When we launched Mozilla Labs four years ago, we set out with a bold vision of innovating in the open – inviting the wider Mozilla community to imagine, experiment and build the future of the Web. Today we take the next step in this journey. We invite students, faculty staff, schools and universities from around the world to join us, and explore ideas, concepts and prototypes in the open.
“Laboratories are where science and creativity meet to develop, research, and explore new ideas. Mozilla Labs embraces this great tradition — a virtual lab where people come together to create, experiment, and play with new Web innovations and technologies.
Everything is possible here. Crazy ideas and sparks are encouraged as together we explore and experiment with brand new ideas in whole new ways. Mozilla Labs is about spurring and harnessing the intelligence, wisdom, and energy of the Mozilla community for the greater good of the Web. Let’s imagine the future of the Web, and then let’s build it together.”
Together through Mozilla Labs we have collectively explored thousands of ideas, mocked up concepts, built prototypes and launched products. We built programs to encourage participation from designers, worked with dozen of universities and ran Design Challenges with thousand of entries from all over the world.
In the last 12 months we collaborated directly with universities in the US, Brazil and Australia to integrate Design Challenges into the curriculum – ranging from week-long workshops to courses designed around the challenge. Over the course of the program Mozilla Labs staff provided feedback and an open forum for students to collaborate, explore and learn.
In the next few months, we plan on rolling out new tools to aid better discussion and collaboration on ideas, run a series of regular “spotlights”, where we present and discuss new and exciting concepts. We want to work directly with students, schools and universities to explore innovation on and for the Web.
Get Involved
There are numerous ways to participate – ranging from using research data coming out of the Test Pilot UX studies to Design Challenges, to the development of functional prototypes (often in the form of Firefox Add-ons) and much more.
If you want to get involved and learn more, contact us at conceptseries@mozilla.com, join our discussion forum, and talk with us on IRC.
If you’re working at a school or university and are interested in working with us, we would love to hear from you!
As we roll out the individual parts to this program, we will post updates to this blog – so make sure you follow our RSS feed and our Twitter account.
All are welcome. Come play in the Mozilla Lab.
You can build the future of the Web!
Tags: open innovation
