Thinking about Mozilla 2010 goals...

I wanted to a few highlights from various emails I have received from other campus reps. I am leaving out their names to protect the innocent. :-)

Rep #1:

• The geeks can't be retained by Mozilla/Google or any other products firm. They will tend to change browser/software at their convenience. The real persons that product firms can influence are the naive users. Those who don't know what DOM means. Those who don't know what a 'ping' means.

• Most of Mozilla's merchandise has this line "I support the Open Web". The problem here is that naive users do not know what the "Open Web" is. To them, often, it's just about switching to another browser! And, since all popular browsers are available for free download, switching loyalties is a frequent event for the naive user! It would be most essential for Mozilla to clearly define in quantifiable terms as to what the "Open Web" is and what it means to the naive user and/or how it affects the naive user. This is probably one way to retain users, though it isn't obviously the only way.

• I find that a lot of students in India hardly care about what browser they use as long as it displays web-pages without ambiguity. The student community is definitely one cross section of the society that can't be ignored. For example, if we can influence a student and make him see what the Open Web is and how good it is, it won't stop there! If we can inspire him and make him fall in love with the Open Web, he will try to inspire his juniors and/or his friends! Of course, students need to be empowered to inspire. But, it's no impossible task. It's just a matter of getting the right words and ideas across! My estimate is that in my state in India, there are at-least a quarter million students who have access to some decent internet connectivity. And, I'm sure that about 70 percent of that number hasn't been approached yet! Therefore, what Mozilla can do here is to organize small un-conferences or seminars or road shows in some of the so-called top schools and colleges which don't yet have a Campus Rep. Naturally, people work only when there's a reward waiting somewhere. We can suitably work out a rewards system and I'm sure we'd gain a lot of faithful Campus Reps from this approach. One more thing we need to ensure is that the Campus Reps program becomes a legacy in the institution so that MCRs get generated every year. --------

Rep #2:

• Q: Do you feel Mozilla can be more involved in certain communities, whether they be geographical, technological, or within the Mozilla world?
• A: Yes I do feel Mozilla can be more involved in many other communities. For example, currently Firefox on Linux has some GNOME bindings. KDE users (XFCE users won't have much trouble as they have some GNOME linkages.) find this problematic. I heard of Nokia developing a QT port of Firefox.

• Q: How can Mozilla play a bigger role in moving the Web forward?
• A: Today many people do not feel a difference between online use and offline use. That transition phase should be minimised more and a seamless integration of browsing, mailing, document reading, writing and editing should be aimed at. The ease of usage, security and simplicity of the technology shall lead it ahead.

• Q: Why do you think Firefox has not captured more browser marketshare?
• A: I would like to share some personal experiences to answer this question. Recently, interacting with some of my juniors in college, I found that they were not using Firefox. I asked them the reason. I was little surprised that some didn't know about it. So I made them aware of it. I also suggested them some plugins specific to their usage. I would like to have input from people in the corporate sector on this issue.

Rep #3:

• Q: What would you like to see Mozilla accomplish?
• A: I would like Mozilla to come standard on pc's.

• Q: What makes you proud about Mozilla as a project/organization?
• A: I'm proud on how far they have got being a open source company.

• Q: What makes you proud about being a part of the Mozilla community?
• A: I love the involvement from most Mozilla users and how proud of their program choice.

• Q: What specific areas in the world of Internet technology and the open Web do you see Mozilla being a leader?
• A: Security, user-specific, compatibility

• Q: Is there anything about the Internet that concerns you?
• A: The government monitoring what people do.

• Q: What concerns do you have about Mozilla getting more involved with data related to Web users?
• A: Just don't record all data input through firefox and send it to the government.

• Q: What benefits do you see for aggregating anonymous "usage data" and making it available to the world as a public resource?
• A: Developers can see what they need to work on

• Q: Do you have ideas on how Firefox for mobile devices can carry on the Mozilla mission?
• A: Tabbed browsing on a mobile phone is a new one to me.

• Q: Why do you think Firefox has not captured more browser marketshare?
• A: Skeptical end-users.

What can Mozilla do in order to spread awareness about the open Web and continue our Firefox marketshare momentum?

First off, I feel that Mozilla needs more advertising. What we have going right now is fine, but if we want to grow faster, we need to start trying to break into magazine ads (yes, I know this has been done once before) and television ads. I think it's very important that we get ads out there, as we currently lack a means more effective than word of mouth to actually spread Mozilla products.

The other thing is, we need more innovation in our flagship products. Thunderbird and Firefox are both extraordinary programs, however, as of late, IE has gotten close enough to closing the gap that it is now harder to actually SPREAD Firefox. What we need is real innovation. We need speed, we need security, and most of all, we need functionality. At the moment, we still have the edge, but it almost seems like we're running out of ideas and as long as this trend continues, spreading Firefox becomes very hard.

Another suggestion would be to try and expand the Campus Reps program. It seems to be working pretty good (maybe that's just me though, I actually have a student organization I created with OSS in mind). I think with more motivation the Campus Reps would make the perfect legion of Firefox supporters to spread Firefox all around the world.

Perhaps another idea would be setting up small regional Mozilla offices focused solely on spreading Firefox to the community, much like a political campaign.

Either way, I think if we want to continue to spread, we need to do something, it's better to try everything than to sit on our laurels and just continue the same old-same old.

I represent all the Download Freaks,n hence wud like to hav a simple,user friendly Torrent Downloader integrated into mozilla,,so that i can download torrents wit the same sense of security that i get wen browsing using Firefox.Also,the download manager that comes default wit firefox is also not upto the mark..Well,u r free to quesion me about using 3rd party add-ons.bt being a security freak in addition to being a download freak,i dont wish to risk the extra security that i get through firefox by using a risky add on... [:D] Govind Maheswaran,

Why do you think Firefox has not captured more browser marketshare?
 
OS preinstalls.
 
Firefox is one of the most well known OSS products out there. The fact that it has genuinely been a better choice than its proprietary competition has helped it flourish and gain such tremendous community involvement and word of mouth popularity. I think what prevents it from gaining even greater adoption than it has is that it does not come preinstalled on Windows computers.
 
The users who have not yet switched to Firefox are likely the ones who wouldn't switch to anything - they use whatever is installed and that's fine for them. These users are going to be the hardest to reach through any other means besides being the default. Headlines indicate Google is also going in this direction to increase adoption of Chrome. Increased Mac/iPhone sales have benefited Safari adoption. Either the Year of the Linux Desktop must come soon, or Mozilla needs to make some deals with vendors to get Firefox shipped on Windows computers. Mobile markets will become very important in this regard too as smart/capable handsets become more ubiquitous. Fennec will need to find a place onto those.
 
Besides that, Firefox has the distinct advantage of targeting niche markets through its extentions. A browser personalized toward a certain niche would be very atractive to those belonging to it (my mom loves antiqueing, for example?)  The unique user experience could be marketed/showcased to those groups.
 
Regards,
Zach

I agree that Firefox has not captured more browser marketshare because among the 50% net users are students and they use net either in their colleges or at cybercafes…where there is boundation of time so they do not bother to download Mozilla Firefox & then install it by wasting their time as their purpose will be solved by Internet Explorer… and the most important point which keeps people away from Mozilla Firefox is that it do not come by default in OS the Windows XP or Vista which 70-75% users used so if any person who downloads Mozilla Firefox & install it but is not as much as computer savvy so after formatting Mozilla will not come … and another thing a Child who starts learning computer do not knows about Open source Technology & its products..in his early days & he learns computers on Microsoft environment as what given in all books..so he get used to use Internet explorer not Mozilla Firefox... We have to create awareness to the people that there is Web Life beyond checking mails etc.... we have to spread the fire of web surfing in few simplified way....