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In this issue…

Mobile Firefox: milestone 8 released
Mark Finkle posts that Fennec (the code-name for Mobile Firefox) has reached a milestone 8 (M8) release, which you can install and test on a Nokia N8×0. “One of the big improvements during this milestone was the addition of several Mozilla QA team members. Fennec is being tested pretty hard now, and by people who love to find bugs. We are finding and fixing lots of issues now. Probably the biggest visible change in M8 is the new theme. It’s not entirely landed yet and will likely get some tweaks as we iterate on the design.” The post goes on to talk about some upcoming changes for Fennec. “Although Fennec is still only targeted for the Nokia N8×0, that should be changing fairly soon. Work on Windows Mobile has heated up quite a bit.” For more information, including a list of M8 highlights, see Mark’s full article.

Weave: the story so far
Dan Mills has written an extensive update about the status of the Mozilla Labs “Weave” project, outlining the project’s background, its current state, and setting up some questions about its potential future. “We think Weave still has a long way to go, and the real questions are: What do we need to do to get closer to our vision? What are the main problem areas right now? And, do we need to revisit any old decisions? Now that we’ve been running this experiment for a while, I think we can begin answering those questions.” Dan’s post goes on to discuss some of the major issues facing the project, which he’ll continue to expand upon in an upcoming post. You can read the full text of his current post over on his weblog.

Usage data: some basic examples
Mitchell Baker has written before that she believes there is a need to make basic, aggregate, anonymized information about Internet usage more widely available. “If everything that is known about the basic usage of the Internet is closed and proprietary then the Internet as an open platform will suffer.” Mitchell has now posted some examples of what she means by “usage data”, most of which we’re quite accustomed to seeing in aggregated, anonymized forms. These include a site’s bandwidth usage, site “traffic” in a day or month, and software download numbers. “These examples are clearly very general. I use them precisely for this reason — to demonstrate that we already understand the usefulness of this type of data and that it can be presented in an aggregate, anonymous form. There are other forms of aggregate, anonymous data that can be equally useful in understanding how the Internet is being used and ultimately, understanding what the Internet really is.” To read Mitchell’s full post, visit her weblog.

Help design the new SUMO logo
The support.mozilla.com (a.k.a. SUMO) project has been underway for over a year now, and has become an amazing community-powered support channel impacting millions of Firefox users around the world. The SUMO team has been working on envisioning the future of SUMO, conceptualizing the service’s evolution as it grows both in scope and participation. As part of this evolution, Tara Shahain and David Tenser hope to develop a strong visual identity for the project that encompasses SUMO and its ongoing mission. Part of this involves creating a new logo for the project, but they need your help. “More specifically, we need your help in brainstorming ideas around the design concept and how best to represent SUMO visually. In the past SUMO has dedicated its resources to Firefox and is therefore primarily known as ‘Firefox Support’. But as David notes in his blog, SUMO aspires to be much more.” To learn more about the project and how to participate in the logo design process, see Tara’s weblog post.

New Firefox logo style guide
John Slater and Tara Shahain have been working on developing a new and improved style guide for the Firefox logo, with the aim of refining existing guidelines and communicating those out to the widest possible audience. Last Friday, John announced that the new style guide has been released. “Our hope is that this guide will answer many of the commonly asked questions about how (and how not) to use the logo. We’ve also included a section where people can download the various configurations so there won’t be any confusion about what the official versions are. [W]e’re calling this style guide a beta launch for now because we want to make sure the community at large has a chance to review and weigh in before we officially declare it final. So, if you have any questions, thoughts or comments please let me or Tara know, or post your feedback on the Spread Firefox discussion page.” For full details, see the complete post on John’s weblog.

Powered by Mozilla FAQ
David Boswell has been working on creating some guidelines to determine how the “Powered by Mozilla” logo can be used as part of projects and products. He has recently posted a Powered by Mozilla FAQ that answers the questions he’s seen asked during the ongoing conversation about the logo. “Some more information (guidelines about the logo and an application to request using the logo) still need to be posted and those pieces will be coming soon. For now though, I’m posting the FAQ to let people give us some more feedback before the other pieces are finished up.” More information about the FAQ and the Powered by Mozilla project is available through David’s weblog post.

Mozilla Community Store: opening soon!
Part of the Firefox 3 launch included a t-shirt contest in which we “open sourced” the design process to create the official Firefox 3 t-shirt. Not only did we get a fantastic winning shirt, we also received a huge number of other great designs. There’s been a growing demand to make more of these community designs available for purchase, so for the past few months the Marketing team has been sorting out the legal and logistical challenges to make this possible. Tara Shahain has recently announced the good news that “we’ve partnered with Zazzle.com to create the ‘Mozilla Community Store’ — a sidekick to the original Mozilla Store which will serve as a new and open channel for community generated products. The Community Store isn’t quite finished yet, but I hope to have it ready in the next month or so. Make sure to start thinking of your designs! Once it launches, we’ll have plenty of details to help guide you through the entire process. Stay tuned!” More information about this project is available on Tara’s weblog.

Developer calendar
For an up-to-date list of the coming week’s Mozilla project meetings and events, please see the Mozilla Community Calendar wiki page.

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Original Article from Mozilla

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