[IMPORTANT] ⚠️ Council Elections - H1 2022 - ⚠️ Nominees' Q&A ⚠️

Hey all,

This is the second step into the Election Process . In this thread, the nominees should post their answers to the following questions . Nominees can additionally attach a very short video of themselves if they want to do so (please keep it under 2 minutes). Candidates have time until April 14th, 9:00 PM UTC . Note that this is mandatory.

  • How can Reps motivate contributors to get them involved in Mozilla, both in campaigns and also long term?
  • 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?
  • What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?
  • Which of your contributions in 2021 had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?
  • Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?

The list of nominees is:

Thanks in advance, looking forward to your answers!

PS: to all others, please engage and add more questions!

2 Likes

How can Reps motivate contributors to get them involved in Mozilla, both in campaigns and also long term?

The hardest part of getting someone to be involved in Mozilla as a contributor is answering “why” they should be one.

I believe that we, as Reps, should go back to the basics and ask ourselves (again) why we dedicate our time and talent to Mozilla? What excites us to be part of Mozilla? How can we convert Firefox fans to become Mozilla contributors? By answering these questions, ourselves, we can penetrate the sweetspots of people in our respective communities and transform them from just being Mozilla/Firefox fans to contributors.

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?

The way I see it, based on my observations, there is somewhat a disconnect between the Mozilla leadership/management and the Mozilla Reps (people and program). The Mozilla Reps program was created to train servant-leaders among different communities, and to serve as the eyes and ears of the organization on matters and issues related to the Internet, Web, Privacy, etc.

As a contributor, I feel that the Mozilla leadership is no longer taking in consideration valuable inputs from the Mozilla Reps program based on the way products and services are launched in different geographic regions. Now, there are more questions than answers from the local communities on how and why certain Mozilla products and services are not yet available to them.

With the ongoing pandemic (restricted movement of people, lesser in-person events/interactions) and previous events/issues surrounding Mozilla as a whole, I have reason to believe that the morale of Mozilla Reps is low at this moment. I think that it is high time for the Mozilla Reps program to have some sort of a reboot to further boost the morale of Reps, and for all members of the organization (Mozilla Reps) to undergo some sort of refresher for us to be back on the same page again.

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

Being a long-time Mozilla Rep, local tech community builder, and part of the Reps Council years ago, I firmly believe that I had gained more than enough experience to share valuable inputs to be an effective member of the Reps Council.

Which of your contributions in 2021 had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

To me, personally, being an active member and part of the Mozilla Reps program (staying in the program) even during this trying times is more than enough contribution to the organization.

In addition, continuously activating members of the local and regional community/ies to participate in various campaigns and promote the use of our products/services to put forward the Mozilla Mission is among my contributions in the past years that may had the biggest impact on the Reps program.

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

Having the opportunity to represent Mozilla both in my home country and elsewhere to talk about the organization, it’s values and mission, and products/services is among the past achievements that I will tell to my best non-Mozilla friend.

2 Likes

How can Reps motivate contributors to get them involved in Mozilla, both in campaigns and also long term?

I think that Reps are in a position to help direct new contributors towards core functional teams such as making coding contributions, L10n, SUMO, AMO and Common Voice and link these back to the Mozilla mission. The positive impact that these teams (and I am sure others) have had in building and supporting Mozilla’s mission since the very early days of the Mozilla project have been key to its longevity and its continued impact in the world is partly dependant on more people being involved.

Campaigns and activities are also a good introduction, an “on ramp”, that can get contributors involved in the work of a team as well as make a real impact. Reps have the opportunity to build on that using their experience of the wider project to help new contributors connect with teams and projects and continue that contribution for the longer term.

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 that there is a significant opportunity for staff at all levels to have a greater connection to the community and to make better use of it’s global diversity. We have already seen positive signs of this in the recent foxfooding exercise and to do more of this for different products would not be too much of a challenge to set up and make it a sustained contribution area with a sizeable multi-locale group of Reps and contributors testing features, providing feedback and filing good quality bugs.

Alongside this, the profile of Reps (and contributors more generally) in Mozilla needs to be increased. Over recent years the fact the that Mozilla software is built and supported by a global community has fallen away. Reps could be in a position to be the face of Mozilla and reinforce that Firefox is built by people, for people.

Neither of these are big or complex or would involve significant time in cost or money, but would build the connection between Firefox and it’s users while also bringing contributors into Mozilla.

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

I have been a contributor to SUMO since early 2015 and have continued to contribute over a periods of considerable change and challenge for the Support Team. I have also been a volunteer and more recently a Volunteer Coordinator at the Mozilla festival since 2015 helping to not only manage a significant event for Mozilla, but also help connect volunteers with contributing to Mozilla after the event.

Outside of Mozilla, I have almost twenty years of experience working as part of a diverse and mixed volunteer team at large indoor and outdoor events. From my “day job” I have experience working in and with large corporate organisations and can appreciate that element of Mozilla from doing so.

Which of your contributions in 2021 had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

During a pandemic, it is obviously more challenging to do “traditional” Rep related activities, but that has not meant that Reps have not been able to add value to their communities and the open web. At a time when we are all so distant, I am present for virtual activities, both for ReMo and for the functional team I am part of in SUMO, and have been working to raise the profile of the contributor community within Mozilla.

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

The work that I have done and tried to do as a Rep to promote the work of the Support Team further to the challenges that we faced in 2019 has been a good example of how the Reps community can carry forwards the work done at a functional level.

Being a Rep has given me a greater appreciation for the challenges that all Reps, regardless of team and locale, are facing during this time of unprecedented trauma for the world. Faced with the same challenges as many globally have faced, we have continued to work together to make the web (which is of vital importance for home, school, and work during a lockdown) a more open and better place. I think that what all contributors are doing right now under extremely challenging circumstances is very special.

2 Likes

Hello Everyone!

I’m Bala Subramaniyan from Chennai, India. I’m associated with Mozilla over 9+ years and came across multiple positions.

Currently, I’m associated with Mozilla as a volunteer for Mozilla Reps and Reps Resource Member positions.

In the past, I worked as a Reps Onboarding Member , VP of Club Development for FSA Executive Board and Regional Ambassador Lead for Indian community.

  • From my point of view, If a volunteer needs to contribute for a longer term with Moz activities / Campaigns - The contributor needs to have a clear vision and goals for what they do with proper stats, Weekly meetings, and recognitions.
  • For Example, if we could take Mozilla L10n and other Support projects - In that we have a proper contribution stats dashboard, regular recognitions, weekly meetings, with monthly updates through the newsletter. This helps in motivating the contributors with regular participation and we can able to sustain them for the longer time period.
  • As Pandemic came to an end, we can encourage contributors to go with the offline events for our Mozilla campaigns. This will be a best practice to make involve in Mozilla goals and activities which enables true participation.
  • Hiring more new Mozilla Reps from Student Communities and Universities, which helps in holding them active for long term – they can add more contributors to Mozilla community.

  • Revamping the Mozilla Reps Mentorship structure, in the last year we revamped the Mozilla Reps application and onboarding process that helped a lot for the onboarding team and with actual inputs from the applicants. In the same way - we need to introduce a feedback loop between mentor and mentee that helps the Mozilla Council to review the mentorship process and bring some changes.

  • There are no Reps gathering events, apart from weekly Reps call. These practices will help to know and interact with many unknown/new Reps. This helps in fixing the lack of communications across the Reps program.

As I mentioned in my introduction, I was associated with the Mozilla program over 9+ years and came across multiple positions and learned many key skills and qualities. I guess my experience, dedication, active communicator, consistency and time commitment with leadership qualities will surely help me to be an effective Council member.

Due to Pandemic, not able to engage more activities in the 2021. But worked with open-source communities and attended events virtually.

  • Been part of MozFest 2021 as an attendee, for the virtual event.

  • Worked with Open Source communities like Signal, L10 Lab for their Covid Pandemic projects.

Where ever I go, I’m proud to represent myself as a Mozilla Representative. Mozilla program helped me in curving my career success. Nurtured me in learning new things and provided me an opportunity to work with the global team. We are united globally for building a better Internet alive and accessible for all. I’m happy to share anything about the Mozilla program with anyone easily and always in a tendency for building the community growth.

I am really happy with the Reps program and proud to be a part of it. Now I would like your help our Reps community by being a part of the council member.

I want to thank you for taking the time out to read my answers. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Stay Happy, Stay Safe!

#MozLove :hearts:
Bala

1 Like

How can Reps motivate contributors to get them involved in Mozilla, both in campaigns and also long term?

Based on my conversation held with various contributor, they are willing to involve in Mozilla which are aligned with Mozilla Mission and Vision. These days Reps has very less understanding about Mozilla Vision and priorities for Mozilla in say next 12 months. An updated Reps can motivate contributors in short time campaigns like Common Voice and long term contributions like L10n, MDN etc.

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?

Reps Program is failing to retain the enthusiasm of the community due to many reasons, pandemic is one of them. As a result, size of the community is continuously decreasing for last 4-5 years. I think, I should be able to bridge the gap, boost their enthusiasm to re-initiate the community. As I mentioned in both the town-halls that proper communication is missing in the program, we are failing to give the directions to the volunteers. Reps program has failed to communicate the priorities of the Mission Driven Moziilians among the Reps/Mozillians. My very first approach will be to talk with people and to give a fair try to bridge the gaps.

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

My skill sets like community building, outreach, communication etc will help me to be an effective council member.

Which of your contributions in 2021 had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

As far as contributions is concerned, year 2021 was not that great. I work closely with various regional communities, I am more into community building and always focus on to reach more and more people to speared the word. But, due world wide pandemic, I am could not travel and meet people in past almost two years. I tried my level best to get connected with the virtually. However, I am preparing a list of things to work on in next 2-3 months, which includes meetings with my mentees and mentor.

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

I am part of a most active FOSS community of the world. I served as Council Members twice in last five yeats. I am currently Mentor of the Reps Program. I volunteer for MozFest recently held virtually. Site host for Mozilla Summit 2013 held on SFO, USA.
Mentor of various Regional communities, mentor of various FOSS initiatives etc.

Hi everyone! :wave:

My name is Siddhartha Rao (https://community.mozilla.org/en/people/siddhartharao17) from Nashik, India, currently living in the United Stated and I have been part of the Mozilla Community since June 2014. I contributed as a Firefox Student Ambassador for a year, then as a Rep for over 6 years and now serving as a Reps Mentor and a part of the Reps Onboarding Team. I have always been passionate about teaching, mentoring and helping the community grow.

How can Reps motivate contributors to get them involved in Mozilla, both in campaigns and also long term?

  • Mozilla’s Mission for open internet, passion to support that mission and getting incentivized on the way everything together drives motivation.
  • From what I’ve observed being a Rep and talking to people in the community, things that drive motivation are -
    • The core cause - Mozilla’s mission for an open web and love for open source.
    • Opportunity to be a part of the cause and contribute to it.
    • Excitement about contributing to interesting projects, initiatives and campaigns.
    • Getting recognized for contributions that they can then showcase outside the community, for example, to potential employers.
    • Personal and professional skills development.
    • Working and networking with a great community.
    • Swag - buttons, stickers, tshirts, wristbands, etc
  • Reps really need to understand what the contributors’ goals are and how they can help achieve them while being aligned with Mozilla’s mission and objectives.
  • Motivation to contribute is going to differ from person to person - someone might be doing it for the cause while another might be doing it for building connections. What makes this contributor tick? Understanding this is key.

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?

  • Reps program is directly impacted by the decisions Mozilla leadership takes and so communication and transparency with the community becomes extremely important for smooth flow of information.

  • I feel a disconnect between the two (leadership and community) and so that gives a chance for confusion, unclarity and friction. The channels of comms can be decided later, but in general I think there should be structured sync ups on a cadence between -

    • Mozilla leadership and the Reps Council
    • Reps Council and the Reps and contributors.
  • I still remember being at the Leadership Summit in Singapore a few years back and how well knit the community and Mozilla leadership felt when we worked together about future plans in the same room and shared stories about all the cool stuff happening in the community.

  • I also want to bring light to problems that are not easy fixes but they still need to be fixed.

    • Motivation for Reps themselves has gone down for various different reasons -
      • Not being able to relate with the current system.
      • Loss of momentum and confidence due to layoffs.
      • Discouraged due to project discontinuity and difficulty to find another project they’re equally passionate about.
      • Lack of in-person meetups, the online world has made contributions less exciting.
      • Personal commitments

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

  • My sheer love and passion for Mozilla’s mission, products and the amazing community.
  • I have been a part of this community and Reps program long enough to understand its strengths and shortcomings and I won’t hesitate to say it when something is or is not working well.
  • I have experience working in teams in large organizations and enjoy solving problems.

Which of your contributions in 2021 had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

  • Due to the absence of a local community around where I’m, I turned towards more administrative and online activities.
  • My most notable contributions towards Reps program in 2021 -
    • Member of the Reps Onboarding Team.
    • Reviewed, provided feedback and helped define -
      • The new Reps Mentors role.
      • Reps Mentors Onboarding teachable.
      • Reps Onboarding teachable.
      • Community Participation Guidelines (CPG) teachable.

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

  • Participated in the 2016 Mozilla Leadership Summit in Singapore.
  • Content creator & curator for Privacy Months 2016, 2017 & 2020.
  • Privacy advocacy and security online at NYC Glassroom Expo. (See “Ingeniouses” section on https://theglassroom.org/glassroomny/credits)
  • Public speaking and community building.
  • Organized and delivered several FirefoxOS app dev workshops.