Head of Mozilla Says ACTA Is 'A Bad Way To Develop Internet Policy'

One telling sign of the widespread concern about SOPA/PIPA was that the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which oversees the open source Firefox and Thunderbird projects, abandoned its non-interventionist policy, and came out strongly against the bills. It first signed a joint letter sent to the key sponsors of both bills, and then modified its home page, pointing to further information about SOPA. That, in its turn, linked to a post entitled "PIPA/SOPA and Why You Should Care," written by Mitchell Baker, the Chair of the Mozilla Foundation. 

On Techdirt.

The Rise and Rise of Mozilla

On Open Enterprise blog.

The Netscape Story: From Mosaic to Mozilla

On Open Enterprise blog.

Why Open Source is Different

When you read the following, bear in mind it's written by someone who is running one of the most important - and successful - open source projects, Mozilla:

I few months ago I hurt my shoulder on the trapeze. Well, falling off the trapeze, actually. And it's probably more like 4 months ago, but who's counting? It wasn't a bad fall or a bad injury. My rotator cuff muscles complained and my arm ached for weeks. But still it counted as an irritating setback rather than a scary or serious injury.

In hindsight, I can see that this fall was exactly like the last time I did something scary and fell to the net. In both cases the underlying problem had been identified by the instructors repeatedly. In both cases I understood I should fix the problem. But in neither case did I understand that fixing the problem was a safety issue.

In this case the manoeuver is known as an "uprise." it's a move where one starts out hanging on to and below the trapeze bar and ends up with one's hips resting on top of the bar. The clearest video of an uprise I found of an uprise is actually a woman I fly with, although this video was taken in sunny outdoor southern California and not in the old warehouse where I fly. Here's a dark, harder to see video of an uprise by a classmate of mine in the facility where I fly. In both these videos the flyer is wearing safety lines; these allow the instructor to help the flyer if something goes wrong.

This is not your parents' CEO. Indeed, her actual job title is Chief Lizard Wrangler.

The Chief Lizard Wrangler Speaketh

One of the unsung heroines of the open source movement is Mitch Baker, whose official job title is "Chief Lizard Wrangler" - the lizard in this case being Mozilla. I interviewed her for Rebel Code, a long time ago, about how she oversaw the transition of Netscape's browser code to open source (which included drawing up a couple of new open source licences such as the Mozilla Public Licence..)

At that time Mozilla was interesting historically but had relatively little impact on the wider world of computing. No more. To catch up with the why and the how, here's a useful - and rare - interview with her.

The Mozilla Manifesto

It's either a sign of a growing maturity - or of great hubris - that the Mozilla Foundation under the guidance of the Chief Lizard Wrangler herself, Mitch Baker, feels moved to offer the world the Mozilla Manifesto:

The Manifesto sets out a vision of the Internet as a piece of infrastructure that is open, accessible and enriches the lives of individual human beings. It includes a pledge from the Mozilla Foundation about taking action in support of the principles of the Mozilla Manifesto. It extends an invitation to others to join us, either by working directly with the Foundation or through other activities that support the Mozilla Manifesto.

It adheres to the following principles:

1. The Internet is an integral part of modern life - a key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole.

2. The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.

3. The Internet should enrich the lives of individual human beings.

4. Individuals' security on the Internet is fundamental and cannot be treated as optional.

5. Individuals must have the ability to shape their own experiences on the Internet.

6. The effectiveness of the Internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.

7. Free and open source software promotes the development of the Internet as a public resource.

8. Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability, and trust.

9. Commercial involvement in the development of the Internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial goals and public benefit is critical.

10. Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the Internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention and commitment.

I get the feeling that the lizard will continue to surprise in all sorts of ways in the years to come.

Scooped on the Chief Lizard Wrangler

There's a great feature in Inc. about Firefox and its boss, the self-styled Chief Lizard Wrangler, Mitchell Baker, whom I interviewed for Rebel Code many moons ago.

Unfortunately, I can't say I really enjoyed it: I was an email away from writing something similar myself....