But don’t worry, I am not going into the details for everything (this is actually coming during the next months), I will give you a glance at what we were working on since January.

Then I know that some of you could – during these 3 months – follow the continuous news around Mozilla via these streams:

-        Identica: http://identi.ca/mozillazinefr

-        Twitter: http://twitter.com/MozillaZineFr

From www.MozillaZine-fr.org, thanks to the fantastical and relentless Pierre (Mozinet) who is the best for gathering every single piece of information from everywhere! Our preciouss

Since I have the chance now, please find again its essential retrospective of 2012: http://www.mozillazine-fr.org/archive.phtml?article=28569f

• So, what’s new?

First of all: welcome to Jesus, Nigel, Darkkow, Marmoute, AxelR, Cédric Valmary, Rémi Caillot, Maxime Ronceray, Benjamin Bernard, Sphinx,  angezanetti,  Macadam, Sadouanouan, Idriss, Abdelsan and every one else I am sure to forget! (Apologies, I will catch up next month!)

And, hold tight: two countries just joined the French speaking community

-        The Burkina Faso: Sadouanouan Malo and Idriss Tinto contacted us and are more than motivated to create one Mozilla community in this beautiful country. Sadouanouan is a professor and is currently working with Yoric to determine some bugs which he will be able to give to his students. Idriss is a computer science engineer, he is also in touch with Clarista and gerard-majax – our mediator here, thanks to him, a new community is being born. Together, they are thinking about how to set up a first event to found the community. Now, they already got their Mozillian’s profiles:  https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/sadouanouan/ and https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/titinto/ .

-        The Chad: thanks to Chahrawoods, we are now communicating with Abdelsalam Safi, a member of the ADIL (www.adil.td) whose goal is to promote the use of free software in Chad and thinks about creating the first Mozilla community in its country. What a good idea! We are teaming up with Chahrawoods and without any doubt, you will hear from us very soon. First things first: Abdelsalam is also officially a Mozillian: https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/abdelsalam.safi/ . Of course, both Burkina Faso and Chad can count on our indispensable Camara, leader for the Mozilla Senegal community and coordinator for the whole French speaking Western Africa to help and support.

Another event: Firefox is now localized in a new language! Cédric Valmary, newcomer, is working relentlessly so that our favorite browser works in occitan -a mailing list has actually been created for this specific topic:  http://mozfr.org/mailman/listinfo/occitan ).

• The events of the last quarter
  

• You will have notice that, in January, the entire world celebrated Firefox OS with some hackathons. French speaking Mozilla has, of course, done the same.

Mozilla Sénégal has been the first ones to past the post on the 19th of January in Dakar: https://reps.mozilla.org/e/dakar-firefoxos-appday/  and http://www.osiris.sn/Dakar-Firefox-OS-APP-Day-19.html  . One particularity was that, in addition to create apps and accompany developers, Niang did a Firefox Clinic on Thunderbird: his speciality.

In Paris  (https://reps.mozilla.org/e/paris-firefoxos-hackathon/), the hackathon took place during the week-end of the 26th of January. The Gaia team from Paris made several conferences during Saturday’s morning to explain to the numerous developers that were here what were the basics to create web apps for Firefox OS (performances, design with the very convenient Building Blocks (http://buildingfirefoxos.com/ ), responsive design, which web API were ready to be used starting from now, etc.). Not to forget Tristan who motivated everyone and reminded the interest of applications using open web technologies. During the afternoon, after having eaten well among geeks, participants created groups in rooms to start the real thing: intensive programming for everyone, with the help of the Gaia developers if needed. (A lot of questions were especially about the systemXHR API and the web activities.) The real good atmosphere was rewarding and no more than 36 applications for Firefox OS were created in Paris this day.

If these days were successfull, it was largely thanks to Anne-Marie Bourcier, who put all of her energy and experience in organizing the event. She was our fairy godmother and we will all be eternally grateful for this.

I would also invite you to read the proceedings of Kinouchou: http://kinouchou.org/dotcl/index.php?post/2013/01/28/Firefox-OS-App-Days and http://kinouchou.org/dotcl/index.php?post/2013-01-15-Firefox-OS

And here are the pictures that Tristan took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nitot/sets/72157632623533104/with/8427177048/

One should also note that, in order to prepare this day, Pierre-Louis, FredB and Clochix added French subtitles on the videos about FirefoxOS. You can find these videos and all the useful links about FxOS on this Wiki page : http://wiki.mozfr.org/Paris_FirefoxOS_App_Days.

Still talking about Firefox, Geekshadow translated a FAQ on Firefox OS that was initiated by Mozilla. He then added this FAQ in our Wiki page for "frequent questions": http://wiki.mozfr.org/Questions_fr%C3%A9quentes. Thanks Antoine!

• In February, like every year since 2003, Mozilla took part in Fosdem. The Fosdem (for Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) is simply one of the best event about FOSS in Europe: this is the place to be to know everything about FOSS development, to meet experts… and have fun!

Thus, the Fosdem took place during the first week-end of February in Brussels (Belgium), and amazing city with the best French fries of the world. Concerning Mozilla, this is Benoît, leader of the Belgian community, who took care of the event. Brilliant organiser, with an extreme patience, he made a marvel of this event.  He was helped by Brian King, Ioana Chiorean, Axel Hecht, Ziggy Maes, Monique Brunel, Gervase and Teoli.

Overall, Mozilla excelled with speakers from everywhere, selling out meetings in Mozilla’s room but not only. Concerning the French speaking Mozilla community, Mozilla Belgium and Mozilla France were joined by Mozilla Senegal, represented by Camara, Mozilla Algeria, represented by Majda. However, it was a great disapointment and we cannot help but curse the things that stopped Melek, Sofien and Alexandre from Mozilla Tunisia to get their visas!

You can find the slides, videos, photos and proceedings here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Fosdem:2013:Aftermath

• On the 9th of February, Mozilla Quebec organised a Docsprint  (https://reps.mozilla.org/e/mozilla-quebec-documentation-sprint/  ) in Montreal. FredB and Fredy were pleased to welcome Eric Shepherd (a.k.a. sheppy) from MDN who is an guarantee of success! Find the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredericbourgeon/sets/72157632736602134/ .

Canada also had two presentations of Persona in March: http://montrealpython.org/fr/2013/03/mp36/ and http://www.meetup.com/HTML5mtl/events/109129482/.

• Let’s go back to February when Mozilla Maurice followed its route and organised a new Webmaker event for the children. Ganesh and Paméla are wonderful teachers and are already thinking about going in some other schools to launch a tournament.

• On the 16th of February, the first among many events was the MozHack Install Party that Mozilla Ivory Coast organised: https://reps.mozilla.org/e/mozhack-install-party/

• On the 27th of February, Mozilla Tunisia once again showed that they have lots of good, original and really nice ideas and initiatives. Manel, part of the A-team of Womoz, gave news of its program of Webmaker Training for young handicapped:  http://mozilla-tunisia.org/programme-special-formations-webmaker-pour-des-jeunes-handicapes/ (but also : http://www.womoz.org/blog/teaching-new-web-technologies-to-children-in-a-tunisian-medico-social-educational-center/ ). This article and this program are simply wonderful. Congratulations Manel!!!

• From the 1st to the 6th March, French speaking Mozilla was proud to see Flore, Ibrahima and Ganesh taking part in the Webmaker training days in Athens: http://popcorn.webmadecontent.org/tif

They are now our Webmaker mentors and will soon be able to teach every other French speaking Reps who are willing to!

• Also on the 1st of March: strong coming back of Mozilla Ivory Coast and its enthusiast leader, Bacely Yorobi who went to EDHEC, a management school in Abidjan to present the different technologies of Mozilla.

• On the 17th of March, as part of a program named BeGeek and launched by the Mozilla Tunisia community (http://mozilla-tunisia.org/begeek-nouveau-projet-et-de-nouvelles-voies-a-explorer/  ), several members of the community went to Mjez El Beb to host a day of teaching about Web technologies. Here are the minutes: http://mozilla-tunisia.org/html5-essential-training-day/

• 23rd of March: Kinou, Nigel and Chahrawoods went to the event "Libre en fête" (http://www.libre-en-fete.net/  ) in L’Haÿ-les-Roses (yes, a place with such a name exists) to represent Mozilla. Our trio ran a stand among numerous French associations for Free Software. (http://www.parinux.org/event/2013-03-23?mini=event%2F2013-03 )

• Still on the 23rd of March, as part of a tour of schools, Mozilla Senegal stopped off in the ESTM, a computer science school in Dakar: http://wiki.mozfr.org/MozFR:Actualit%C3%A9s#UAHB_Meetup_Dakar

• The month of March ended with the celebration of the 15th birthday of Mozilla by the Ivory Coast Mozilla Community.

• Do not forget Flaburgan, who became one of our main speakers, who participates regularly at the Human Talks in Grenoble, France, to present a new Mozilla tool. The last one: Persona (http://humantalks.com/talks/64-introduction-a-persona ), and Firefox OS (http://humantalks.com/talks/111-introduction-a-firefox-os).

• Some noteworthy articles:
  

-        The translation of the article "An introduction to Firefox OS  for mobile developers: Q&A with Andreas Gal, Mozilla" which became "Toutes les questions sur Firefox OS… Les réponses d’Andreas Gal" thanks to Clochix, Pandark, Kazé, Goofy, Tchevalier: http://blog.mozfr.org/post/2013/02/FirefoxOS-questions-et-reponses-d-Andreas-Gal

-        The translation of the blog post from Ron Piovesan (http://ronpiovesan.com/2013/02/20/firefoxos-and-the-battle-for-the-bronze/ ), which became "FirefoxOS : en piste pour la médaille de bronze !" from Lissyx, Kazé, Clochix, Goofy: http://blog.mozfr.org/post/2013/02/FirefoxOS-pour-la-medaille-de-bronze

-        The translation of the blog post of Andreas Gal (http://andreasgal.com/2013/01/08/why-the-web-is-going-to-win-mobile/ ), which became "Pourquoi c’est le Web qui va gagner la partie sur les mobiles" with Alice, Maxime, Goofy: http://blog.mozfr.org/post/2013/01/Pourquoi-c-est-le-Web-qui-va-gagner-la-partie-sur-les-mobiles

-        The proceedings of Mozcamp Europe 2012 in Poland from GeekShadow (better late than never!) : http://blog.geekshadow.com/lang/fr/2012/11/25/mozcamp-2012/

-        The blog post of Clarista who enjoyed her vacations in Burma, with vingtetun and seized the opportunity to meet supporters of the Free Software and who is appealing to our help now: https://claristamozilla.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/its-time-to-go-to-myanmar/

-        The translation of a blog post now entitled "Pourquoi je  retourne à Firefox" by Jeff_, biglittledragoon, Agnes, MFolschette,  Plop, Tom, Pouhiou, quack1, jtanguy, Rudloff and anonymous of Framasoft: http://www.framablog.org/index.php/post/2013/03/13/firefox-le-retour

-        The translation of the blog post of Luke Wagner (https://blog.mozilla.org/luke/2012/10/02/optimizing-javascript-variable-access/ ), which became "Optimiser les accès de variables JavaScript" with Nicolas Pierron: http://tech.mozfr.org/post/2013/02/03/Optimiser-les-acces-de-variables-JavaScript

-        The translation of the blog post of Brendan Eich (https://brendaneich.com/2013/03/mwc-2013-firefox-os-and-more-web-api-evolution/ ) which became "Firefox OS et l’évolution des API Web" thanks to Goofy: http://tech.mozfr.org/post/2013/03/11/Firefox-OS-et-les-API-Web-par-Brendan-Eich

-        An article brought to our attention by Benoît Leseul on "Les opportunités  manquées du libre, la série complète. Et pourquoi Mozilla est une  exception" of Lionel Dricot: https://plus.google.com/u/0/102072273880684402148/posts/QYtsVU6o8Gd

• What else?
  

« parrains Mozfr » : http://wiki.mozfr.org/ParrainsMozfr is a new system that has recently been implemented for new members. To tell you the truth, the system is still in its setting up phase and needs to be improved. We are still working on it and we shall let you know about further development. Do not hesitate to sign up!

Lastly, Transvision has not stopped its impulsive evolution from Pascal (changes by versions have been described at this page: http://transvision.mozfr.org/news/#v2.5 ), and as from now and onwards from Jesus! He has been inspired by the official theme of Mozilla to change the theme of Transvision, but the display of results has also been improved by creating an alert message for translations which seems to be abnormally long or short as compared to the original where the possibility of restoring a combination of languages/which is deposited by default via a cookie,etc.etc. Within a few months, Jesus showed himself to be indispensable to the community by providing several technical support (we need this!). In addition, he’s a cute boy! Thus, we are nominating him the Francophone Mozillian of this quarter! Jesus, you are most welcome among us! Thank you!

See you soon!

Clarista

• Why it’s time to go there, in general:

About Burma, it is often said it’s the most beautiful country in Asia. I don’t have any comparison points, since this was my first trip to the continent. Yet, one thing is sure: it’s a wonderful country. Wonderful.

But the first wealth of Burma is its people! Vivien and I were blown away by their kindness and generosity. On our first day, the trip started quite badly: lost luggage; domestic flight from Yangon to Inle Lake cancelled. Hopefully, our disappointment was soon to be forgotten thanks to Julie, a Air KBZ employee: she found our luggage (even though it was not her company’s fault) and, moreover, we had the pleasure to dine in Chinatown with her and her husband Éric. A night to remember, during which Vivien ate locusts and bamboo worms, and met new friends. I take the opportunity to dedicate this post, and my best wishes, to Julie and Éric, and once again invite them to Paris!

And we had so many other meetings in Burma! Monks, restaurateurs, worshipers in temples, children… All gave us a wonderful smile, a nice word; some took pictures of us. Respectful, discrete, charming: this is how Burmese were with us. They gave us a real life lesson.

And we’ll never forget the landscapes and monuments. Some areas are still wild, outside of time (just have a look to the Intha fishermen on Inle Lake). Every temple, every pagoda has its surprises. Not to forget this senerity feeling that envelops you.

So, in short, you get the point. We were under the spell.

So why is it time to go there now? Because tourists are just starting to come in mass, and you can still enjoy this country in relative peace. Because the junta has turned over power to a civilian government (even though, in reality, the military junta is still there unofficially), the country is opening itself to trade, and now is the time to come and participate in this opening and prevent it from closing again.

• Why is it time to go there now, especially for lovers of the Internet and Free Software?

To participate in the opening. Prevent Myanmar from closing. Things are still especially delicate there when it comes to the Internet.

Today, between 5 and 7% of the population has access to the Internet. Cybercafés are very successfull, as we could see for ourselves. Geek-attitude knows no borders . The more people access the Internet, the harder it will be for the regime to apply censorship. That’s why we have to act now.

This is what we realized when we met Burmese Free Software personalities, thanks to our  great Mozilla Rep, Tin Aung Linn.

We met both M.Ye and M.Thein in Mandalay. Then we met Ko Ye, Tho Hi, Chit Ko Ko Win, Naing Ye Min, Ethan Kurt, Ma Hteik, Nang Nyi, and Yadanar in Yangon.

Ko Ye Myat Thu and U Thein Htut are part of the Myanmar Computer Professionals Association, in Mandalay (http://www.mcpamandalay.org/ ). The other people we met in Yangon are free software advocates, including several members of the fantastic Yangon Barcamp (6000 participants in 2013; Aung San Suu Kyi gave a speech for them in 2012!) or the Ubuntu community, and most of them are students.

We asked all of them about their hopes and wishes. Here is a summary of their answers:

- One of the biggests part is about education. There are computer science schools in the country, but several people reported that they were several months or years late on the current state of the art. Autodidacts (like Tin!) are able to educate themselves about free software, but they regret that Web technologies are taught little or not at all. They are dreaming of Mozilla people coming in to teach about Firefox technologies and Open Source languages. Those materials could then be reused by other universities.

- There is also censorship to fight. We could quite easily browse the web when we were there. But only because we were browsing in French or English. Even if it is better than in the past, there is still censorship active locally. With Vivien, we plan to bridge the gap between Burmese free software advocates and the Internews NGO (http://www.internews.eu ), which specializes in fighting censorship.

- Mainly, what Mozilla could help with is bringing more visibility to the issue of the Internet. A couple of days after our trip in Yangon (oh yeah, we were there first!), Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman at Gooogle, came to give a speech and pleaded for Internet liberty (http://lionslayer.yoeyar.com/?p=1620 ). We can’t sit back and do nothing! Tin and his friends really would like to see Mozilla employees visit too and join in this conversation. All together, they are doing a tremendous job, and I think we have to build on those contributions, show that we, members of the Mozilla Community, are supporting them. Ubuntu is already very present during events. One of the free software advocates we met already had a Ubuntu Phone that he often show. Once again, customs are an issue: our Reps can’t receive their kit. Tin has no t-shirts, banners, nor goodies. William, we need your help!

- The best would be to participate with them in developing the Internet. That’s why Tin and the others were excited by Firefox OS. Vivien talked a lot about it, showed them the possibilities. Today, they are waiting for just one thing: phone availability in Myanmar. And I also think it’s an excellent opportunity for this country: by enabling people to have the Internet in their pockets, we could exponentially help its development. And those phones would be affordable, unlike Apple’s or Samsung’s. Starting today, I’ll forward Tin as much as possible documentation and videos about Firefox OS. I don’t doubt, also, that French employees and volunteers working on Firefox OS will answer all of his questions. But the best thing would be to organize an event about Firefox OS and bring in some employees. Why not some of the Mozilla Taiwan people?

One thing is for sure: with Tin, M.Ye and M.Thein, Ko Ye, Tho Hi, Chit Ko Ko Win, Naing Ye Min, Ethan Kurt, Ma Hteik, Nang Nyi and Yadanar, and also Chit and Thaung whom we sadly could not meet but whose hard work we have heard about, the Internet in Myanmar is in good hands. They are all excellent advocates for Internet freedom.

With this post, I would really like to thank all of them for their welcome, and all they taught us. I admire you, I wish you good luck, and remain at your service!

Viva Myanmar!

So, as usual, Mozilla will have a Developer Room. And, as usual, it’s going to be packed.

If you are interested in giving a talk, leading a workshop or some other session we should hold in the Mozilla DevRoom, please add it to this PAD: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/fosdem2013-talks before 2012-12-20.

You can also propose a talk you would like to attend, and we’ll try to find a speaker! Please, do it in the same PAD, in the second section :

https://etherpad.mozilla.org/fosdem2013-talks

We want some talks from both Mozilla contributors and employees. All contributors who are selected to be official speakers in the Mozilla DevRoom will be eligible for travel and hotel sponsorship.

Please make sure to list your contact info (Mozillian page, or mail address) in the PAD, so we can reach you easily if your talk is accepted.

Of course, any other Mozilla-related proposal which you think would be interesting to share with other FLOSS communities is welcome. Please, feel free to propose any kind of talks, even crazy talks, brand new ones, etc. We hope to receive a lot of proposals or suggestions to make this Fosdem be a success with you!

Cheers!

Clarista and Benoit

Mozcamp Europe in Warsaw wrapped up 10 days ago, it’s about time I handed in my summary report, while my memory of the event is still intact. So, what aspects of this MozCamp made it so different from last year in Berlin? Here are some answers and a couple of photos.

• French-speaking Community has grown bigger (much bigger)!

Undoubtedly my best memory of the weekend: this photo gathering all French-speaking attendees. Huge! And so many countries represented: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, but also Canada, Estonia, Mali, and now Colombia and Mauritius! It’s really awesome!

This weekend made us get to know each other, interact, learn more about our interests, our aspirations and passions. What brings us together now goes beyond the love we have for Mozilla, Free Software and community: we are bound by friendship.

We all agreed on the importance of the French-speaking community. Because we all realize that English is sometimes a barrier for some people. The fact that we share this language, French, will allow us to reach a maximum number of people, by uniting our strengths. And that’s what we started to do! After those past two days with them, I’m certain of one thing: the French-speaking community is going to do great things in the coming months and years!

And I’d like to take this opportunity to give a special welcome to Ibrahima, Emilio, Jefferson, Pamela and Ganesh. They honor us by their participation, and we are all delighted to welcome them!

One regret however: the absence of the indispensable Camara, the leader of the Senegalese community, blocked by visa problems. Sad and hugely disappointing.

A goal today: to organize an event where we could be all together. ALL. And in the amazing new Mozilla space in Paris – no less .

• Newcomers (aka, “mouflets” for some)

On this photo you can see, from left to right, Antoine (flaburgan), Erwan (Taratatach) and Théo (tchevalier), who I affectionately nicknamed (yes, that is affectionate) "the Mouflets" They are just over 20 years old but did brilliant first steps in the community. Erwan has spent much of his first night polishing code of a B2G app, Théo has refined his localization techniques, and Antoine attended a lot of conferences to give better talks when his turn comes (his "speaker baptism" will take place at JDLL (FSD)!).

All the above points to one very important fact about the French-speaking community:  more than half of the contributors present at Mozcamp in Warsaw were not in Berlin. Newcomers included: Hubert, Théo, Julia, Ibrahima, Alice, Alexandre, Achraf, Flore, Kinou, Erwan, Pandark, Antoine and Daniel.

French community, one of the oldest and well established communities at Mozilla, has grown, opening its arms wide to new contributors, developing its sense of hospitality. What a joy to have them with us today! (even if, suddenly, some call me "mommy" #GettingOld) "Old" and "New" are now working together, hand in hand… And this is only the beginning, as other newcomers are showing the tip of their noses and are already starting to make an impact (aren’t they, Guillemette?).

Thank you all for your energy, for all that you do now, for your patience with the "old" people that we are. Thank you for all the wonderful moments spent together.

• The Reps program success

This Mozcamp was also an opportunity to see the success of the Mozilla Reps program. Imagine, 400 people, many of whom had never met, who spoke as if they knew each other! This is the Reps magic.

This program makes us more involved in the Red Panda, and allows you to feel involved. Never, in Mozilla history have we seen so many events were held under the Mozilla banner. We all have anecdotes, experiences to share. How to ignore that one of the most beautiful moments I have experienced this year, the last weekend in Tunisia, is due to the Reps program (and talent of the Mozilla Tunisia community)?

The Reps program has strengthened links between communities, it not only provides tools and resources, but also opportunities and a field of possibilities.

Of course, it does not go without criticism, and its creators are aware of that. Sometimes cumbersome administratively speaking, sometimes pompous, sometimes disorganized, often complicated (for average people like me anyway!). But the result is there: a growing number of Reps and thunderous applause at the mention of the names of William and Pierros.

• Firefox Mobile & Firefox OS

This was the theme of this MozCamp. And the subject of numerous conferences. We saw progress in this area by Mozilla. Impressive and exciting! Enough to convince the skeptics.

And it’s not because I share the life of a B2G developer that I tell you that. It is objective.

Firefox for Android is now fluid, aesthetic, pleasant. And Firefox OS will just change the world. Because that’s why it was created.

• Confidence!

I had the pleasure of participating in the panel discussion. This particular moment which reflects so much the Mozilla philosophy: 9 people, leardership staff but also Reps, answering questions from the audience. This year, the questions were proposed by Reps who then voted for those they wanted to be asked first. A list of 10 questions was preprared, which touching on a wide cariety of topics, ranging from the economy, the future of Mozilla, to its very philosophy. Mozilla does not intend to hide anything from its contributors.

During the preparations, Debbie Cohen asked each of us what we were expecting from this session. I replied, "trust", ie feel that we can trust Mozilla and Mozilla trusts us. In the end At the end of the day, that’s what I felt, and I’m pleased with that.

Because they all have hammered their need of the community to confront the giants Google, Apple, Microsoft. The means are different: at Mozilla they are not financial, they are human. And they also showed that they knew where they were going: the key is to make good products, it is not relying on the Free Software philosophy, hoping that the world will become virtuous, it is simply offering the best tools.

Well, the journalist that I am cannot deny that there was a bit of stonewalling. But I think it is intrinsic to such processes: since we want to give confidence, we are necessarily in Care Bear world.

That said, I think the message was well received, I hope that some Mozilla leaders have registered those expectations articulated by the community, and have understood how much the Free Software philosophy is important to the contributors who need to be reassured that Mozilla stays aligned with its core values. Indeed, how could we not worry when Mozilla changed its attitude towards H264.

I also hope, at a more personal level, that they understood when I said I will never (ever) fill a bug with this horrible and scary tool that is Bugzilla. In any case, given the applause that followed, I saw that I was not alone. Mission accomplished for Mr. and Mrs. Average!

• Buddy hunting

He is William Reynolds, and he was my "buddy" (note the pronunciation because I have several times pronounced "body", and it played tricks on me). The first night, everyone discovered a name in front of his own: a "buddy" so we were assigned, usually depending on the form that we filled. The idea was to provoke encounters, to ensure that countries and cultures would mix (and no, that in that sense, you dirty minds!)

This did not happen in Berlin, and it was a pity. In any case, the idea was fine because everyone started to go out of their ways to find their buddy. In a sea of 300 people, this can come accross as a very daunting task! On Saturday evening, there were several folks who still had not found their buddy. So I went on a buddy-hunt! I went from table to table, asking if anyone knew so and so … with my French accent. Once, I had the person in front of me, except he did not understand who I was looking for, in fact, he did not even understand that the name I gave was his.

Anyway: In my case, I finally met my (lovely) buddy on Sunday. William works in marketing at Mozilla, and his specialty is social networks. That’s good because I wanted to create a Twitter account to identify contributions proposals! So here we are both on board in this project…

• The karaoke

Amidst all these conferences, the workshops, the demos, the debates, all under the banner of the Internet,  came a truly surreal moment: the Saturday night karaoke.

What an incredible experience! And the proof that Mozillians feel good together, they are so tolerant that they do not hesitate to sing in front of each other. And even dancing the Macarena. The atmosphere was great!

Special mention to Fuzzyfox who simply has a terrific voice. he really spoiled us!

That said. If someone publishes a certain karaoke video on Abba song, Spice Girls, or any other of my performances, he will test my WoMoz hammer! You have been warned…

• Beautiful meetings

This is what I prefer in these events: discovering new people. With Mozilla, I am never disappointed! There is such a diversity of personalities. This year again, I have been moved by some, amazed by all. I returned with a lot of portraits… that you will soon discover in Bonjour Mozilla.

One more thing, a last thank, because I received during this Mozcamp a gift that goes straight to my heart: a  Foxkeh plush! I am deeply moved and proud. And I thank Tetsuya Kosaka for this. I’ll take care of it!

Mozilla magic, again