Sarah Doherty

Always thinking. Always dreaming.

  1. Can I Help You?



  2. Lipsmack!



  3. Recapping Mozilla Summit 2010 in Whistler, BC

    The fact that Summit is over still hasn’t hit me. I think it’s the same feeling at the end of a really great family reunion or wedding that many months of planning and preparation went into – how can it be already over?

    Now after 2 weeks of reuniting myself with the “normalcy,” I feel like I’m ready to recollect and recapture three memorable days of Summit in written format. Before I go into too much detail, for my non-Mozillian blog audience think of Summit as 3 mind-blowing days, focusing on the future of the web with 600 of your best friends in beautiful Whistler, BC. I think that sums it up pretty well!

    Open Web Goosebumps

    Close your eyes and think about try to recall some amazing experience that gave you goosebumps and chills. Maybe it was a trip to a Broadway show where the singer just hits that perfect pitch, or the feeling when you climb to the top of a mountain and see a sunset. These moments are rare and remind your senses what you find truly incredible. Shaver’s keynote and presentation of Flight of the Navigator did it for me. I’m an incredibly visual person and while there were so many keynotes talking about the changes to the open web platform, being able to see it all converge into one solid presentation gave me chills up my spine.

    Why is this so cool? Normally video/audio requires plugins like Flash in a browser. This video is a perfect demonstration about the power of HTML5 with WebGL, JavaScript and the use of the Audio API — no plug-ins required! (Processing.js is used for animated textures, WebM video for videos and BeatDetektor.js for audio analysis and visualization). Simply stunning.

    Session + Lightning Talk = WIN

    Session: Moving from Local Events to Strong Local Communities

    I was incredibly fortunate at Summit to be able to have both a session as well as a lightning talk. My session, “Moving from Local Events to Strong Local Communities” was co-presented with Nathaniel James from the Mozilla Foundation/Drumbeat. We discussed best practices from a local community level and how to uplift this information. Some of our key takeaways were:

    1. There are many types of events that the community and Mozilla are hosting and organizing, and there is inconsistent deployment around the world. This means the people in the various countries have varying levels of skills.
    2. Community (local community participants around the globe) need assistance in best practices for event management, as frequently they are not marketing experts, nor do we expect them to be.
    3. Organizers on different ends of the Mozilla enterprise can’t reach each other communities – a shared community contact database would be very helpful.

    There are a number of great pieces of information that arose from this session – keep your eyes peeled over the next few months for some cool new additions that I think will make planning and organizing events around the world a lot easier.

    Lightning Talk: Host Your Own Firefox Education Event!

    What can I say? Being able to stand up on a stage and talk to 600 people about something I’m passionate about is a blast (and more-so to get such great feedback and interest after the talk put a silly grin on my face for the rest of Summit). I’ve spoken in front of large groups before, but nothing at this size and with this amount of lights (seriously, the lights were so bright that I couldn’t see anyone in their seats). I think my short presentation speaks for itself so I’ll let you page through it below.

    Community, Community, Community

    This is the section where I get emotional and I find myself at a loss for words.

    Sure the sessions were great, we’re changing the web, and we’re awesome, but we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today without so many people that spend countless hours contributing to our codebase, marketing our products, and localizing our content.

    Our community (I believe) is made up of some of the most humble and amazing people I have ever met in my life. Thank you. You are the reason I wake up every morning and want to work so hard at my job.

    At the top of the beautiful mountain in Whistler I became so clearly aware of how lucky I am – At what other time in my life would I be able to have a conversation with someone from México, Paraguay, Bolivia and Serbia? I’ve learned so much from all of you, and see you as my peers, mentors, friends and most importantly, my inspiration. Together I truly feel that we can make a difference in the world.

    Thanks and here’s to the next few years!

  4. New Purple Sneakers Make Me Happy

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