What do you want the web to be?

Five months ago, I had an opportunity to accept a contract to work at Mozilla as part of the webdev team. There was a match for my skills on a contract basis, and even though it meant leaving permanent employment for the uncertain world of contracting, I knew it was something I would never forgive myself if I didn’t engage. I didn’t know then just how right my decision was, but after spending a week in Portland with the team at OSBridge, I was shown just how right my decision had been.

Mozilla, along with Emma, hosted a party during OSBridge. During the party, we asked attendees a simple question: “What do you want the web to be?” A video was compiled with their responses, which you can view here:

Every day, I have an opportunity to work with people who are dedicated to making the web a better, more open place for all of us. I never question the commitment or motivations of anyone I work with; instead, I know that each one of them, just like I, want to make the best open web we can. It’s that excitement that gets me out of bed every morning. It’s that passion that keeps me working throughout the day.

Learning to work from home was a transition, and learning to work in Django was even more challenging. I’m still not the best Django programmer Mozilla has. Nor do I think I’ve got working from home mastered. But what I do know, and what I have learned, is that working with smart, passionate people to make a difference is the best environment anyone could ask for.

Working for Mozilla has reenforced in me that there’s more to life than just shipping units of software and profit-and-loss statements. It was something I knew all along, but seeing a group of people motivated by nothing more than the desire to work on behalf of others is inspiring. Not a day goes by where I don’t learn something new, meet someone interesting, or experience something revolutionary. I’m tremendously thankful that I took a risk, and I can’t wait to see what the next chapter is.

Brandon Savage is the author of Mastering Object Oriented PHP and Practical Design Patterns in PHP

zane (@zanematthew) wrote at 7/27/2011 4:02 pm:

Was wondering why I haven’t seen you at the PHP meetups, congrats!

I think I”m going to have to quote a few things from your post:
“seeing a group of people motivated by nothing more than the desire to work on behalf of others is inspiring”

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