Volunteer Spotlight

I add firefox to my website can someone please check it out and tell me how i looks I need to know i hope its not to big, if it is let me know..

Splashmyspace.com

Thank You  Firefox for making this new browser!!!

My name is Giuliano Masseroni (aka jooliaan) and I’m currently the president of Mozilla Italia.
To tell you a little about myself, I’m a 44-year old Italian chemist working with the Italian R&D Lab of a Dutch international chemical company called Akzo Nobel researching and developing new paints and application systems for the restoration of historical buildings. You’re probably wondering how I got involved with Mozilla. As you can see I’m not an IT guy, I’m just a chemist who loves everything about computers and the Internet. 

Around 4 years ago while reading an article in an Italian monthly computer magazine, I found a copy of a new browser then called Firebird (today it’s Firefox!) and decided to give it a try.  The browser was in English so I started to frequent MozillaZine Forums in order to receive some support and to learn how to use the browser as well as possible.
One day I asked why such a great browser couldn’t be available in Italian and somebody surprised me with saying that it was available even in Italian and gave me the link to the Italian support forum called “Moz does IT” at that time.

That was a watershed moment in my life: I met the people who would get me involved with volunteering for Mozilla.

Since the Italian community was quickly growing up, all together we decided to found a non-profit association dedicated only to our voluntary work and called it Mozilla Italia.

The goal of Mozilla Italia is the localization or translation of all Mozilla Products and Projects in our language, giving support to them through our forums, evangelizing web standards and spreading Firefox and the other Mozilla software around Italy.

As head of Mozilla Italia, I’ve had the chance to help build up many specialized teams to meet the growing needs of our activities and coordinate them to promote Mozilla software and its mission over Italy.  At the same time, the job has become so much more!

I found sponsors which helped us to cover part of our hosting expenses.  I’ve also helped recruit volunteers who are willing to lend our dedicated team a hand with QA to ensure we’re in time for releasing the Italian localization of Mozilla applications when requested.

Moreover, with three other Mozilla Italia members, I founded eXtenZilla which is the official Italian portal dedicated to the localization of the extensions into the Italian language. Also, eXtenZilla offers support to the Italian extension users and developers through its dedicated forums.

Also, I am often requested to answer the questions of many online dailies wishing to know more about Firefox, other Mozilla applications and related news or special events.

Since I get to work with the most important online and offline media as part of Mozilla Italia, I have been able to accomplish an agreement with ANSA (the main Italian Press Agency).  This has allowed Mozilla to use the ansa.it RSS feed as a Live Bookmark for the Italian version of Firefox 2.0 and above.

This constant dedication has paid off.  During the last 4 years, in fact, I’ve seen our forum users increase from 200 to more than 17,000 and our website has now an average of 650,000 single hits per month.

As part of Mozilla Italia, I’ve been interviewed by two different well known Italian radio stations around the Firefox 2 launch parties and just recently, I got the chance to help another founder of Mozilla Italia be interviewed in Rome by RAI3 (one our three National TV stations), for a TV show episode on Open Source software.

The year 2007 has been a wonderful year for Mozilla Italia and me, in fact in April, we had our first “official appearance” as Mozilla Italia at a three-day event called “Fa’ la cosa giusta” (Do the right thing) in Milan, that had something like 30,000 visitors, to make Firefox and Thunderbird better known in our country (see this photo set).

On a personal note, this year I was able to take advantage of the Mozilla Community Program managed by Seth Bindernagel. I was given a laptop by the Community Program to help me with my Mozilla volunteer work .  For the last two years I had been using my girlfriend’s PC when she wasn’t using it as a freelance translator. (By the way, I was so lucky to have met her all because she translated PlugInDoc in Italian, and she requested me to review her translation!!! I love her and I must thank Mozilla for that!!!).

Last but not least, the most exciting news is that a few days ago our efforts as the Italian Community have been rewarded by a visit from Tristan Nitot (President and Founder of Mozilla Europe) officially representing Mozilla. A dedicated press meeting has been organized for this event. Many journalists came to Milan especially to interview Tristan and me about the role of Mozilla in Italy and worldwide. Tristan and I met also with some of the most influential Italian bloggers during a very successful dinner where a lot of questions were answered and everybody felt really comfortable.

Summarizing, I can say that as an Italian Mozilla volunteer I really enjoy the opportunity to work in the international Mozilla environment. Sharing knowledge and suggestions allows me to be more and more open-minded and greatly improves my ability to build interpersonal relationships.

Please drop me a line at giuliano[dot]masseroni[at]mozillaitalia[dot]org or post a comment if you’d like to learn more about Mozilla Italia or to join us!

For 2 years and 29 weeks, this Spread Firefox member has been a consistent and strong advocate for choice on the Internet which is right in line with Mozilla's primary mission.

He has always been respectful with his opinions and input to replies of other members posts, and the posts that he writes himself are concise, factually accurate.
This month's Firefox Volunteer Spotlight shines on Kelson Vibber. A true friend and supporter of Mozilla and the overall health of the Internet.
We were anxious to learn more about Kelson so we conducted an online interview with him and here are the results of that Interview.

The question that is always asked of Spotlight Members is how did you hear about Spread Firefox, and why did you join?

I don't really remember where I heard about it. I think I must have read something on Mozillazine or Asa's blog when it was first announced.

I joined because I'd started promoting Firefox earlier that summer. I used to have "Netscape Now!" and Opera buttons on my site in the 90s and early 2000s, and after I made some favorable remarks about Firefox on my blog, Blake Ross asked me to put up a Firefox button. I figured, no problem!

Having done that, joining the new Spread Firefox site was just the logical next step.

There appears to be certain posts on Spread Firefox that you reply to more than others. Are there particular topics that make you feel compelled to give advice and your opinions more than others?

The main topics that tend to catch my eye are web standards and misconceptions (about Firefox, or about other browsers). That, and anything that I can answer quickly, off the top of my head.

What features or changes would you like to see in future versions of Firefox.

Speed. Firefox needs to be more responsive, particularly on Linux. It also needs to be able to better handle extremely large web pages, and pages with lots of plug-in content.

Also, better tab management. I use the Duplicate Tab extension to pull tabs off into a new window, but it's like adding an extension to maximize the window.

What is the Alternative Browser Alliance all about?

At its core, there are two main issues:

1. Keeping the web open, and not dominated by a single player.
2. Humanizing the discourse between supporters of different browsers.

It started as a response to some really nasty flame wars between Firefox and Opera fans during the spring of 2005. I felt that the bitterness was doing more harm than good. After all, Firefox and Opera had a common enemy: Internet Explorer. If someone wanted to look up Firefox, or Opera, and what they found was a bunch of squabbling and recriminations, they'd probably figure the whole alternative scene wasn't worth the trouble and stick with IE.

As I started putting together a site to explain this, I started thinking: why is IE the enemy? Because it's Microsoft? Because it's insecure? No, the root problem is that it's a near-monopoly. With all other players marginalized, Microsoft had no incentive to make improvements to IE. They disbanded the team and tied IE development exclusively to Windows upgrades. Not only that, the bad guys could get maximum results from targeting one platform.

Some sites that informed the idea include the Viewable with Any Browser Campaign and Browse Happy.

You have a vast interest in many different subjects and fields from literature to web standards. With what area do your greatest passions lie?

This was a hard one to narrow down, but thinking about it, I'd say storytelling. I enjoy reading, but I prefer reading a book with a good story to one where the story is just a framework for the author to make a point. My favorite TV shows make heavy use of season- or series-long arcs. When I sang in college, I preferred musical theater to choir. I graduated with degrees in drama and computer science, and while I use the CS degree every day, it's the theater experiences that I really remember when I think about college. I even married a writer!

How do you have the time to maintain the numerous web sites and blogs that you have?

I tend to focus on one big project at a time, and my sites have been built up slowly over the last 12 years (which is actually kind of scary!). So while it seems like a lot, I tend to focus on my main blog and on the Flash site these days. Even the Alternative Browser Alliance doesn't take much time, since it doesn't change very often. I just have to make occasional updates, and keep involved in the browser and standards conversations.

That, and I tend to stay up later than I probably should!

You're apparently an avid comic book collector and dealer. What's the most valuable comic book in your collection both personally and monetarily?

I’m more of a collector than a dealer, and more of a reader than a collector. I keep most of the comics I read, and those that I don’t want to keep, I’d rather sell to someone else who might appreciate them than throw them away.

Personally, the most valuable comic I own is a copy of The New Teen Titans #2 (1984). It was the first super-hero book I bought, and it got me into what’s become a lifelong hobby and my first claim to net fame.

Monetarily, I’m not so sure. I have a small collection of books from the “Golden Age” of comics (roughly 1938 through the early 1950s), but since I’m in it for the stories, I’ve mainly picked up the battered, faded copies that don’t fetch the big bucks. The rarest one is probably the Flash Comics Miniature Edition, which was taped to cereal boxes as a promotion in 1946. It would be worth several thousand dollars if it were in better condition, but the one I bought was so damaged it only cost me $75.

On behalf of the Spread Firefox Team, congratulations.

Jan Steffen (a resident of Germany) has been with Spread Firefox for
more
than two years now, so we figured that it was time to recognize yet
another
devoted Spread Firefox contributor, that is why he has been
chosen for the
Volunteer Spotlight for February. One can only image the
number of posts and
comments that he’s made over that two year time
period. He’s been on target
and concise with his comments that have been
very helpful to many Spread
Firefox members.
We conducted a brief online interview with Jan, and here’s
what he had
to say.

How did you discover Spread Firefox, and why did
you decide to join and
contribute?

I really can't remember where I
first heard of SFx. I was (and am)
always more active in the newsgroups. I
don't really like web based
forums, but I do like the community and the
efforts here at SFx so much
that it's one of a handful of web forums I visit
regularly.

What version of Firefox were you using when you first joined
Spread?
Firefox, and why did you choose it over the browser that you were
using
at the time?

My first internet experience was with NSCA-Mosaic
and Netscape
Communicator and I used the Mozilla Suite quite early. I
followed the
growth of Firefox when it was still Phoenix, but didn't really
switch
until late after Version 1.0.
That was around the time I discovered
SFx. The faster feature
development and availability of add-ons were the main
reasons to switch
to Fx & TB, but I'm still a big fan of the Mozilla
Suite/SeaMonkey.

How do you promote Firefox in the real
world?

Word of mouth and installing at friends and family is the easiest
and
best way. I also wear my Firefox-Shirt
often and show at diverse events.

In your opinion, what will it take
to get Firefox more into the
mainstream to reach the average Internet
user?

Firefox has been ready for the average user for quite a while
already.
But the
inertia of the average user to change habits and make
active decisions
is incredibly slow. Getting Firefox preinstalled on PCs or
promoted by
ISPs would be the final breakthrough.

Germany has one of
the highest amounts of active Internet users worldwide.
Do you have any
figures on the amount of Germans that use Firefox?

Varying sources state
20-40% of Firefox users, but never trust
statistics ;-) I'd guess that over
50% of private PCs in Germany use
Firefox nowadays, but much less in the
corporate environment. Firefox is
promoted very much by all PC-magazines and
that. So Firefox is really
strong in Germany.

Do you use any other
Open Source software?

Yes, Thunderbird and Sunbird of course. But also
OpenOffice, Filezilla,
GnuPG, Linux etc.
There is so much great Free &
Open Source Software out there. Spreading
it and giving support (here at SFx
and in newsgroups) is my way of
saying thanks to the developers and giving
something back.


Thanks for your time Jan

Seventeen year old John Karahalis (A.K.A. Johnny K) from Long Island, New York is a fairly new member to Spread Firefox, but he brings with him new excitement and fresh ideas that have begun to invigorate the community. He is a positive, assertive and highly active member who is not afraid to ask questions to learn better ways to get projects going. His latest project proposal Posters has begun to gain momentum and support from SFx members, and his other ideas are just as good. For these reasons, the SFx Team has chosen Johnny K for the Volunteer Spotlight for January, our first member of the month for the new year. We conducted an online interview with Johnny and here’s what he had to say.


How did you discover Firefox? In the spring of 2005 I was working on a website. I'm not exactly sure where I first heard of Firefox, but I knew that it was somewhat popular, so I wanted to make sure my site looked good in it. Of course, the site didn't look perfect because I had been writing Internet Explorer-specific CSS without realizing it. At first I only used Firefox to test out how my site looked as I was fixing up the CSS, but I grew to love Firefox and began to use it as my default browser.

What made you decide to use Firefox as your default browser? What I loved most about Firefox was how fast it was. That's really what did it for me. As I became more familiar with Firefox, I learned about more features and was amazed at how easy everything was to use.

What is your favorite thing about Firefox? By far my favorite thing about Firefox is how easy it is to use. I remember the first time I installed an extension (Web Developer). I clicked "Install" and before I knew it, it was installed. I seriously sat there in awe. "No InstallShield?! I don't have to close all applications?! I don't have to restart my computer?!" Recently, there have been new versions of competing browsers (cough, cough) with new features. But the competing browsers can't seem to add new features without making everything so much more complicated. Firefox 2, however, added similar features and more, but at the same time remained easy to use. That's what makes Firefox great.

How did you hear about Spread Firefox? I'm not sure, honestly. I think spreadfirefox.com came up under a Google search or something like that. I started to get involved with SFX when the commercial project was announced. I was excited to support Firefox and was proud that my name was listed as a supporter on TV.

What makes you continue to visit Spread Firefox and contribute your time? I want people to know that there is a better and easier way to surf the web. I want them to know that they don't have to "click the blue e". I want software in general to become easier to use, and I think Firefox is a step in the right direction. But in order for Firefox to really have an impact on the future of software, it needs support.

You have some great ideas, what do you think that it’ll take to turn them into projects? More than anything, what they need is support from the SFX community. Many people have given positive feedback to my ideas, but haven't put my ideas into action yet. I think people need to find a reason to get excited about spreading Firefox. I think people need to realize that spreading Firefox, either by one of my ideas or by anyone else's, can be fun and worthwhile.

What would you like to see in future versions of Firefox? I'd like to see Mozilla really take advantage of Firefox's edge of being so easy to use. I'd like to see future versions of Firefox really stress the simplicity of the browser while at the same time adding new features.

Congratulations Johnny! The SFx Team 

Otto de Voogd is December’s Spread Firefox Volunteer Spotlight member of
the month.

Otto is the owner and operator of 7is7.com where he
has several pages devoted to Firefox content including Firefox Utilities and Fire up the Fox!.
He is an active and loyal member of Spread Firefox, and he always
responds to comments on SFx in a helpful and accurate way.
Otto has selflessly been a great contributor to Firefox and he’s a
strong supporter of other Open Source products such as OpenOffice.org
and Linux.
He is also trying to contribute to the Open Source community with his
own project, StatEye, a traffic analysis tool for webmasters.
For more information on Otto’s current and ongoing projects, visit 7is7.com

The SFx team interviewed Otto on various topics and he was gracious
enough to answer.

How long have you been using Firefox?

I have been using Firefox since the summer of 2004, it was still in
version 0.9. I would have been using Firefox a lot earlier if I had not
been traveling
at the time, as I have always been looking for a good alternative browser.

For what reason(s) did you start using Firefox?

The first time I tried Firefox I was so impressed it felt like a breath
of fresh air, a kind of liberation!

Why did you become a member of Spread Firefox?

Mozilla gave me a great browser demanding nothing in return from me. But I
wanted to contribute somehow in order to give something back.

Then one day I discovered Spread Firefox after having installed Firefox on
a computer in an Internet cafe and checked the default bookmarks. I
signed up immediately and added a button to my site (actually there was
a button already but not with the affiliate link).
After my travels I started to become more active on SFx.

As Firefox is the most successful open source project it is a beacon
that can serve and inspire other open source projects. I hope OpenOffice.org
and many others will follow in our footsteps.

For what reasons are you such a strong advocate for Open Source?

That is a good question.
My interest in open source started years ago when I noticed the superior
quality of open source products, like the GNU C compiler and the Apache
webserver.
Some of the reasons open source products are often better include, the
inclination to adhere to standards and best practices, the ability of
code to be reviewed and modified by peers resulting in
quicker detection and fixing of bugs for example.
If I am using open source software and want a feature added or bug fixed
I can do it myself or pay someone else to do it for me without having to
rely on the company that made the software, it just makes
it much more versatile.

At this point in time, as a developer and programmer, open source is
also an attractive option, it helps you in two ways, your work spreads
faster and others may help with the development. You can still make
money by providing support and other services to those that require it.

Then there is the issue of open formats, I strongly believe in that,
just imagine if the HTML standard belonged to one company and we'd have
to pay
each time we use it. Hence I avoid the use of proprietary formats myself.

You wrote the software offered on your site including the Firefox
search plugins generator, Browser Wars Checkers and others.
Why did you take the time to create these for Firefox, rather than
writing programs that you could profit off of?

The software that you mentioned are all part of my attempts to spread
Firefox, sometimes with a bit of humor, as Browser Wars Checkers, where
IE is a
cold blooded machine and difficult to beat.
Others are intended to be useful to people who use Firefox.
It was a lot of fun making them, sometimes there were interesting challenges
I learned from.

What would you like to see for Firefox in the future?

I am curious about the new 'places' feature in Firefox 3, as I have so
many bookmarks that I need a better way to search and order them.
But more important than what should change in the future is that which
should not change:
I'd like Firefox to stay the slick and easy to use tool it is right now,
it has smart defaults, yet let's you customize everything you may want.
It is not trying to be all things to all people, it is trying to be a
browser and trying to be the best at that job.
It is clear that the people behind Firefox really think about what they
are doing and love their product.

I hope that Firefox will one day no longer be the alternative browser
but the first browser of choice for most people, that OEMs will start to
pre-install Firefox on computers, that more people will choose
alternative operating systems as these tend to have Firefox by default.

Final comments from Otto

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the Spread
Firefox community for all their efforts, each person's contribution
whether big or
small is worthwhile as it really does add up. Seeing the community that
has developed around Firefox gives me a warm feeling.

SpreadFirefox Volunteer Spotlight for the month of November is Dylan

a.k.a. ALIENDUDE5300. Dylan is a 14 year old 8th grader living in the

United States. His interests include computers, the Internet, image

manipulation, and of course Firefox.
He’s been a great supporter to all
of his fellow SFx members, their
ideas, and projects,
and it’s hard to
find a post on Spread Firefox where he hasn’t left a
positive or helpful
comment.
We did an online interview with Dylan and here’s how it
went.

SFx Team
How did you become involved with Spread
Firefox?
Dylan
I originally downloaded the Mozilla "Firebird" browser when
it was at
version 0.8, and used it as my primary internet browser.
Eventually
Firebird became Firefox, and a bit after it became 1.5, I
discovered
Spread Firefox and decided to check it out. I then became a
member of
the Spread Firefox, and I have been a member for about 37
weeks.

SFx Team
Why do you support and promote
Firefox?
Dylan
Mozilla Firefox is an free open-source web browser with
many people
donating their time and effort to create. I think that if people
spend
that much time on something then people should be aware of it. Me

creating "Why to Use Firefox" is just one way to help this project. If

people don't support and promote Firefox then the developers wouldn't

have any reason to continue building onto Firefox and it would

eventually cease to exist.

SFx Team
Do you use any other browser?
If yes, for what purpose?
Dylan
I often load my webpage in Internet
Explorer and Opera to compare how it
looks to how it looks in Firefox, as my
site's main audience is not
current Firefox users but non-Firefox users. If
I simply created my site
to look good in Firefox, it would not help promote
Firefox, but bad coding.

SFx Team
What is it that you want to do when
you graduate?
Dylan
I am highly considering a job in the technology
industry. I may be a
graphics designer or a website designer.