on me. I like taking responsibilities but more than that, I would love to complete them!
  • Mobilizing which means - ‘ organize or prepare something’ so It always a challenging task setting up the program, motivating them to carry out activities. Guide them through various set of activities, training them. When you are dealing with a large number of volunteers you come across different mindsets, different ideas, different demands, glad that I was part of such program where I learned a lot. So this experience has helped me to deal with any situation related to volunteers. Thus handling people, motivating them to carry some activity is easily done. The Mobilizing was then continued in the Rust activities, Campus club, Privacy & security and so on.

5. Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

  • Organizer of Maker Fest 2018 & 2017 : Maker Fest is one of the most focus presence since of Mozilla, this is about developing a great maker community where people can learn and share about making. Creators, artists and hobbyist across the country are invited to present their contemporary applications of ideas using the vast ocean of art, science and technology.
  • Organizer of Rain Of Rust: Rain of Rust Campaign, a month-long global campaign specifically focused on the Rust language. It has taken place in June 2017 in collaboration with the Rust community. It was a successful campaign and was one of the featured campaign of the year 2017.
  • Serving as Reps Resource to ensures that resources (budget and others) of the program are used in the most impactful way and according to the guidance provided by Mozilla’s strategy and the Council.
  • Rust Mobilizer: Increasing Rust outreach is one of the focused goal of the program this year. Our recent initiative such as RainOfRust, Rust Hacks enable people to learn, teach & adopt Rust globally.
  • Part of Mozilla India Panning Meetup 2016: The team responsible for making Mozilla India Meetup 2016. This event hosted by Mozilla India Community in India with people from different sub-communities based on gender diversity, regional representation, activities and leadership in community.

Apart from this I have been spoken at many global conferences and represented Mozilla to share their mission and what next we come up with to contribute to open web.

6. Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?

7. Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?

There can be multiple reasons for the same.

  • Lack of communication from Mentors on reports might discourage them but the continuous conversation between Coach-Mentee will be motivated them to report their activities.
  • Based on my personal experience, many reps are not aware of reporting form.
  • A very common reason, they may forget to fill the reporting form sometime.
  • Being a mentor I have always asked my mentees to reports their activities by sharing their blog reports, sometime I’m commenting on a bug to remind them to fill the reporting form if I was cc’d to the respective bug.

Thank you.
Mehul Patel

3 Likes
[IMPORTANT] ⚠️ Council Elections - Spring 2019 - Nominee Q&A
#5

1. What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?

Strength:

Passion
Many Reps are emotionally attached to Mozilla and its mission (Mission Driven Mozillians). Which is our core strength. No matter what, reps are always trying to help mozilla in any way possible.

Easily adaptive
Reps are capable and flexible enough to carry out any activity. They are always excited for participation in new experiments and activities.

Community that never sleeps
We are always active. Our community has global presence, we are present in almost all the time zones. In short Reps Program is audible to the world 24*7 . This has helped us in our past online campaigns like Net Neutrality, Encryption, Activate Mozilla and more.

Weakness:

Communication gap
There is communication gap between all the entities in the program (Council, Mentor and mentees). This is affecting the coordination between the three groups.

Challenge to stay updated
It is a challenge to stay updated with the focus and priority changes of mozilla and the reps program. A small Inactivity can make a volunteer misinformed.

Volunteers wait for further steps
Our volunteers rely on the program to provide them with campaign and contribution pathways. This dependency results in irregular momentum.

Our efforts weren’t enough for retention of members
In recent times lot of good reps have left the program. I feel our efforts were not enough to retain them back. Experienced and skilled member leaving is a loss to our program.

Less / incomplete orientation for new / potential reps
New and potential Reps are the building blocks for the Reps program. They are ones who will be leading things in the future. Proper orientation with the clear information about current OKRs will lead to a strong foundation of the reps program. The existing reps should pass on the knowledge and experience to the new generation. As Mozilla has a complex ecosystem it will take time for any newcomer to get familiar with the system.

2. Identify something that is currently not working well in the Mozilla Reps program and which you think could be easy to fix. How would you approach a possible fix?

Volunteers are unable to cope with the changes:
Inactivity of reps for few weeks can create communication gap. Most of the volunteers in the community do not contribute to code or any other technical contribution. So it is demotivating for them to continue contributing. Also lot of focus areas are changing, the transition is causing confusion and the lack of activities in the mission driven mozillians is leading to loss of momentum.

Recognition:
The council have already started working on few new recognitions. We have the “Reps Of The Month” but it is only awarded to a super active rockstar mozillian and others may or may not be nominated for it. But now personal contributions which were rarely noticeable can now be appreciated for their contributions after successfully running the beta vouching recognition system. Fingers crossed.

Fun elements & momentum in the community:
During the transition, it is very difficult to keep the momentum going on. So many things are changing. Even the council needs time to figure out and set things for the reps. After seeing the progress in the transition I feel the council and peers can now plan activities inline with the latest OKRs which will bring the fun element leading to momentum back in action :slight_smile:

Efforts to reactivate inactive Reps - Need to make most active:
Mozilla Reps community is said to be one of the largest community in terms of its members. But unfortunately not everyone is active. Future activities needs involvement of the experienced volunteers. I hope council successfully implements the appreciation system.

3. What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?

This aligns with what I am working on as the current council member. I wish to continue working upon it.

Comms:
The reps council has figured out that- New communication strategies using social platforms, newsletter, blogs can help lot of reps to get updated with the latest happenings in Mozilla and program. We are continuously pushing campaign, council workflow, Mission driven mozillians updates. We only need to keep this momentum going :slight_smile:

Create contribution opportunities for the Mission Driven Mozillians -Re-commitment:
We as a council also figured it out that we need more value addition contribution from our Mission driven mozillians. This is why we are pushing important campaigns that are adding value to Mozilla and its products. In the upcoming months we need to take steps to reactive reps & onboarding of new mozillians. We need to mobilize them to the right projects they want to contribute to. A little help can place a right volunteer to a right task.

Involve Reps in various roles:
Recently council has already involved reps into its core work the onboarding team, review team, newsletter team, etc. In future we look upon involving them in the campaigns team, social media team, marketing team etc

Data driven decisions:
We as council have started taking decision based upon numbers. Few months back council had a brainstorming session on Reps Data. This data has helped us identify NDA missing reps, Mozillians profile missing reps, Last logins to the reps portal to check Inactivity. Further working on this would result in better reporting system. Advance tools can be implemented in the reps ecosystem. One of the advancement in this Mozilla community analytics.

Coaching/Leadership:
Coaching can help volunteers get aligned with the program goals and effective leadership can help volunteer reach out to those goals. Good coaching can lead to quality contribution and Good leadership can lead to quality community. Few of the reasons why we as council has started to have mandatory onboarding courses for reps and mentors.

4. What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?

Marketing:
I was part of the engagement team for more than 3 years. We have worked upon many marketing strategies for FSA program, Firefox, Firefox OS, Firefox for Android, Firefox for IOS etc. I have also led many advocacy campaigns for Mozilla. Managed social media account for Mozilla. I work with the community development team on beta of group identities . Program Influence can be increased by redesigning few marketing strategies.

Mobilizing:
When we had the FSA program mobilizing them was one of the important task. Setting up campus program, motivating them to carry out activities. Guide them through various set of activities, training them. When you are dealing with large number of volunteers you come across different mindsets, different ideas, different demands. And this experience has helped me to deal with any situation related to volunteers. Thus handling people, motivating them to carry some activity is easily done.The Mobilizing was then continued in the Firefox OS promotional activities, Campus club, Privacy Advocacy activities etc.

Leadership:
Listening to community members for their thoughts and grievances, making them feel comfortable with the workflow and saying ‘Thankyou’ or ‘you did a great job’ is something I have close experience in. Being the FSA E-Board I have had my fair chances of improving my skills at this. Well motivated community can be very productive if they are channelized property to the right resources.

5. Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

These are some of the contribution on programmatic level only

Deactivating mailing service (not a big task though):
After the GDPR council took a decision to move our newsletter to the discourse. This step ensured that we kept the volunteer data safe.

Update Interests, Activities and Functional Areas on the portal:
The idea was to study and update the Interests, Activities and Functional Areas on the report system with in the reps portal and removing the old one and adding new.

The involvement of a Council member in the Campaigns design:
My task as a council member was to help the campaigns team with the following

  • Campaigns Idea
  • Reviewing comms for the campaign. Modifying the content from the volunteers point of view
  • Recording and editing instruction videos
  • Publishing updates on the social channels and mailing list
  • Update council and peers with the progress
  • Reviewing the feedback

Social rebranding:
Updating the new reps logo on all our existing online platforms. Task was to identify different platform and the resource person who can help get it resolved. For this I also needed to take support from the participation system team.

Drafting and Publishing the Newsletter:
My task was to coordinate with the newsletter team

  • Coordinating with the Newsletter team
  • Host monthly call with the team
  • Pass Council Updates to team
  • Help drafting content
  • Getting content reviewed from the Council
  • Make announcement on Discourse
  • Post Newsletter
  • Check Performance (e.g.: How many reps viewed the newsletter)

6. Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?]

Aadhaar campaign in India:
As a part of the community development team, we ran pan India Aadhaar campaign. In which the Indian Mozilla Community helped Mitchell Baker by signing the open letter and raise their voices & concerns about data protection within the Aadhaar system. We were able to plan, execute the campaign and reach our goal in limited time frame.

Being a part of net neutrality campaign in India as a Rep coordinator:
Lot of reps actively participated in this campaign. This was a successful campaign because we were able to make our voices reach out to the Government. Eventually they took strong actions by blocking Net neutrality violating service like zero-rating.

Privacy Month Campaign:
This campaign was totally a community led initiative. Many global communities participated in it. One of the best examples of good coordination and communication between different communities. This campaign was featured by Stay safe online organization

Reps volunteering for MozFest:
This was the first time where Mozilla reps where volunteering for each space at mozfest. Each space wrangler was assigned with few reps, these reps helped them manage the space activities.

7. Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?

The probable reasons

  1. It was not communicated properly, Reps might still be ignorant about the importance of reporting.
  2. For reporting the reps activities. It asks for URL for your activity - i think blog post of every activity might not be ready or missing
  3. Activities can be runned by a group of reps. And may be only the reps who organized the event must be reporting
  4. Not easy to detect this on the reps portal
  5. May be rep is attending a event by non rep and he feels he should not report about it.
  6. The other reason might be Not much activities are happening

Video about myself and my views on the council : https://youtu.be/Zpj2uX9PCCU

1 Like
#6

1. What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?
Strength: In my view, Mozilla Reps are dedicated to Mozilla who are present in best possible ways to help any Mozillians regrading Mozilla or any open source platform. I think this is the biggest strength.

Weakness: Some times i came to know that Reps becomes irregular due to lack of information. Their contribution becomes less day by day and one day they goes into sleep mode of contribution. I think we can overcome this by regular activities or campaigns.

2. Identify something that is currently not working well in the Mozilla Reps program and which you think could be easy to fix. How would you approach a possible fix?
I think all is fine but for recognition of contributors we should take a step forward like We have ROM for all the reps on this planet. We can start “Mozillian of the month” or “Club Captain of the Month” for Mozillians all around.

3. What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?
As i mention before,

Participation: I will try to focus in a way that can boost up the contribution permanently, because there are many cases in which a Mozillian in his student life starts contribution and will discontinue slowly as he/she enters in his/her professional life. We as a open source community needs a consistent contributors not bulk quantity to show the Numbers.

Recognition: Many times contributors need encouragement and appreciation in term of recognition. The present system of recognition is good but not beneficial for a Mozillian. We can try to discuss a way to recognize an individual Mozillian too.

Resource Barrier: Sometime i came to know the problems face by few of Mozilla clubs that they wanted to contribute but they were lack of resources due which they did not able to make it. Sometimes they were late and sometimes guidelines of Mozilla that no Mozillian can travel for Speaking purposes etc make barrier for them.

4. What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?
Many times i got the appreciation of guiding well, giving time to all the new Mozillians or new club captains around me. So i think this quality of mine to give proper time and dedication can help me to be an effective Council.

5. Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?
As currently i am playing a role of Regional Coordinator + Resource Reps + Reps Mentor in Mozilla Community and Guiding the Reps + Club Captains + New Mozillians for the contribution in the community. I love to Guide and let them choose their path in this big and endless Mozilla Community where there are many ways to contribute for the one who laterally wants to contribute.

6. Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?
I will tell him the moments when i felt proud of myself to be a Mozillian was When i was selected as a Reps and then Reps Mentor and Finally the Journey of Reps of the month to my best non-Mozilla friend.

7. Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?
Many of the Reps uses reporting system, but many of them are got failed due to their own priorities. But if they got to know about the importance of reporting. If they come to know about its benefits then i think there will be a plus in the number of reporting. Also sometimes i came to know about few misconceptions(myths) about reporting e.g. we cannot report an activity without photos or blogs.

1 Like
#7

These are some ideas and perceptions of my own, however, I included the voices of many friends reps from the region where I am, Latin America. Thank you all, because always in community you build more!

  1. What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?

Biggest strength: Its greatest strength is that the proposed actions and plans are aimed at the development and leadership of Mozilla reps around the world. So the program provides tools, opportunities, accompaniment and above all, options for the community to have an impact on Mozilla.

Weakness: In relation to the weaknesses of the program, we find shortcomings in leadership strategies; communication, which is often not horizontal but vertical; many networks contribute actively and are not named or recognized for their work; and there is no continuity within the support to regional leaders.
For the local context, we believe that Mozilla’s objectives are paramount and there is a loss of confidence and centrality in the role that the community played, so we believe that the community does not contribute as potentially as it could.

  1. Identify something that is currently not working well in the Mozilla Reps program and which you think could be easy to fix. How would you approach a possible fix?

We believe that there are several aspects that are failing, including communication, authority figures, unclear roles of networks and mentors, community empowerment, access to resources, visibility and support to different regions, and that there are no long-term plans that prioritize both community and Mozilla objectives.
Faced with these, I would focus on community empowerment and would do so through three themes:

  • A community empowerment program built around good practices from active and strong communities within Mozilla. The objective would be to have a curriculum that is composed of several themes and that allows for a formal formation within Mozillla. This documentation can be hosted in the Mozilla Wiki to make it easier to find.
  • Starting from the theme of receiving training at the level of the networks, it is important that they have certifications that allow them to continue their training within Mozilla in the first place, but still be part of their personal and professional training.
  • Regarding regional issues, one way to empower and work with regions is with leaders or experts in the contexts. The experiment of a regional coordinator could be taken up again, as he is currently dead without any plan. An alternative would be to reactivate it taking into account the new guidelines, objectives and so on.

  1. What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?

    On the topics of focus for Mozilla Reps we propose the following:

  • Evaluation of current projects and initiatives to identify good practices, impacts and how best to do things so that they are recognized within Mozilla.
  • Program update and community empowerment initiatives. In this regard we believe that this can be achieved through actions such as:
    • Training in 21st century skills for the reps, mentors and also the council.
    • Program of development of specialties of each network that involve their participation but also development in the community.
    • Campaigns worldwide where the work of communities and contributors is recognized.
  • Give voice, vote and participation to the community. Re-emphasize the importance that the work of the contributors once had.
    • Community development and teamwork. Include concrete actions that align with what is proposed by MDM.
    • Setting community goals and objectives that align with what Mozilla wants to develop
  1. What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?

First of all, I like to share and foster unity, I am also an organized person and I promote leadership. I like to be aware of processes, to follow them up, to work together with people, to listen to others and to think of ways in which everyone’s interests can be met, the latter without losing sight of the contexts but also spaces in which we work as a team. I know Mozilla’s mission, I am passionate about the processes and projects of the community, I am an active leader in my country and all my actions are aimed at making the Internet something better: Make the Internet open, accessible to all and built by all!

  1. Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

  • Lead the Mozilla Native community, where speakers of indigenous languages from different Latin American countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay) participate. We hold events and also participate in two localization hackathons (Mexico and Paraguay), the next one will be in Mexico and I am also in your organization along with the Drivers.

  • Reactivate my local community (Colombia) through events, forming a work team and establishing a campaign to recruit new contributors, currently we have several channels of information and we are doing at least every 2 months an event.

  • We participate as organizers in FLISoL, the largest installation of Open Software event in Latin America with headquarters in Bogotá.

  • We launched the IHR in Colombia, and from this presentation we have a team doing research to get a local version of the report.

  • I am Rep, but I also had training as Reps Resources and for more than a year I am Reps Mentor.

  • I was part of the IHR Global Committee and we will have a presentation on linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace at the next Mozfest.

  • In the last 18 months I have participated in more than 100 events, including meetings, activities, workshops, presentations, and so on, both in my country and in other countries in the region.

  1. Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?

In Mozilla as a rep I have made a career and also training, not only as a professional but as a leader, person and community builder. I have met great people who are now my friends, I have improved many aspects of my life such as relationships with others, knowledge in subjects I never thought I would know, and also undertake new challenges.
She now considers me a critical person regarding what the Internet is, the value that people have not only as users but as builders, the impact of working as a team especially when you share goals and objectives with others.

  1. Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?

Well, it’s happened to me too. I think it is something that is not given importance because in a certain way we do not know what is the impact of submitting a numerical report, especially when sometimes there are no requirements to reps to perform certain actions. If perhaps there was an awareness of the use that is given to the reports, that instead of remaining only in numbers we can report through entries in blogs, articles, images, it would be a way to talk about our activities.

4 Likes