This is a follow-up to my earlier post about localization of the Firefox support project on support.mozilla.com.
The first step in localization is launching the beta en-US version of SUMO. Once we have a few weeks of good user feedback and data, we can determine which support articles are the most useful and stable (there is even a metric for this!). The most useful/stable articles will be rank ordered for localization.
Why the useful/stable metric? We want to make sure that users in all locales have current and correct articles. Some locale support teams will be robust enough to manage all the necessary changes in existing and new content. Some locales, though, will have smaller teams who will need to do high leverage translation—so we want to make sure the articles they translate aren’t going to change the next day.
The SUMO knowledge base beta should be live in September. We are hoping to begin localization of SUMO no later than October for those locales who want to participate. To help make this process easier, there will be a staging area for localized content before the support.mozilla.com platform is launched in your locale. If you want to get involved, please contact me at jt at mozilla dot com.
What if I don’t just want to translate? We know that there are some support issues that are unique to particular locales. We also know that different locales have different ways of approaching technical support. Mozilla wants to ensure that all of our volunteers have the correct information so that they can figure out the best way to share that content with users in your locale.
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Seeding Mozilla marketing in India and beyond
Mozilla in India...
Seth B., Manager of Mozilla's community giving program, and Chris Hofmann (chofmann), Director of Special Projects for Mozilla, went on a 2 week community building trip to India as a part of our larger objective of seeding Mozilla marketing around the world. Seth's blog has an incredible account of the trip (many great blog posts). I recommend that you check it out. A quick summary is that Seth and Chofmann both feel that the Mozilla community in India is incredibly vibrant and excited to help spread Firefox.
... and Beyond
As I mentioned earlier, Rishi, one of our interns, has been researching the state of the web and the state of Mozilla in Russia, Australia, Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey, Canada and Mexico. We will be publishing what we have learned within the next week. We look forward to your feedback on the information and possible next steps.
What's up in Brazil and Argentina? Lots!
I have heard from a few of our Brazil volunteers that they have begun organizing action teams around getting local computer makers (small businesses-- almost like mom and pop shops) to put Firefox on all the computers they build. Mozilla Argentina volunteers are testing a similar program at Internet Cafes/LAN Houses. We are all excited to hear how these efforts work and see if they can be replicated elsewhere.
Seth B., Manager of Mozilla's community giving program, and Chris Hofmann (chofmann), Director of Special Projects for Mozilla, went on a 2 week community building trip to India as a part of our larger objective of seeding Mozilla marketing around the world. Seth's blog has an incredible account of the trip (many great blog posts). I recommend that you check it out. A quick summary is that Seth and Chofmann both feel that the Mozilla community in India is incredibly vibrant and excited to help spread Firefox.
... and Beyond
As I mentioned earlier, Rishi, one of our interns, has been researching the state of the web and the state of Mozilla in Russia, Australia, Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey, Canada and Mexico. We will be publishing what we have learned within the next week. We look forward to your feedback on the information and possible next steps.
What's up in Brazil and Argentina? Lots!
I have heard from a few of our Brazil volunteers that they have begun organizing action teams around getting local computer makers (small businesses-- almost like mom and pop shops) to put Firefox on all the computers they build. Mozilla Argentina volunteers are testing a similar program at Internet Cafes/LAN Houses. We are all excited to hear how these efforts work and see if they can be replicated elsewhere.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Firefox market share trending up globally
Thanks to all the hard work of the Mozilla community, Firefox market share is trending up all over the globe. Check out this Xiti Monitor article (in French) that goes in to more detail. Hopefully, with our efforts to help develop and support the marketing communities in each locale, we can help accelerate this growth.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Mozilla in Sao Carlos (in photos)
Another incredibly successful day in Brazil-- this time we were joined by longtime Mozilla developer and evangelist Marcio Galli. We spoke to packed crowds at the Federal University of Sao Carlos and the University of Sao Paulo in San Carlos, both some of the most competitive and elite schools in Brazil. We met many Firefox fans-- some of whom threw a Firefox 2 launch party by creating what was supposedly the world's largest hamburger (and then they ate it!). There was lots of great brainstorming around how to get organized in Brazil and what the first tasks/stunts/events should be.
We spend the next two days in Sao Paulo with completely packed schedules, so updates are likely to be a little less frequent. Over the course of the trip, we should speak to more than 1000 Mozilla enthusiasts explaining how to get involved spreading Firefox.
Check out all the photo's at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asadotzler/
We spend the next two days in Sao Paulo with completely packed schedules, so updates are likely to be a little less frequent. Over the course of the trip, we should speak to more than 1000 Mozilla enthusiasts explaining how to get involved spreading Firefox.
Check out all the photo's at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asadotzler/
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Mozilla's Friday (and Saturday) in Rio
Friday recap:
We met with professors and graduate students at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, one of the top universities in Brazil, to learn more about the state of the internet here. While most of the professors were in computer science, we also had and a business and economics professor who studies the business case for open source. According to the professors, the computer science program at FURJ had the first website in Latin America, so this is diehard group.
We then spoke to a group of about 100 students who hung around for almost 3 hours for questions and answers, with many who stayed longer for pictures with us (and by us, I mean Asa). The focus of our presentation was about the past, present and future of Mozilla and how they could be a part of it, with a focus on spreading Firefox. All of the CS students have to complete a “senior project” of sorts and one of the top professors in the school volunteered to “supervise” any student project that deals with Firefox. They also were kind enough to run us quickly by the “world’s deepest pool,” which is used to measure the impact of waves and win on oil rigs, boats and supposedly Oral-B toothbrush commercials.
That evening, we hosted a gathering of students, bloggers, professors and computer professionals to begin brainstorming on how we can spread Firefox in Brazil. Lots of different ideas came up, but people kept coming back to an Orkut extension contest (will do more on the session when we get back). Another interesting question many people brought up was whether the fact that most people at home access the internet in Brazil through dial-up causes people to be less likely to download Firefox because it would be too slow. We didn’t have the answer, but it would be interesting to look if we see a strong correlation with broadband connectivity and Firefox adoption in other regions.
On Saturday, we met with and Asa was interviewed by the Brazil Journal, which is Rio’s oldest newspaper. The cameraman and reporter were huge Firefox fans. The article comes out on Monday online and in print.
Asa took some great photo’s of our meetings on Friday—check them out!
Overall, here is a quick overview of some of the things we have learned:
- There is a strong, passionate group of open source advocates who are excited to work on behalf of Mozilla
- Some 10 million people (roughly 35% of all of Brazil’s internet population) uses Orkut (the social networking site) in a month
- While Google is the most popular search engine (it is suggested that one of the main reasons is their simple home page loaded fastest on everyone’s slow dial-up—off course in addition to having great search), the MSN properties are quite popular (in fact, just slightly smaller than Google). Popular services include MSN Live Messenger, Hotmail and Live.com.
- The top portal and one of the top ISP's is UOL, (many compare them to our AOL). We meet with them in a few days, so will have more to say on them then.
- Website compatibility is an issue (years ago, we had did a lot of work to get the top banks and e-commerce sites to work with Firefox, but this is a reoccurring theme among people we talk to). Many, if not most, of the older web developers/IT managers for Brazilian did not have formal training and are self-taught—so standards aren’t necessarily something they are familiar with (I am pretty sure this isn't unique to Brazil, but this was something many thought was important to note).
- Soccer is beyond huge (this is something I “knew” coming in, but I had no idea how big it is here)…everyone wants a browser skin of their team (personas anyone?)
Once we get back, we will do a more thorough presentation and blog post detailing the trip, the takeaways and the follow-up needed. Of course, we would love to hear your thoughts, ideas and questions.
We met with professors and graduate students at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, one of the top universities in Brazil, to learn more about the state of the internet here. While most of the professors were in computer science, we also had and a business and economics professor who studies the business case for open source. According to the professors, the computer science program at FURJ had the first website in Latin America, so this is diehard group.We then spoke to a group of about 100 students who hung around for almost 3 hours for questions and answers, with many who stayed longer for pictures with us (and by us, I mean Asa). The focus of our presentation was about the past, present and future of Mozilla and how they could be a part of it, with a focus on spreading Firefox. All of the CS students have to complete a “senior project” of sorts and one of the top professors in the school volunteered to “supervise” any student project that deals with Firefox. They also were kind enough to run us quickly by the “world’s deepest pool,” which is used to measure the impact of waves and win on oil rigs, boats and supposedly Oral-B toothbrush commercials.
That evening, we hosted a gathering of students, bloggers, professors and computer professionals to begin brainstorming on how we can spread Firefox in Brazil. Lots of different ideas came up, but people kept coming back to an Orkut extension contest (will do more on the session when we get back). Another interesting question many people brought up was whether the fact that most people at home access the internet in Brazil through dial-up causes people to be less likely to download Firefox because it would be too slow. We didn’t have the answer, but it would be interesting to look if we see a strong correlation with broadband connectivity and Firefox adoption in other regions.
On Saturday, we met with and Asa was interviewed by the Brazil Journal, which is Rio’s oldest newspaper. The cameraman and reporter were huge Firefox fans. The article comes out on Monday online and in print.
Asa took some great photo’s of our meetings on Friday—check them out!
Overall, here is a quick overview of some of the things we have learned:
- There is a strong, passionate group of open source advocates who are excited to work on behalf of Mozilla
- Some 10 million people (roughly 35% of all of Brazil’s internet population) uses Orkut (the social networking site) in a month
- While Google is the most popular search engine (it is suggested that one of the main reasons is their simple home page loaded fastest on everyone’s slow dial-up—off course in addition to having great search), the MSN properties are quite popular (in fact, just slightly smaller than Google). Popular services include MSN Live Messenger, Hotmail and Live.com.
- The top portal and one of the top ISP's is UOL, (many compare them to our AOL). We meet with them in a few days, so will have more to say on them then.
- Website compatibility is an issue (years ago, we had did a lot of work to get the top banks and e-commerce sites to work with Firefox, but this is a reoccurring theme among people we talk to). Many, if not most, of the older web developers/IT managers for Brazilian did not have formal training and are self-taught—so standards aren’t necessarily something they are familiar with (I am pretty sure this isn't unique to Brazil, but this was something many thought was important to note).
- Soccer is beyond huge (this is something I “knew” coming in, but I had no idea how big it is here)…everyone wants a browser skin of their team (personas anyone?)
Once we get back, we will do a more thorough presentation and blog post detailing the trip, the takeaways and the follow-up needed. Of course, we would love to hear your thoughts, ideas and questions.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Mozilla in Brazil Day 1: Center for Technology and Society
Today we met with the management team from the Center for Technology and Society at the FGV School of Law in Rio de Janeiro to learn more about the state of the internet open source software world in Brazil... and learn we did!
Here a just a few things this group of young, talented and smart lawyers are up to:
The Director of the Center for Technology and Society, Renaldo Lemos, is also the Chair of Creative Commons Brazil, which was the 3rd CC chapter outside the US. They somehow managed to get 2,500 people to attend the launch event for Creative Commons in Brazil (beating the other launches by many zeros). In addition, Ronald is also the chair of iCommons.org.
A few of their projects:
Culturalivre.org
Open Business Project
Free and Open Source Software Legal Support
Access to Knowledge (a2k)
In addition to their normal research and teaching, they also have been contracted by the Brazilian government to draft the new SPAM laws. Very impressive group (and great hosts too)!
At Mozilla, we often struggle to relate our core goal (promoting a innovation and choice on the web) to something meaningful for daily users. This challenge isn’t unique to Mozilla. One of the main goals of CTS is to ensure that their research and work, which if focused on development, innovation and democracy, is accessible to the average person. In addition to their many blogs aimed at general consumers, they also developed a real world approach to explaining the impact of copyright owners pushing for “permanent” copyright to materials by having 20 different musicians record different tracks from a high profile Brazilian classical musician whose family is fighting to extend the copyright on his work indefinitely. If the copyright expires on January 1, for example, the 20 new tracks will be released on the 2nd and then on the 3rd, the CTS team will promote a contest to see who can do the best remix of the tracks, which could never have been done before in mass because of the copyright. Rather that just issuing a press release bemoaning the problem, their work to make copyright expiration palatable to a broader audience is down right impressive (forgive my butchering of the example).
We also learned quite a bit about the state of the internet in Brazil. The most interesting tidbit was that approximately 28% of the internet activity comes through “LAN houses,” which are nothing more than internet cafés for the lower and working class in some of Brazil’s worst neighborhoods or rural areas. These pay as you surf computer stations having sprung up all around Brazil as entrepreneurs saw the money that could be made by setting up places for the local kids to play online games and use Orkut (which is another story in and of itself). There will be plenty more posted on what we learned about the state of the internet in Brazil, but considering our red eye flight last night and full day of meetings, I am going to throw in the towel. Tomorrow we have a full day at the Federa University of Rio de Janeiro and a Mozilla community gathering at Devassa Flamengo in the evening.
Here a just a few things this group of young, talented and smart lawyers are up to:
The Director of the Center for Technology and Society, Renaldo Lemos, is also the Chair of Creative Commons Brazil, which was the 3rd CC chapter outside the US. They somehow managed to get 2,500 people to attend the launch event for Creative Commons in Brazil (beating the other launches by many zeros). In addition, Ronald is also the chair of iCommons.org.
A few of their projects:Culturalivre.org
Open Business Project
Free and Open Source Software Legal Support
Access to Knowledge (a2k)
In addition to their normal research and teaching, they also have been contracted by the Brazilian government to draft the new SPAM laws. Very impressive group (and great hosts too)!
At Mozilla, we often struggle to relate our core goal (promoting a innovation and choice on the web) to something meaningful for daily users. This challenge isn’t unique to Mozilla. One of the main goals of CTS is to ensure that their research and work, which if focused on development, innovation and democracy, is accessible to the average person. In addition to their many blogs aimed at general consumers, they also developed a real world approach to explaining the impact of copyright owners pushing for “permanent” copyright to materials by having 20 different musicians record different tracks from a high profile Brazilian classical musician whose family is fighting to extend the copyright on his work indefinitely. If the copyright expires on January 1, for example, the 20 new tracks will be released on the 2nd and then on the 3rd, the CTS team will promote a contest to see who can do the best remix of the tracks, which could never have been done before in mass because of the copyright. Rather that just issuing a press release bemoaning the problem, their work to make copyright expiration palatable to a broader audience is down right impressive (forgive my butchering of the example).
We also learned quite a bit about the state of the internet in Brazil. The most interesting tidbit was that approximately 28% of the internet activity comes through “LAN houses,” which are nothing more than internet cafés for the lower and working class in some of Brazil’s worst neighborhoods or rural areas. These pay as you surf computer stations having sprung up all around Brazil as entrepreneurs saw the money that could be made by setting up places for the local kids to play online games and use Orkut (which is another story in and of itself). There will be plenty more posted on what we learned about the state of the internet in Brazil, but considering our red eye flight last night and full day of meetings, I am going to throw in the towel. Tomorrow we have a full day at the Federa University of Rio de Janeiro and a Mozilla community gathering at Devassa Flamengo in the evening.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Mozilla Brazil Trip Schedule
As I mentioned earlier, Asa and I will be heading to Brazil to help build and support marketing community. Below is the itinerary for our trip…
Thursday June 21, 2007
• Meeting Mr. Ronaldo Lemos, the Director of the Center for Technology and Society at the Fundação Getulio Vargas School of Law in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and of Creative Commons Brazil.
Friday June 22, 2007
• Meeting with Professor Geraldo Xexeo from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
• 2:00 p.m. – Mozilla Presentation at UFRJ
• 5:00 p.m. – Mozilla Community Gathering at Bennett Institute in Rio de Janeiro-- Open to all!
Travel to São Carlos
Monday June 25, 2007
• Dinner with Mozilla Community in São Carlos
Tuesday June 26, 2007
• 1:30 p.m. - Mozilla Community Development Day at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Computation at the University of São Paulo, Brazil
o 2:00 p.m. – Mozilla presentation
o 3:00 p.m. – Open forum
o 5:00 p.m. – Mixer
Wednesday June 27, 2007
• Meeting, presentation, and lunch with the UOL (www.uol.com)
• 5:00 p.m. – Mozilla Community gathering at the Golden Tulip Paulista Plaza Open to all!
Thursday June 28, 2007
• Morning meeting with BuscaPé
• Evening meeting with Unicamp.
If you have any questions or want to join us while we are there, please contact jt at mozilla dot com.
Thursday June 21, 2007
• Meeting Mr. Ronaldo Lemos, the Director of the Center for Technology and Society at the Fundação Getulio Vargas School of Law in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and of Creative Commons Brazil.
Friday June 22, 2007
• Meeting with Professor Geraldo Xexeo from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
• 2:00 p.m. – Mozilla Presentation at UFRJ
• 5:00 p.m. – Mozilla Community Gathering at Bennett Institute in Rio de Janeiro-- Open to all!
Travel to São Carlos
Monday June 25, 2007
• Dinner with Mozilla Community in São Carlos
Tuesday June 26, 2007
• 1:30 p.m. - Mozilla Community Development Day at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Computation at the University of São Paulo, Brazil
o 2:00 p.m. – Mozilla presentation
o 3:00 p.m. – Open forum
o 5:00 p.m. – Mixer
Wednesday June 27, 2007
• Meeting, presentation, and lunch with the UOL (www.uol.com)
• 5:00 p.m. – Mozilla Community gathering at the Golden Tulip Paulista Plaza Open to all!
Thursday June 28, 2007
• Morning meeting with BuscaPé
• Evening meeting with Unicamp.
If you have any questions or want to join us while we are there, please contact jt at mozilla dot com.
Welcome Rishi!
Rishi Mallik, a senior at Stanford studying Management Science and Engineering, has just joined the Mozilla marketing team as a summer intern. He will be with us until September focusing on furthering our international marketing efforts. In particular, he will be working to better understand the state of Firefox and the Mozilla marketing communities in Mexico, Chile, Australia, Russia, Pakistan, Singapore, Canada and Turkey. If you have thoughts, ideas or questions, please contact him at rmallik at mozilla dot com.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
First steps to seed global Mozilla marketing communities
In last week's post, I wrote about our general plans to seed Mozilla marketing communities around the globe. This week I will go in to a few more details: marketing platform goals, marketing locale goals and the timeline/priorities for the locales.
Marketing platform goals:
SpreadFirefox.com- this central platform for Mozilla marketing community should launch this summer and will incorporate the goals below (except support and mozilla.com):
PR- put Mozilla and Firefox messaging, faq’s and press releases online for localization
Events- engage locales in Mozilla events program
Metrics and Analytics- develop dashboard of key metrics that is accessible by community
College reps- Support college outreach efforts globally
Mozilla.com/getfirefox.com- develop scalable CMS solution that allows for localized version of Mozilla.com and getfirefox.com using best practices and analytics
Firefox Support- initially provide knowledge base content for locales to use in support efforts. Eventually, provide platform (knowledge base, forum and chat) that can be localized based on needs of communities.
Marketing locale goals:
These goals should be viewed as a checklist. For some locales, many of the goals are already accomplished (localized version of Firefox); while in some locales, goals may not work with our high level goal to move quickly. That said, this should give you a good idea of what we think is important in building marketing communities.
Priority 1
Localized version of Firefox
PR- establish local PR agency/contact
Establish baseline metrics and methods for measurement
Identify and develop where needed local marketing leaders and marketing community
Priority 2
Live version spreadfirefox.com or equivalent for locale
Develop relationships with traditional partners (colleges, open source groups, etc.)
Community driven marketing campaign (“New York Times/Crop Circle” style)
Outreach to top websites in locale to ensure compatibility with Firefox
Priority 3
Localize best practice version of Mozilla.com and getfirefox.com
Establish and train local volunteer spokespeople
Localize top add-ons
Live local support
Low-touch partnership with top search/sites
Leverage partners for marketing efforts
Rough timeline for marketing community development efforts:
We can’t do all this at once! Below you can see a rough timeline of when we will begin to focus on the priority one goals for each locale. Priority two and three goals will follow over time (with obvious deference to locales with potential for highest impact). It is important to note that while we will be focusing our efforts on certain countries, once the marketing platforms are live (many are live now), all locales should have access to Mozilla marketing support.
In my next post, I will describe our plan to make a more focused effort to spread Firefox. To get a quick idea at where we will focus, check out the timeline above and the list of internet users by country .
Marketing platform goals:
SpreadFirefox.com- this central platform for Mozilla marketing community should launch this summer and will incorporate the goals below (except support and mozilla.com):
PR- put Mozilla and Firefox messaging, faq’s and press releases online for localization
Events- engage locales in Mozilla events program
Metrics and Analytics- develop dashboard of key metrics that is accessible by community
College reps- Support college outreach efforts globally
Mozilla.com/getfirefox.com- develop scalable CMS solution that allows for localized version of Mozilla.com and getfirefox.com using best practices and analytics
Firefox Support- initially provide knowledge base content for locales to use in support efforts. Eventually, provide platform (knowledge base, forum and chat) that can be localized based on needs of communities.
Marketing locale goals:
These goals should be viewed as a checklist. For some locales, many of the goals are already accomplished (localized version of Firefox); while in some locales, goals may not work with our high level goal to move quickly. That said, this should give you a good idea of what we think is important in building marketing communities.
Priority 1
Localized version of Firefox
PR- establish local PR agency/contact
Establish baseline metrics and methods for measurement
Identify and develop where needed local marketing leaders and marketing community
Priority 2
Live version spreadfirefox.com or equivalent for locale
Develop relationships with traditional partners (colleges, open source groups, etc.)
Community driven marketing campaign (“New York Times/Crop Circle” style)
Outreach to top websites in locale to ensure compatibility with Firefox
Priority 3
Localize best practice version of Mozilla.com and getfirefox.com
Establish and train local volunteer spokespeople
Localize top add-ons
Live local support
Low-touch partnership with top search/sites
Leverage partners for marketing efforts
Rough timeline for marketing community development efforts:
We can’t do all this at once! Below you can see a rough timeline of when we will begin to focus on the priority one goals for each locale. Priority two and three goals will follow over time (with obvious deference to locales with potential for highest impact). It is important to note that while we will be focusing our efforts on certain countries, once the marketing platforms are live (many are live now), all locales should have access to Mozilla marketing support.
In my next post, I will describe our plan to make a more focused effort to spread Firefox. To get a quick idea at where we will focus, check out the timeline above and the list of internet users by country .
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mozilla Brazil-- Community building events (Join us)
As Asa mentioned, we will be in Brazil for community building from June 21-28. More detailed info on the trip will be posted soon.
Here's a quick schedule of trip:
Rio de Janeiro: June 21-24
Sao Carlos: June 26
Sao Paulo City: June 27-28
We do want to highlight that we will be hosting Mozilla community gatherings in Rio and Sao Paulo. The goal of these gatherings is to help identify and develop the Firefox evangelism community in Brazil. They will be part social and part informative, so please help us spread the word to current and potential volunteers. More info on the exact time and location of the event are on the way.
Rio de Janeiro- Friday, June 22 evening
Sao Paulo City- Thursday, June 28 evening
If you want to help out or have any questions, please contact me at jt at mozilla dot com
Here's a quick schedule of trip:
Rio de Janeiro: June 21-24
Sao Carlos: June 26
Sao Paulo City: June 27-28
We do want to highlight that we will be hosting Mozilla community gatherings in Rio and Sao Paulo. The goal of these gatherings is to help identify and develop the Firefox evangelism community in Brazil. They will be part social and part informative, so please help us spread the word to current and potential volunteers. More info on the exact time and location of the event are on the way.
Rio de Janeiro- Friday, June 22 evening
Sao Paulo City- Thursday, June 28 evening
If you want to help out or have any questions, please contact me at jt at mozilla dot com
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Seeding Mozilla around the world
When prioritizing Mozilla’s efforts to increase Firefox adoption, our ability to scale is very important. We have a small team for a product that about 100 million people use worldwide. Firefox’s amazing growth to more than 15% market share has been a result of the hard work of the entire Mozilla community, but we still recognize that continued growth is vital for our goals of a free and open web.
As John mentioned in his blog post earlier this week, the majority of Firefox users are now not in the US and that the fastest growing segment of Firefox users is the “long tail” of the languages (marked “other” in the chart.) My post today (with more to come over the next few weeks) is on how we help the non-US localizations grow faster.
Mozilla currently has a presence (and by that, I generally mean a Mozilla office) in the United States, France, Japan and China. We also have PR agencies in the UK, Germany and Poland. But Mozilla employees are not the only—or even the main—drivers of Firefox marketing. We are fortunate to have very strong marketing communities, particularly in Europe. For example, our community in Italy has driven almost 16% market share by attending conferences, localizing Firefox and providing user support—all things they have done since the early days.
Currently, communities close to Mozilla offices are better able to take advantage of Firefox marketing efforts than those who are not. That must change. We also haven’t been able to support our most vibrant communities to the extent we would like—and they deserve. That too must change.
This doesn’t mean Mozilla will be able to “run marketing programs” in new countries, but that Mozilla will develop scalable marketing platforms as well as identify, support and help build marketing leaders who can in turn leverage these platforms to evangelize Firefox.
We have lots of great resources at Mozilla: pr, events program, brand efforts (community t-shirts, Mozilla store, etc.), user education and Firefox support, spreadfirefox.com, college reps program, in addition to many others (and some that need to be developed). We need to make those programs and platforms available to communities worldwide and do it fast.
Looking at the chart below of the top 20 countries by Internet population and Firefox’s market share, you can see the many growth opportunities.
(WorldInternetStats.com and Xiti.com)
High Level Goals:
-Don’t mess things up!
As I mentioned before, we know there are already awesome communities evangelizing Firefox all around the globe. How do we help you do your job better and more easily? We also know there are communities with limited to no marketing community. How do we help build marketing community there? Mozilla can’t and shouldn’t “run” a global marketing program, but Mozilla can and should support and seed global marketing communities.
-Identify and support existing communities and develop where they don’t exist
See “Don’t mess things up!”
-Build platform for localized community marketing based on best practices
With shared resources, we can learn from each other. If Poland tries a new program that is very successful, other communities should be able to know about it and decide if it will work for them.
-Develop and publish global metrics and analytics
Everyone likes to know whether stuff works or not, we aren’t any different. When things do work, we want to be able to fund more of them.
-Promote healthy competition between marketing communities around relevant and fair metric
A little fun rivalry never hurt anyone!
-Establish tools for effective communication with community members
Communication is key for collaborative and efficient worldwide evangelism community
My next post is on what we think are the first steps are to better empower our communities to spread Firefox and the timeline of this project.
Future discussions:
1. First steps and timeline to seed communities for global marketing efforts
2. More focus, more impact: prioritize efforts in locales with biggest possible impact
3. Brazil: what we know, what we don't and what our early plans are
4. India: what we know, what we don't and what our early plans are
Your feedback is an important part of this process. I look forward to a very open discussion about how we can accelerate the growth of Firefox adoption worldwide by seeding marketing communities.
Want to get involved? Email me at jt at mozilla dot com
As John mentioned in his blog post earlier this week, the majority of Firefox users are now not in the US and that the fastest growing segment of Firefox users is the “long tail” of the languages (marked “other” in the chart.) My post today (with more to come over the next few weeks) is on how we help the non-US localizations grow faster.
Mozilla currently has a presence (and by that, I generally mean a Mozilla office) in the United States, France, Japan and China. We also have PR agencies in the UK, Germany and Poland. But Mozilla employees are not the only—or even the main—drivers of Firefox marketing. We are fortunate to have very strong marketing communities, particularly in Europe. For example, our community in Italy has driven almost 16% market share by attending conferences, localizing Firefox and providing user support—all things they have done since the early days.
Currently, communities close to Mozilla offices are better able to take advantage of Firefox marketing efforts than those who are not. That must change. We also haven’t been able to support our most vibrant communities to the extent we would like—and they deserve. That too must change.
This doesn’t mean Mozilla will be able to “run marketing programs” in new countries, but that Mozilla will develop scalable marketing platforms as well as identify, support and help build marketing leaders who can in turn leverage these platforms to evangelize Firefox.
We have lots of great resources at Mozilla: pr, events program, brand efforts (community t-shirts, Mozilla store, etc.), user education and Firefox support, spreadfirefox.com, college reps program, in addition to many others (and some that need to be developed). We need to make those programs and platforms available to communities worldwide and do it fast.
Looking at the chart below of the top 20 countries by Internet population and Firefox’s market share, you can see the many growth opportunities.
(WorldInternetStats.com and Xiti.com)High Level Goals:
-Don’t mess things up!
As I mentioned before, we know there are already awesome communities evangelizing Firefox all around the globe. How do we help you do your job better and more easily? We also know there are communities with limited to no marketing community. How do we help build marketing community there? Mozilla can’t and shouldn’t “run” a global marketing program, but Mozilla can and should support and seed global marketing communities.
-Identify and support existing communities and develop where they don’t exist
See “Don’t mess things up!”
-Build platform for localized community marketing based on best practices
With shared resources, we can learn from each other. If Poland tries a new program that is very successful, other communities should be able to know about it and decide if it will work for them.
-Develop and publish global metrics and analytics
Everyone likes to know whether stuff works or not, we aren’t any different. When things do work, we want to be able to fund more of them.
-Promote healthy competition between marketing communities around relevant and fair metric
A little fun rivalry never hurt anyone!
-Establish tools for effective communication with community members
Communication is key for collaborative and efficient worldwide evangelism community
My next post is on what we think are the first steps are to better empower our communities to spread Firefox and the timeline of this project.
Future discussions:
1. First steps and timeline to seed communities for global marketing efforts
2. More focus, more impact: prioritize efforts in locales with biggest possible impact
3. Brazil: what we know, what we don't and what our early plans are
4. India: what we know, what we don't and what our early plans are
Your feedback is an important part of this process. I look forward to a very open discussion about how we can accelerate the growth of Firefox adoption worldwide by seeding marketing communities.
Want to get involved? Email me at jt at mozilla dot com
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