When the Mozilla Foundation launched the Mozilla Clubs program to help people teach and learn about digital skills and webmaking this is also a political tool. The Mozilla Clubs program spreads digital skills which can then be used to do civic engagement both online and offline. Here in Rio de Janeiro, we're running these program in poor neighborhoods with teenagers. We're trying to change the internet user profile from a consumer of media to a producer of content. This has political implications as people start to realize that they can and should put their voices, opinions, demands and dreams online.
Mozilla is the single browser vendor today that is not a for-profit company. Mozilla Foundation, Mozilla Coorporation and Mozilla Community are together the only open group that is at the same time working on advocacy, web technologies, language design, operating systems, web literacy, net neutrality, human rights on the internet, and web standards. There is no other group trying to do this much for the online world and we all know how the online world affects the offline world.
Yes, mistakes are made. We're all humans but that doesn't mean that we don't learn, that we don't change. Mozilla has a unique perspective in many things and a power that can be put to very good use. If you like a Web made by people and for people, then, you should care about not only the tech but the politics involved because when bad people can't stop others with tech, they stop others with laws... and sometimes these laws are against you.
If you want, check out the Mozilla Foundation advocacy work and web literacy programs. Mozilla goes beyond being browser vendor.
This is a quite naive point of view that even very smart people hold. Open source software makes and breaks whole industries in software, of course it's political.
