Reinventing Mozilla on Campus

In his blog post “Reinventing Mozilla on Campus” George Roter delves into the potential of Mozilla on Campus and the way in which we’ve only just scraped the surface of this potential.

This year, the Participation Team has a key hypothesis as part of our strategy: That we can supercharge participation with a reinvented campus program.

Below we’re laying out the full process we will follow for reinventing Mozilla’s presence on campus and articulating clearly the opportunities you have to be involved. If you haven’t yet, I recommend you start by reading George’s post and then dive into the information below!


Who Is Involved:

For this project we’re using the [RAPID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_assignment_matrix#RAPID) responsibility matrix to clarify the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the decision making process.

Recommend - Lucy Harris, Christos Bacharakis
The Recommended role involves 80 percent of the work in a decision. They will gather relevant input and propose multiple options so that the decision maker’s choices are as clear, simple and timely as possible.

Agree - Mark Surman, Chris Lawrence, Rosana Ardilla, Mitchell Baker, Katharina Borchert
The Agree role represents a formal approval of all options and recommendations.

Perform - Christos Bacharakis, Lucy Harris, 270 Strategies
The Perform role defines who is accountable for executing or implementing the decision once it is made.

Input -Primary: FSA E-Board & RALs, Mozilla Clubs, Reps Committee, Policy & Advocacy, Marketing & Branding
Secondary: Local Coaches, All FSAs, All Reps, SUMO, L10N, Tech Speakers, MDN, Mozilla Science, Mozilla Leadership Network.
The Input role provides relevant information and facts so that the Recommender and Decider can assess all the relevant facts to make the right decision. However, the ‘I’ role is strictly advisory. Recommenders should consider all input, but they don’t have to reflect every point of view in the final recommendation.

Decide - George Roter
The Decide role is for the single person who ultimately is accountable for making the final decision, committing the group to action and ensuring the decision gets implemented.

The Mozilla on Campus Process

Phase 1: Listening (May 16-27)

In the listening phase Christos and Lucy will be requesting interviews with all of the primary Input groups with the goal of gathering information on two specific topics:
  1. Data about the strengths and weaknesses of existing campus programs.
  2. Understanding about what Input groups see as the opportunity on Campus for Mozilla and their communities.

If you are a member of one of the input groups, look out for an interview request from Christos or Lucy shortly.

May 27th - Based on the results of these interviews we will be identifying and pull out some of the big meaty “tensions” or questions, and sharing them on Discourse in order to get broad input. Examples of the kind of “tensions” we anticipate hosting discussions around are: whether our campus presence should be multi-purpose vs. specialized, highly-connected vs. individual, highly selective vs. highly open, etc.

Phase 2: Synthesize Data & Identify Options (May 30-June 10)

In this stage the *Recommend* and *Perform* groups will synthesize all of the input we’ve received, and put together some options for what the future of Mozilla on Campus could look like. We will then share these options with the *Agreers* for feedback which we will use to hone and refine the options.

Phase 3: Final Input (June 13 - 24th)

At this point the refined options will be shared back to the entire *Input* group for comments and feedback. We will be conducting some of this Input stage in person with those who are in London.

Phase 4: Finalize Decision and Disseminate (June 24 - mid-July)

Based on the final input, the options that remain will be further revised and refined and final versions will be brought to the *Decider* by early July. George Roter will make and announce a final decision by mid-July.

Once the decision is officially made and announced the Perform group will begin the process for implementing the new plan. Our goal is to have an early version of the Mozilla on Campus program ready to launch near the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

This is our planned schedule but obviously the timeline is likely to shift slightly. We’ll keep you updated about any changes.

Hopefully in this process you can already see the opportunities for you to provide input, share your ideas, and shape the future. We will do our best to send reminders and prompts whenever there is an opportunity for input, but we also need those of you who care about this issue to keep an eye on discourse and to take the time to respond, question, and share. Even if it’s just to say you’re excited, uncertain, or don’t understand.

We hope you’ll start now by sharing your questions, thoughts, and feedback about this post on Discourse here.

We can’t wait to reinvent the future of Mozilla on Campus with you!

Lucy & the Campus Campaign Team

7 Likes

This is a great development! Looking forward to the results. :slight_smile:

I taught computer science for a number of years and I would have loved to get my students involved in Mozilla’s mission and ramp them up toward open source contribution, but I had trouble seeing a path that teachers at my “level” (see next paragraph) could take to initiate some participation for their students. If Mozilla had a strong communication channel with teachers, more students could be reached. With some support, lots of CS teachers would make great local mentors for contributions to Mozilla.

I’ve also had the impression that many initiatives are restricted to universities, which means they miss out on lots of awesome students in some regions. For example, pre-university “CEGEP” programs in Quebec would be a great venue for participation in Mozilla.

1 Like

Great!!

I am the b.tech computer science & engineering student and how can I involved into this?

This is great and awesome, since this will definitely reinforce my engagement in the Campus Campaign activities which have already been initiated here. This is going to be our one main challenges for this year. One of my strategies is networking with university professors and lecturers as a channel to meet with students.

I think after the proliferation of the existing program, the campus activities for new FSAs like me will be easy and straightforward.

Looking for the next big updates :slightly_smiling:

1 Like

thats great i seems upcoming shape of Mozilla in campus will be awesome.

I’m super excited about bringing the change on campuses and represent Mozilla diligently, Its time to hack the change

Thank you to everyone who has been following along and engaging with the process of reinventing Mozilla on Campus for the past few months. The energy, commitment and experience you are bringing to this effort are the key ingredients which will help us supercharge Mozilla’s student strategy world wide and we’re so excited about what is to come!

The final decision about the direction and structure of Mozilla on Campus is just around the corner and will be announced in the next few weeks. In the meantime we wanted to take this opportunity to share an update on what has happened in the two months since our original post.

Phase 1: Listening

Everything started by gathering feedback from existing programs, initiatives and campaigns that have a presence on university and college campuses. We had the pleasure of interviewing more than 10 groups across the organization including, FSA, Reps, Recruitment, Science Lab, Policy and others, and gathered valuable information on their views of the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of various campus structures.

Phase 2: Synthesize Data & Identify Options

Based on input from these groups, and the results of the Campus Program we pulled together a number of key feedback points and developed a vision for a successful program.

With all of this information we met up in London with a group of 15 dedicated individuals, students, coaches and community leaders to examine all the existing campus-facing programs/activities (which included the FSA program, the Take Back the Web campaign, Clubs and others) and started to brainstorming ways they could be integrated into one larger campus initiative.

Phase 3: Options Input

Everyone worked hard throughout the week and by working in small teams, came up with inspiring ideas for what different clubs, courses, challenges, and programs could look like. Some of the recurring themes were:

  • Creating an in-depth course around advocacy
  • Creating opportunities for students to go deep for long (extended) periods of time
  • Allowing the opportunity for graduated leadership levels with titles
  • Including a general orientation to Mozilla in contribution flows
  • Using online tools like webinars and discourse to support learning
  • Bringing students’ support networks into the recruitment process Assigning mentors to help connect people with their interests Use Maker Parties on various topics as a way to engage people
  • Get support from university staff where possible (longevity) Connecting students to existing contribution opportunities

We also began discussing plans for the Evolution of FSA which you can read about here.

<img src=’//discourse-prod-uploads-81679984178418.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bed8ab99eecced782811fa0c8752c6d43c9cbe7d.jpg’ width=“540” height="327"align=“center”>

Phase 4: Finalize Decision and Disseminate

After London, campus staff got together to synthesize all of the amazing work and ideas that were generated in London into several options which were sent on to decision makers, George Roter and Chris Lawrence, for review and final decision on the direction and structure of the future of Mozilla on Campus.

The final decision is currently being determined and will be broadly communicated in the next few weeks at which point campus staff will work closely with stakeholders, volunteers, and the team from London to put together an implementation plan. Stay tuned for more details!

We can’t wait to reinvent the future of Mozilla on Campus with you!

Lucy & the Campus Campaign Team

2 Likes

Thank you so much for your patience over the past few weeks, we are excited to share the finalized direction for Mozilla on Campus with you.

Over the past few years we’ve seen an increasing number of Mozilla groups working or interacting with students on university and college campuses, and as these programs have evolved things we know things have become increasingly confusing.

Mozilla Projects on Campus over the past 5 years.

That’s why we are SO excited to announce that we have joined forces with Mozilla Clubs and over the coming months will be designing a university and college program that is aligned with the existing clubs structure and that will provide a unified model for participation on campuses around the world.

Details of the new program are currently being developed by a team of staff and community leaders from the FSA and Take Back The Web Campaign, and we will be sharing more information in the coming weeks as details of the program are finalize.

Our goal is to launch a beta version of the program for existing community members at the beginning of September. More details to follow!

The Vision:

Imagine the highest quality university student programs you’ve ever heard of. Programs that incite invention, inspire innovation, and foster global change.

Now imagine that Mozilla had a program that engaged these folks, building campus groups that each had passionate volunteers contributing to Mozilla as advocates, technologists/innovators and teachers. Now imagine that these groups were on thousands of University campuses in hundreds of countries.

That would be a movement – a loud voice, a breeding ground for new ideas, a massive workforce, a deep talent pool – that would power Mozilla’s mission to new heights.

We’re very excited for the adventure ahead and will continue to share regular updates with you here!

Lucy

5 Likes

We should give some focus Mozilla Science.Some awesome activities are going on in it but it is not more promoted.I am sure geeky people or researcher will love to involve in it.

When we give session in different colleges in most of seniors interested in hard coding or research field not in web maker or goggle so it will be helpful for if we promote Mozilla science.

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Hey @drashti I love this suggestion, Mozilla Science rocks! We’re meeting with them this week to figure out how we can connect with Mozilla Science Study Groups in the short and long term.

I’ll also add that the Campus Clubs will have a " technology" track that will connect students with advanced activities like Rust and Servo as well as a webliteracy track that will have more of the webmaker focus you described.

1 Like

Mozilla Science Labs work on the concept of Study Groups and it would be great to leverage their existing structure to help students on campus.

The goal of a unified Mozilla on Campus presence will be justified only when we have all its pillars under one umbrella!

@lucyeoh I’m looking forward to the meetings with Science Lab folks and what the outcome is. Kudos to you & the entire team for the efforts taken until now! :slight_smile:

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Hey @lucyeoh Thank you for considering my suggestion. We can definitely make big change in community by Mozilla Science. Primarily we should focus on Rust and servo as you said but we can encourage them to making project call,learning in different fields like Neuro science,Geospatial data(as last time did in Science lab call) or Virtulization. Also we can aware people about which are the awesome projects going on in Mozilla Science Lab. :slight_smile:

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Mozilla should make a move to African Universities, in fact my school is open i can create awareness for any event in my school .

Mozilla is great but the team as to increase participation of African University school students for the Program Mozilla on Campus.

Am Alamu Akinyemi Peter a Digital Marketing Expert and a Student of University of Ibadan Nigeria the First and the best in Nigeria .

I currently setup my own Agency Climaxbox Digital Marketing Agency i will like to Join hands with Mozila Team to Increase the participation in African Universities.

Cheers to the team !

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We are extremely excited to announce that after many months of hard work and careful planning the Firefox Ambassador Program will be officially transitioning to Mozilla Campus Clubs, starting TODAY, Monday September 19th!

The new Mozilla Campus Clubs program blends the passion and student focus of the FSA program with the structure and mission focus of Mozilla Clubs to create a truly unified model for participation on campuses around the world!

Mozilla Campus Clubs will bring group of students together to advance Mozilla’s mission by leading and participating in activities that teach, build, and protect the web in an inclusive, engaging way.
We believe that this new program will unleash the unique potential of students to achieve great things for the free and open web - and you can help make our dreams a reality!

We’ve put together this quick guide for student-awesomeness with three ways you can help us no matter who you are!


  1. Start a new Campus Club - Are you a University or College Student? If yes! We want YOU to flaunt your leadership skills and open web passion by starting your very own club! Apply HERE to let us know you’re interested in setting-up a Campus Club on your university or college campus and we’ll help you with the rest. All you need is a passion for Mozilla (check!) and the dedication to get your club off the ground, you can start it by yourself (you maverick!) or with a Co-Captain. Once your application is processed we’ll connect you with a Regional Coordinator who will help you and guide you through the process of setting up an awesome club.

  2. Become a Regional Coordinator - Do you have mentorship experience and a passion for working with students? We need volunteers especially in Europe and North America to help support Club Captains in reaching their potential by registering here. Remember Regional Coordinator do not run any clubs or activities, instead, they are recruiting, on-boarding, and supporting Club Captains to achieve positive outcomes, a sense of community and purpose, and to further Mozilla’s mission in the world.

  3. Spread the Word - We hope you’re feeling the same excitement we are about this amazing new program. Help us find passionate students with the love of open in their hearts by tweeting, emailing, and sharing our fancy new website with the world: campus.mozilla.community.

Seems hard? We even wrote a tweet for you:

Love the open web? @Mozilla Campus Clubs are a new way to #teachbuildprotect the web at your University - campus.mozilla.community

Want to take it up a notch? Here’s a slide deck you can use to talk about Campus Clubs at your next event/meeting/party.

No matter how you choose to get involved we’re grateful! For any information you can’t find on our website we’ve put together this handy FAQ or respond here and we’ll get back to you.

We’re so excited about the future of Mozilla on Campus and hope that you’ll help us enter this new era of student awesomeness with a bang!

Keep Rocking the Open Web,
Lucy & Christos

3 Likes

Great News!

So happy and excited to carry forward the enthusiasm and work of TBTW to this new initiative. Looking forward to contribute even more as RC.

Thanks,
Moin

2 Likes

Hi,

I’d like to recommend this program to some students at my school but I can’t seem to find much information about it’s availability in Canadian Universities. Would anyone know if Canadian universities can in fact apply? I ask because I don’t see any Canadian clubs on the Club Campus map and the only regional coordinator is half-way into the US.

Thanks!

@gmierz you can start your club from https://campus.mozilla.community , Also @Christos can help you with initiating the club and into the map,
Also connect your any student with us ,we glad to help with the program.