A quick look back at my first year at Mozilla

This time last year I joined the Mozilla Foundation‘s Learning team. I’d already spent a year as part of the Open Badges community so, in a way, it feels like I’ve been working for Mozilla for twice as long as I actually have been! The Learning team has been reorganised (twice!) so I’m now on the Badges Team v2.0. Things certainly don’t move slowly in the tech world.

Initially, I planned for this post to include an epic infographic showing all of the places I’ve been, the people I’ve talked to, and so on. But that task would take a whole day of my time – and that’s time I haven’t got! Working at Mozilla is exciting, but busy. Suffice to say that I’ve attended 53 events in the 52 weeks I’ve been at Mozilla and I’ve usually been speaking at or running workshops at them. When you factor in Christmas shutdown at PTO (a.k.a. holiday) then that’s pretty impressive/scary.

I’ve been many places this past year evangelising Mozilla’s mission and, in particular, the Open Badges Infrastructure (OBI). I’ve been to Canada (twice), several places in the US, the Netherlands (twice), Belgium, Portugal, Ireland, all over the UK… the list goes on. That sounds great but, as any business traveller will tell you, you don’t usually get to do the touristy things; most of what you see is the inside of airports, hotels, planes, trains and automobiles. Having said that, it beats sitting at the same desk day-in, day-out. 😉

I’m often asked what it’s like to work for Mozilla. As people ask that question their eyes often light up as if it’s a magic wonderland. It’s not unicorns and rainbows all the time and I certainly recognise the ‘inability to switch off’ problem that Rob Hawkes mentioned in his post upon leaving Mozilla. In that post he talked about stress and burnout as well. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) I experienced stress, burnout and working crazy hours as a teacher and senior leader while still in my 20’s. That means both I and my family are well-equipped to spot and deal with the tell-tale signs of stress. I know when to rest and how to look after myself these days.

But working at Mozilla is, if not a magic wonderland, certainly different and pretty awesome. I’ve never experienced such freedom and devolved responsibility as I do here. Nor have I ever worked with people who are so talented, motivated and great at communicating using technology. It’s also wonderful knowing that you’re playing a part in making a difference on a global scale. Especially with the work that I’m involved in around Open Badges and the Web Literacy Standard I feel like this is stuff that could significantly improve the educational and career opportunities of the next generation. Given that’s my children’s generation, it makes me proud to work for a global non-profit where doing good is part of our code.

By this time next July I’m aiming for Open Badges will be a ‘household name’ in both North American and Europe, for us to be iterating on v1.0 of the Web Literacy Standard, and for Firefox OS (launched today!) to have gained significant market share for the next billion Web users.

Here’s to another year!