Kamla: This is Kamla Bhatt. We bring you part 3 and our concluding episode of our conversation with Mitchell Baker, Chairperson of Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation. In this final episode she talks about localization efforts that Mozilla has undertaken in India, and what is it that surprises, delights and concerns her about the future of the Internet. Here is Mitchell Baker.
Mitchell: We have such communities in India and we’ve been spending more time with those communities and learning more about India, and trying to figure out what other locales are there, what’s the most important thing, the various different languages in India, is its localization not related to language so much but other aspects of being in India. What other ways can we make it so that people can participate. So the reason that the localizers are good example of what’s important in Firefox is we’re trying to build communities of people who demand the ability to build the Internet we want. It is great to be a consumer and it is great when things appear for free; browsers appear for free and websites appear for free.
Listen Now
And that’s great. Being able to consume that is such a wonderful thing. When it is free that is wonderful. But but it only goes so far. But if all we are are consumers then, if something doesn’t work for us, we’re just stuck.
And if something doesn’t work because it is tuned for one Business Company or one goal and we’re stuck with it, that’s a terrible place to be. So we’re trying to build not only Firefox but Mozilla as a set of people who understand that if you want the internet to work in a way that’s good for you or your country or your people, who speak your native language or the other things that you care about, getting involved is the way to do it.
And then we provide the ways to get involved. So, that is what the localizers are.
Kamla: What do you provide for them to get involved?
Mitchell: We provide both the standard open source participation to build the product. So if the product doesn’t work in your language or doesn’t have features that you need then there is the classic open source: get involved. We provide whether it’s localization or marketing or support. We provide a range of different ways to both build the Firefox, to spread it and to become important in the direction of its development. And through that, to influence things like how is data handled, how is storage of my information handled, all the range of things, how are pop ups handled, how are ads handled, how much spyware shows up on my machine. Well most of us are never going to find security vulnerabilities. But, there are a set of people who can and they do. Probably many of us, if you looked at all your acquaintances, you would come cross one of two people who’d have those skills.