Mozilla Foundation rallies supporters to take back the web

In its first on-site live gathering of open source Mozilla developers since the organization was established last July, the Mozilla Foundation is hosting Developer Day on Friday February 25,2004 at its Mountain View, CA, headquarters.

Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) February 27, 2004--In its first on-site live gathering of open source Mozilla developers since the organization was established last July, the Mozilla Foundation is hosting Developer Day on Friday February 25,2004 at its Mountain View, CA, headquarters.

As an open source project, the Mozilla Foundation relies on a vibrant community of volunteer developers for its continued success. Foundation staffers and contributors from around the globe will gather to learn, collaborate, exchange ideas and discuss the future direction of the Mozilla project and its initiatives.

â"We're gathering our community to celebrate our progress and collaborate on development initiatives," said Chris Hofmann, the Mozilla Foundation's Director of Engineering. â"We're going to set a course for what we think are the most important things to be doing over the next few quarters to take our development to the next level."

A number of critical topics will be addressed on Developer Day:

• An update on the activities of the Mozilla Foundation itself will be delivered by Mitchell Baker, the Foundation's president, and Chris Hofmann.
• Brendan Eich, the Mozilla project's Chief Architect, will lead an overview and roundtable discussion of the Mozilla Roadmap.
• Mozilla QA lead Asa Dotzler will be leading a discussion about QA and testing.
• A discussion on new Mozilla applications, status and direction will be led by Ben Goodger and Scott MacGregor, the project leaders for the new Mozilla Firefox web browser and Thunderbird mail client, respectively.
• A variety of other presentations will be provided by members of the Mozilla development community on topics such as building rich web services applications using the Mozilla platform.
  
  

"We want to provide clear direction about where the project is heading and get everybody lined up to do the work that needs to be done," stated Chris Hofmann.

The difference between a closed proprietary development process and the freedom and innovation of the open source model is one of the underpinnings of Mozilla's Developer Day. Open source means open collaboration and a free exchange of ideas, which is what this event is all about.

The Mozilla project is riding a torrent of industry, media and end user praise for the Mozilla 1.6 Internet suite and recently released technology previews of the organization's next generation Mozilla Firefox browser and Thunderbird email application. For example, close to one million people downloaded Mozilla 1.6 in the first 20 days after it was released and an even greater number have downloaded Mozilla Firefox 0.8 since it was released on February 9. The rapidly growing demand for Mozilla applications continues to showcase the innovative capacity and excellence of its open source development model.

A webcast of the event will be made available after its completion, further enabling open access to the wider Mozilla community of developers and contributors.

GETTING MOZILLA
Mozilla 1.6 and technology preview editions of Firefox and Thunderbird may be downloaded from www.mozilla.org. Alternatively users can purchase a CD edition from the Mozilla project's web site. Mozilla applications run on a wide range of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and are translated into dozens of languages.

Mozilla applications are downloadable at no cost and all source code and documentation is freely available under the open source Mozilla Public License.

SUPPORTING MOZILLA
Individuals and companies from around the world support the Mozilla Foundation through voluntary contributions of time, money and resources. To discover how you or your company can join in and help support Mozilla, please send mail to donations@mozilla.org.

ABOUT THE MOZILLA FOUNDATION
Established in July 2003 with start-up support from America Online's Netscape division, the Mozilla Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal, and financial support for the Mozilla open source software project. The Foundation is based in Mountain View, California and is the heir to the great legacy and tradition of the Internet's first widely used browser, Netscape.

Mozilla and the Mozilla logo are registered trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation.

PRESS CONTACTS:
Bart Decrem, (650) 387-0625
Catherine Corre, (650) 814-1356


email: press@mozilla.org

For the latest Mozilla-related news and commentary, as well as support and discussion, please visit MozillaZine, http://www.mozillazine.org, the largest independent Mozilla news and support site on the web. This press release was written by Sean Michael Kerner / Results Overhead Inc.

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