We were having this discussion on trademark of mozilla logo in our Mozilla India Telegram group when I felt the need to get more clarity on this topic which has been in the back of my mind for some time.
There is a global “mozilla community” which we all know and even this discourse lives on mozilla-community.org
But this thread is about regional/local communities. Many communities are listed among our mailing lists. But I do not think that this is an exhaustive list (as in it does not include all “communities”) or that this list does not include overlapping communities (for example, there is community-africa and community-kenya (kenya is inside africa); there is community-india and community-kerala (kerala is geographically inside india)).
Now, in India especially, there is a lot of mozillians and there are several smaller communities. And mostly by convention these smaller communities are named in the pattern “mozilla <region>
” (for example, mozilla gujarat, mozilla tamil nadu).
I think this process of community formation needs to have a formal structure. And I’ll give a few examples why:
-
In Mysuru, where I live, which is a city in south India, I was talking to a few college students about Mozilla, our mission, etc and one of them (a person brand new to Mozilla) came back the next day asking me for help in organizing a “Mozilla Mysuru” event. It is to be kept in mind that the idea of “Mozilla Mysuru” was non-existent till this person came up with the same. Technically, it was time of maker parties and there was nothing preventing that person from creating a giant banner and notices which said “Mozilla Mysuru” and conducting an event.
The reason why this person was so interested in Mozilla instantly was that he was a member of a political party which was (and is) campaigning for “Digital India” and they wanted to use any opportunity to make it seem like the country is rapidly being transformed into digital world. -
On the other hand, there are very active communities like we have in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu which have formed organically and not using the word “Mozilla” in their events would be absurd.
Now, those are the two ends of the spectrum. We have random people ready to take up Mozilla identity and we have genuine Mozillians (and Reps) who should be able to represent Mozilla.
Our trademark policy is very clear on what kind of use is not allowed for the trademark “Mozilla”. But, it doesn’t cover what kind of use is allowed for community members.
I see the need for a clear guideline for a structured process by which Mozillians (probably reps) can come together and form a “mozilla community” with clear accountability, reporting, recognition, and everything that’s needed to make it a successful community.
The community playbook, say, needs to have a structural backend where communities are officially recognized and granted powers that come with it.