Sarah Doherty

Always thinking. Always dreaming.

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  2. Reminiscing Last Week: Mozilla Q4-2009 All-Hands and Add-on-Con

    As I reunited myself with 8-hour nights, finished up holiday festivities and and caught up with loved ones, many people asked me, “So how was last week”?  My response was, “If I can survive this past week I am prepared for anything in life.”

    Last week was a time of full throttle, non-stop action week of all Mozilla all the time.  I would trade the experiences for anything in the world.  Monday – Wednesday marked my first all-hands as part of Mozilla.  I had always heard of these events through my husband, Ryan Doherty, but to experience it is a completely different thing.  Monday – Wednesday colleagues from all over the world descended on Mountain View as we caught up, discussed future objectives and socialize.

    One of the most important things for me is to have face-time with co-workers – it completely will change a working relationship.  Many people I work with I simply know by their IRC handle, e-mail address or a small picture on our internal phonebook.  We were lucky in August to have a company marketing on-site but to have almost every_single_person employed by Mozilla on premise was amazing.  Every day driving into work I would park in the P1 garage and my hands would start to shake as I badged in and rode the elevator up 3 stories – it wasn’t nerves, but more, “OMG I can’t wait for this day to get started!”

    In addition to many days of meetings and brainstorming, it was so nice to learn about what other people within Mozilla do.  We are heads down in our work so many months throughout the year it is refreshing to spend some time diving into other departments work and  realize just how very smart and talented my colleagues are.

    I also really enjoyed being able to spend some social time with my co-workers at dinner on Tuesday night and at the California Academy of Sciences on Wednesday.  Sleep?  Not so much!

    After 3 rigorous days of All-Hands, it was time to jump directly into Add-on-Con.  I had been helping to organize Mozilla’s participation in this event since late August, so I was looking forward to seeing this event in action.  On Thursday night we held a pre event workshop at Mozilla to let add-on developers socialize, enjoy some good tacos and drinks and, learn about 3.6 compatibility and mobile porting.  We had approximately 60 people join us and it was a great precursor to Add-on-Con the next day.

    Getting an early start on Friday, I was at the Computer History Museum to setup our booth at Add-on-Con at 7:30 in the morning.


    Photo Credit: Adam Jackson

    We had a great presence at Add-on-Con with many different Mozilla employees participating in sessions and keynotes:

    • Keynote:
      • Opening Keynote: Do Add-ons Need a Market Place (Justin Scott)
      • Closing Keynote: Future of the Web Browser with Mike Shaver
    • Business Marketing Track:
      • The Future of the Firefox Add-on Ecosystem (Aza Raskin, Justin Scott, Chris Finke)
    • Technical Track:
      • Taking Flight with Jetpack: Next Gen Add-ons for Firefox (Aza Raskin)
      • Mobile Firefox Add-on Development (Mark Finkle)

    A special thanks to Robert Reich, for organizing yet another wonderful conference as well as Justin Scott, Mike Shaver, Chris Finke, Aza Raskin and Mark Finkle for their participation on our numerous panels and talks throughout the day.


    Photo Credit: Adam Jackson

    After a week of such amazing activities, I’m looking forward to our next all-hands and Add-on-Con in 2010.

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