The Mozilla Foundation
The State of Mozilla Annual Report, 2009
November 18, 2010
Mozilla has filed its audited financial statements for 2009. This is the perfect time to look at the state of the Mozilla mission, our successes, our opportunities and our challenges.
Mozilla exists to build individual empowerment, control and opportunity into the fabric of the Internet. We build great products as a public asset. Great products based on open source software, plus much, much more:
- nonprofit, public benefit;
- individual empowerment, community-driven;
- financial sustainability as merely a tool to enable these goals.
We succeed by being different -- by pushing the boundaries of what "open" and "participation" and individual empowerment mean. Our success to date can be seen in by the way "open" and "participation" have become integrated into modern Internet life.
The Mozilla mission is as important today as it ever was. There are new challenges to the freedoms we've come to expect with the Web. To succeed with our new challenges we must once again push the boundaries of what is possible technically, and what empowerment and opportunity mean. We must remain innovative, responsive and unrelenting in pursuing technical excellence. We must be even more forceful advocates for openness, opportunity and the importance of the individual. We must continue to be Mozilla, only more so.
Mozilla is the underdog in our efforts to build participation and empowerment into the Internet. It's a big challenge to build our values into layers of the Internet where the commercial giants of our age are battling it out. Mozilla has always faced this kind of challenge. We started in an era when everyone "knew" our goals were impossible because Microsoft was invincible. Today, Mozilla is stronger than ever. Our opportunity to bring openness and choice to new aspects of the online experience is unprecedented.
As we reflect on the state of Mozilla, there are three key areas that we look at:
It's time to demonstrate once again what the Web can be! Creativity, community, commitment. Dedication, determination, fun.
Join in and build something unexpected and beautiful.
Mitchell Baker, on behalf of the Mozilla community
November 18,
2010
