Presentation for the Mozilla Foundation Board prepared by Mark Surman https://webmaker.org

1. July 2012 mozilla foundation board meeting
video conference

2. WEBMAKER mid-year review

3. big goal for 2012
best drumbeat software and
learning resources rolled into
cohesive webmaker offering

4. january
2012

5. june
2012

6. june
2012

7. june
2012

8. june
2012

9. june
2012

10. status:
we’ve shipped MVP of
Webmaker offering
next: test and iterate on
software, learning, community

11. WEBMAKER what have we actually done?

13. ➜
big picture: from goals to cohesive MVP offering
now have team w/ common focus and skills to do this

14. +
hackasaurus: extended from goggles to thimble
now have two tools for HTML, expanded learning model

15. ➜
popcorn: pivot to app that edits web media in real time
pulling video, audio, pictures, maps, data, etc. from APIs into a polished video

16. + ➜
approach: from software + learning to apps that teach
thimble + popcorn ship w/ starter content that also teaches you things

17. + +
programs: from ‘front end’ to lab + contributor pipeline
HiveNYC, OpenNews, StoryCamp = feedback, news ideas, best contributors

18. ➜
engagement: from rough idea to 600+ learning events
summer code party napkin sketched in march, delivered in june

19. ➜
contributors: from ~100 to ~1000 in 6 months
clear offering / call to action = more contributors, mostly instructors

20. WEBMAKER what does success look like?

21. big goal
move 10s millions of people from
using the web to making the web
but what does that look like now?
how are we measuring success in 2012?

22. metrics
in april, we said: contributors should
be our primary metric for 2012
also said we’d look at
adoption, badges, media and revenue

23. contributor
metrics

24. why measure contributors?
contributors = key resource for
building things and reaching people
in a way that will scale

25. why measure contributors?
also, early proxy to evaluate if people
understand and like what we’re building

26. three kinds of contributors
code: coders,
localizers, QA (target = 150)
content: people building
learning projects (target = 200)
teaching: instructors and
event organizers (target = 1,000)

27. Webmaker contributors
april 2012 june 2012 target
code 75 150
content 50 200
teaching 200 1000
total 325 1350

28. Webmaker contributors
april 2012 june 2012 2012 target
code 75 223 150
content 50 55 200
teaching 200 700 1000
total 325 978 1350

29. Webmaker contributors
code content teaching
Webmaker.org 495
Thimble 20
Popcorn 218 30
Open Badges 5
OpenNews ? 5 30
Hive 30 160
total 223 55 700

30. growing + involving contributors
Canonical’s Jono Bacon says:
4 keys to involving contributors
1. on ramps
2. tasks / CTAs
3. documentation / training
4. celebration

31. growing + involving contributors
Summer Code Party + Hive
cover all 4 steps for instructors
this quickly grew our instructor community
to 700 people in 79 countries

32. growing + involving contributors
now need to dive deeper with
instructors, understand motivations
two immediate actions:
a) 1-on-1 instructor outreach by all MoFo staff
b) REMO Webmaker special interest group

33. growing + involving contributors
Popcorn building strength
in code contributors (200+)
popcorn.js library plus events key to this
OpenNews projects starting to produce code,
could become another big source of contributors

34. growing + involving contributors
question: when to build Thimble /
Goggles code community?
probably need slightly more advanced offering
before we put significant effort into this

35. growing + involving contributors
learning content is
least developed area
first Thimble hackfest in London
produced projects like ‘Zombies’
need a way to get contributions
like this on ongoing basis

36. growing + involving contributors
Q3+4 Thimble priority is
content contributor workflow
this will be simple at first,
likely just through wikis and events
will add full featured system
in Q4-12 or Q1-13

37. growing + involving contributors
longer term, need to build
contributor muscle across the org
1. messaging w/ clear CTAs
2. architecture of participation
3. contributor engagement staff

38. adoption
metrics

39. why look at usage and adoption?
we want to build consumer grade
software and experiences
Popcorn,Thimble, etc. have to be things that
people *like* if we’re going to have an impact

40. why look at usage and adoption?
therefore: need to know who is using
our offering and how they are using it
we’ve built good software team and MVP,
now need to test and iterate to full offering

41. a challenge
we’re just starting to baseline
Webmaker,Thimble, Popcorn usage
e.g.12k Thimble pages published in first 3 weeks,
very basic info on which projects most popular

42. a challenge
e-mail list is only place we
can start to see trends

43. reach via mofo email list
700,000
growth continues as
messaging switches
to Webmaker
525,000
major list growth
due to SOPA
350,000
175,000
0
Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 projected Q4 projected

44. a challenge
e-mail list is only place we
can start to see trends
need this kind of info for all our
offerings to understand how
people are using them

45. in the meantime ...
user testing and surveys are
primary source of feedback
survey of 150+ learners showed majority liked
Thimble, wanted more hints and better publishing

46. in the meantime ...
we’re also just going out
and talking to people
feedback from events, public
appearances and press being actively
ploughed back into product decisions

47. next steps
we’re adding basic dashboards
for Thimble and Popcorn
major list growth
due to SOPA
we couldn’t do this until we added user accounts and a
publishing gallery, neither of which made the MVP feature cut

48. next steps
we’re also focusing / pivoting
based on user feedback from the MVP releases
major list growth
due to SOPA
issue right now is managing scope and expectations:
people see big potential, we can only ship so many features

49. badges
metrics

50. why track badges?
badges key to understanding
and measuring learning
ultimately, need to see if people’s web skills
and creativity increase -- this is a central
part of the impact we want to have

51. what skills to start with?
we want people to
know basic web
mechanics and
creativity skills
our first Webmaker
mozilla web literacy map 0.3
badges will be based on
this skills grid (draft)

52. current challenge
badges implementation delayed
as devs needed on thimble
result: we don’t yet have a
systematic way to tracking learning
plan is to integrate Webmaker badges
into Thimble in Q3 and Q4

53. in the meantime ...
we’re surveying Thimble users
about learning outcomes
we’re also a) talking to instructors and
b) tracking entry/exits stats
on learning projects

54. early observations
90% users with no experience
said they learned something
43% said they learned alot
surveys also gave nuanced feedback:
e.g. some users stuck on browser basics
(cut and paste) and web mechanics (inks)

55. next steps
Thimble next rev will fix and test
against basic learning obstacles
e.g. add content on web mechanics and
browser basics, improve publishing
workflow, do more nuanced FTF user testing

56. media
metrics

57. why measure media?
test whether our
message is getting through
also provides rough proxy for how
widely our message is getting out

58. coverage so far ...
good: on message
coverage of Webmaker
Lifehacker:
“Mozilla Webmaker aims to teach you
to code and to change you from web
consumer to creator."

59. coverage so far ...
also: Webmaker positioned
as core Mozilla offering
TechCrunch Thunderbird coverage:
“Mozilla is ramping up its efforts with
Boot2Gecko, the Thimble code editor
and Firefox Mobile."

60. how much coverage?
87 press mentions of
Webmaker in June 2012
vs.
65 mentions of Mozilla
Festival in Q4 2011

61. big challenge
messaging good, but call to
action not getting through
also, idea that Webmaker is a big tent
involving many players is not yet being
reflected in the press

62. next steps
Webmaker press campaign
in UK leading up MozFest
focus is on getting call to action plus
‘Webmaker as big tent’ concept
will use MozFest itself
as major press hook

63. revenue
metrics

64. why measure revenue?
proxy for public support and
partner confidence in programs
of course, just need to track as part of
our regular financial metrics as well

65. where are donations at?
donations had good Q1
but weak Q2
this is almost certainly due to all
engagement resources focusing on
Summer Code Party in Q2

66. individual donations (comparison)
US$500,000
But Q2 slowed
dramatically due to
focus on summer
Q1 2012
US$375,000 campaign
300% above
this time in 2011
US$250,000
US$125,000
US$0
Start Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2012 YTD 2011 actual 2010 actual! 2009 actual

67. next steps
Q3 returns to individual
appeals, t-shirt promo + new
monthly donation campaign
Q4 will prioritize year-end
campaign w/ Webmaker focus

68. where are grants at?
grants continue to be
our strong suit
projections are $4.75M,
$1.5M over budget
pipeline has an addition $5M
in more speculative projects

69. 2012 grants
US$6,000,000
US$4,500,000
US$3,000,000
US$1,500,000
US$0
2012 budget 2012 secured additional pipeline

70. what are the challenges?
there is risk that we become
too grant dependant
most grants are focused on Webmaker
goals, but even these are tied to
specific outcomes/ limit ability to pivot

71. next steps
sustainability + revenue mix
topic at next board meeting
will look at major gift plus more
aggressive donations
both require more investment but
also offer more independence

72. WEBMAKER summary and next steps

73. summary
1. we’ve shipped Webmaker MVP
2. focus now: testing and iterating
3. also, building base of contributors

74. current challenges
1. getting good at community
2. product and learning feedback loops
3. also: product scoping / tradeoffs

75. on our mind for 2013
1. ‘real’ programming:ThimbleJS?
2. mobile + games + webmaking
3. new geographies, esp. UK + Brasil

76. July 2012 mozilla foundation board meeting
video conference