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.
