Well, it’s been quite a year! Having kicked off Mozilla Clubs in 2015 we knew the year would be filled with learning, reflection and growth. Both in what we wanted to create and how we could help individuals have an impact in their local communities. In October 2015, the Mozilla Clubs team gathered to review our progress throughout the year and agreed upon an ambitious plan for the last quarter. Since then, we’ve come some way and we wanted to share what we managed to complete within those precious few months and what we have identified, with the help of many community members, as areas of development and growth for the following year.
What we did in the last quarter of 2015
Onboarding a new cohort of Regional Coordinators: In late October 2015, we welcomed 15 Regional Coordinators to our cohort allowing us to grow our reach of the program. We now have a team of 28 global Regional Coordinators who are able to support and manage multiple Mozilla Clubs in a given area.
Steps towards our new training and on-boarding program: As our network keeps growing (new volunteers, Regional Coordinators, Club Captains, learners etc.) our presence in the digital world demands a more complex system to provide workflows, tools and resources for our communities, to help them be more independent, autonomous; and empowered. We begun to build this new system by researching what others are doing and analyzing their current approaches to training and onboarding. At the same time we asked our community members about their ideas, needs, and learnings. With such a huge amount of relevant information we proceeded to systematize, categorize and prioritize according to these criteria: relevance, urgency and available resources.
- Research report of other Club programs
- Assessing Club Captain and Regional Coordinator training needs
Localization of curriculum: As Mozilla Clubs grew around the world the need for localized curriculum became clear. In many locations such as Brazil the lack of command of the English language was a barrier to the adoption of our activities and methods. As a stopgap solution our team created a simple webapp system that could make the localization process easier by leveraging the Github platform for storage and management, and the Markdown format as the way to produce content. Using this new webapp we managed to get many of our activities from the Web Basics I curriculum localized into 9 languages in a short period of time. We ran a campaign, and a few in-person sprints, for localization that started in November and is continuing into the new year.
Storifying Mozilla Clubs and their activities: It was our goal to document stories of club participants, Club Captains and Regional Coordinators so we could learn what they were doing and how they have developed over time. We’ve kept a close eye on many of the clubs and their teams but sharing their stories has always been important to us. In this quarter we’ve started an early documentation of the Mozilla Clubs in Rio projects being led by Mozilla and Ford Foundation. The case study gives an in-depth look at the breakdown of the club structure, events and the transformation of LAN houses into learning spaces. Along with the case study, we’ve worked with Club Captains to continue documenting their experiences within the program. A report from Mozilla Club Leao showed the impact the club is having on the learners who attend and the environment. As well as a testimonial by the Club Captain, Geraldo Barros, on his experience in the position and how he has personally developed over time.
- Mozilla Clubs Rio Case Study (WIP)
- Report from Mozilla Club Leao
- Testimonial by the Club Captain, Geraldo Barros, on his experience as a Club Captain
Creating more free-flowing communication channels: We set out with a goal to allow more opportunities for Club Captains, Regional Coordinators and other individuals to communicate with each other and our team. In the latter half of 2015 we, 1) focused on creating on-going conversation through our Discourse channel for everyone to learn and share together; 2) created Mozilla Club monthly office hours for individuals to attend and ask questions about starting a club, growing a club or finding resources; 3) provided greater communication to Mozilla Clubs on new resources and curriculum available for them to use.
Create guides for Club Captains: With the hopes of creating a future repository where Club Captains could come and grab information or resources that were relevant to their needs, we started creating content. In the past couple months we have documented how to start a club, integrate clubs into existing environments, facilitate like Mozilla and much more with the help of community members, staff and session leaders at Mozfest.
- Branding guide
- Your first month as a Club Captain guide
- Integrating a Mozilla Club in an afterschool program guide
- Integrating a Mozilla Club in a community meetup guide
- Running a Mozilla Club in a neighborhood with low connectivity
- Embedded Mozilla Clubs in an existing program guide
- Marketing your Mozilla Club: Writing a blog guide (WIP)
- Marketing your Mozilla Club: PR guide (WIP)
- Marketing your Mozilla Club: Social Media guide (WIP)
- How to be participatory and playful at events guide (WIP)
- Increasing digital literacy with women guide (WIP)
- Teaching web literacy in the open guide (WIP)
- Going from participation to collaboration guide (WIP)
- Growing and retaining communities online and offline guide (WIP)
What we are looking forward to doing in 2016
Implementing our training and onboarding program: After the research we did in 2015, we are looking forward to provide our community members with the tools, resources and structures they need. We will do this by 1) redesigning content architecture of our webpage for clubs to reflect what is happening in our live community; 2) creating a basic training curriculum for Regional Coordinators and Club Captains; 3) implementing a platform to facilitate and promote interaction.
- Site redesign Proposal
- Training Module Draft
Further localization of platform and resources: While having created a quick localization process through github/markdown we want to create an improved process that would make it easier for community members to localize content, given the feedback we have received since the launch of our localization campaign. The easier it is the localize content the quicker we can have curriculum, guides and resources adapted for use locally. To make sure we have something that works not only on the first quarter but beyond that we’re investigating the usage of Pontoon which is one of the localization platforms used by Mozilla.
Creating a hub for all things Mozilla Clubs: As we build more materials, resources and guides we want to have a central place online to share these with all individuals in Mozilla Clubs. A repository will allow Mozilla Clubs to get content and move faster.
Building a recognition and reward system: Identifying who, where and when we recognize or reward Club Captains, Regional Coordinators and learners will ensure that individuals at all points of the program are being acknowledged and appreciated. This is important for us to sustain healthy growth with the community that has been supporting us since inception, as well as future members.
Providing a space for event report-outs: It’s been evident to our team that the many Mozilla Clubs are busy running on-going events but it’s often hard to capture what happens, have ways to recognize events and share the stories of what happens. It’s our hope to build out a space where individuals can record their events so that the team can monitor, record and share activities. As well as have a place with Club Captains can use for continuous record of their clubs.
Understanding and providing various types of event support: While trying to support Mozilla Clubs with as much event support as we can, it’s been fairly inconsistent. Understanding what types of support, whether that is monetary, in-kind, or both, as well as how we allocate them is tricky. Especially when doing so in a way where we can scale the approach for the growing number of clubs.
On-going and new partner programs: We will continue the work with Mozilla Clubs Rio and helping the program continue throughout the year with Ford Foundation. This will involve a close look at the program including what we’ve learned, what has happened and the path forward to expand into more LAN houses. We are excited to launch on new program with UN Women and grow Mozilla Clubs for women and girls in Kenya and South Africa. Along with hiring local managers, recruiting and training Club Captains, and supporting events, we will be focused on how we can increase literacy and leadership with local women and girls. Among Ford Foundation and UN Women, there are other partnerships in which we are jointly supporting growth of literacy and leadership through the Mozilla Clubs program.
Running a pilot program with Every1Mobile: We’ve partnered with Every1Mobile to create a platform that will allow for 1) curriculum and resources to be available via web-enabled phones; 2) a community hub for learners who attend Mozilla Clubs to further connect, learn and share with each other; and 3) an online space within the online community which serves to support Regional Coordinators and Club Captains during the training. We will work with Every1Mobile in the creation of the platform and pilot it with our upcoming Mozilla Clubs in Kenya and South Africa.
Support for Mozilla Clubs when partnering with institutions and organizations locally: Many of our Regional Coordinators and Club Captains are working with local institutions to help grow the program and they have indicated that letters of support, resources and information are needed to allow them to appropriately represent Mozilla Clubs. We’re still working on what this means but will start by scoping out exactly what we can create.
Connecting Mozilla Clubs by participating in global campaigns: Many Clubs like to participate in our global campaigns as they feel more connection to Mozilla, the mission and each other. In early 2016, we will be sharing ways Mozilla Clubs can participate in our two advocacy-focused campaigns including celebrating International Data Privacy Day on January 28, 2016 and International Women’s Day on March 8, 2016. We will provide clubs with relevant curriculum, resources and information while encouraging them to integrate these campaigns into their events.
Amira Dhalla 