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Mozilla Corporation

Company: Mozilla Corporation, Mountain View, CA
Entry Submitted By: OutCast Communications
Company Description: Mozilla is a global community dedicated to building free, open source products and technologies that improve the online experience for people everywhere. We work in the open with a highly disciplined, transparent and cooperative development process, under the umbrella of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.
Nomination Category: Company Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company

Nomination Title: Mozilla’s Good Fight – Keeping the Web Open and Participatory


  1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved since January 1 2007 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

    The Mozilla Corporation is a private corporation with a single shareholder — the
    Mozilla Foundation — a non-profit organization that devotes its resources to
    promoting openness, innovation and opportunity on the Internet. The Mozilla
    mission is not simply to be a successful open source project. It is also to
    develop an Internet where choice, innovation, participation, individual
    empowerment and public benefit are integral to the fabric of online life.
    Mozilla’s market share makes the organization relevant to the Internet industry.
    Combining mindshare with a significant number of users makes an enormous
    difference. Web content is increasingly written to be accessible through Firefox
    and other standards-focused browsers. This is a fundamental requirement for
    keeping the Internet a good place. It’s a prerequisite for individuals to have
    choice and for commercial players to have room to innovate.

    In the past year Mozilla has launched a number of significant new initiatives: a
    mobile effort, an innovation focus in Mozilla Labs, an integrated, ambitious
    support effort (support.mozilla.org) and a range of new outreach and evangelism
    programs. They have launched a serious effort in China to market Firefox and are
    vigorously supporting a new e-mail initiative with the Mozilla Messaging
    Corporation.

    With the release of the initial Firefox 3 beta last year, Mozilla continues to
    demonstrate that the company is dedicated to shipping great software and
    modernizing their products. Firefox 3 marks a major effort of more than two
    years to rebuild the browser’s platform to improve its performance and
    stability. Additionally Mozilla has continued to strive with new features and
    capabilities on what has always made Firefox standout from other browsers – a
    more secure, easier to use, and more personal experience for consumers while
    offering features “under the hood” for website and Firefox add-on developers.

    Mozilla employees and contributors are increasing around the globe and they are
    expanding in the Mozilla way, with a tiny number of employees for the work,
    distributed authority and tens of thousands of people contributing to create a
    more open and participatory Internet. This reflected in the success of Firefox
    which began 2008 with 17% share of the global browser market (Net Applications,
    January 2007), to the more than 50 languages Firefox has been translated into,
    the thousands of add-ons built on the Mozilla platform to the new applications
    beyond the browser.

  2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

    Forbes
    Web Warrior
    http://www.forbes.com/technology/forbes/2007/1029/060.html

    New York Times
    Mozilla Names New Chief, but Reaffirms Open-Source Commitment
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/technology/08mozilla.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    InformationWeek
    Mozilla Messaging: Our Escape From Outlook?
    http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/02/mozilla_messagi.html

    Yahoo! Tech Ticker
    The Firefox Phenomenon
    http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/4352/The-Firefox-Phenomenon;_ylt=Ajz
    GMvmTycqFMdaLpJPxCGtk7ot4?tickers=msft,goog,appl,twx


    John’s Blog
    Leverage
    http://john.jubjubs.net/2007/05/13/leverage/

    John’s Blog
    Mozilla, Firefox, and China
    http://john.jubjubs.net/2007/10/19/mozilla-firefox-and-china-%e8%b0%8b%e6%99%
    ba%ef%bc%8c%e7%81%ab%e7%8b%90%ef%bc%8c%e4%b8%ad%e5%9b%bd/


    Schrep’s Blog
    The Story Behind Firefox 3: Places
    http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/schrep/archives/2007/11/the_story_behind_firefox_3_pla

    Schrep’s Blog
    Mozilla and Mobile
    http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/schrep/archives/2007/10/mozilla_and_mobile.html

    Mozilla Developer News
    Firefox 3 Beta 1 now available for download
    http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2007/11/19/firefox-3-beta-1-now-availabl
    e-for-download/


    Mozilla Labs
    http://labs.mozilla.com/

  3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

    As chief executive officer of Mozilla, John Lilly is responsible for guiding the
    product and organizational development efforts for Mozilla Corporation. Before
    becoming CEO, John was Mozilla’s COO and focused primarily on day-to-day and
    international operations of Mozilla.

    Prior to his career at Mozilla, John was the founder, CTO and VP products of
    Reactivity, an XML Security company. He served as a senior scientist at Apple
    Computer Research Labs, and has held positions at Trilogy Software, Sun
    Microsystems and HP, among other companies.

    John serves on the board of directors of the Open Source Application Foundation
    and Participatory Culture Foundation.