Mrinalini - Mozilla's Community Bridge

Hello Mozillians,

Congratulations on a great start to the year. It’s only February and already you’ve done amazing things: a massive Privacy Month and impactful action on Aadhaar through the hundreds of signatures added to Mitchell’s open letter.

The energy and passion in India is inspiring, and is one of the reasons that I and the rest of Mozilla are so deeply invested in the success of Mozilla communities in India

It is because of this desire to invest strongly in India that last year Sukhmani and Mrinalini started working with the Open Innovation team to establish a bigger picture view of the Indian communities. As we we begin to better understand our mission driven mozillian communities, Sukhmani and Mrinalini have helped us enormously in understanding some of the complex challenges and opportunities that exist in India today.

We have two announcements with regards to their role:

  1. At the end of February, Sukhmani will be transitioning from this work and Mrinalini will be leading it moving forwards.

  2. We are changing the name and clarifying the description of Mrinalini’s role. Instead of a “community manager” Mrinalini will be taking on the role of “Community Bridge” the details of which are below.

What is the role of a “Community Bridge”?

This role has two major components:

(1) Lead and Facilitate Strategic Conversations In the Community by

  • Hosting conversations with groups and individuals to better understand the challenges, and opportunities currently facing contributors in India. In the next few months she’ll be diving deeply into how groups work in the community, and what could be improved.
  • Creating engagement opportunities and amplify the voices of volunteer contributors in strategic projects like Mission Driven Mozillians, Volunteer Leadership, and the Group Structures Pilot.

(2) Connect Ongoing Community Efforts With Appropriate Support by

  • Supporting ongoing community projects by connecting volunteers to people with relevant expertise (i.e. staff, members of other communities, etc.) Requests for this support can be surfaced in the office hours, direct requests or the new Community Calls.

Why do we need a Community Bridge?

While many Mozilla staff have and still do work closely with individuals in India, we have been missing an overarching perspective to help us better understand the broad challenges and opportunities facing India as a community of communities.

We also know from the diversity and inclusion research that there are many voices are not being heard by relying solely on personal connections, and finding someone who could understand the cultural contexts within India but bring a fresh perspective to our community understanding would help us as we prepare for a series of strategic conversations.

Success in 2018

As the year continues there are going to be a ton of strategic projects that need community input that is broad, insightful, and deep. The goal is to ensure contributor voices, opinions and direction are driving and shaping strategic projects.

I believe that this goal is shared across staff and community so Mrinalini can’t do it alone. Everyone in the community and the whole Community Development Team is jointly responsible for achieving this goal.

That means we need to work together, take a chance, and act like the web we want: open and accessible to all.

So, have you met Mrinalini Yet?

If you haven’t yet met Mrinalini don’t wait! Ping her on telegram @Mrinalinid, schedule a meeting with her or join one of the new community calls. Mrinalini is here to help you share your thoughts, voice your opinions, and achieve your goals.

All the best,

Lucy on behalf of the Community Development Team

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