Stories & Inspiration
Read below to see all the amazing ways the Mozilla community shared, gave, engaged, created, and collaborated during the week of September 14-21, 2009, by using the Internet to make a difference in people's lives.
People from all over came together to make a difference in their local community, and helped fellow public benefit organizations gain from the open Web. Thank you for taking part in Mozilla Service Week. Thank you for joining the cause - you made a difference.
My Mozilla Service Week: Bookshare
I've had a pretty incredible week working with several organizations, including Benetech/Bookshare. They're a pretty incredible organization focused on sharing making print materials accessible to all. The team came down to the Mozilla office on Monday to do a volunteer orientation and set up some volunteer opportunities right here. It was a wonderful afternoon of "transcribing" children books! Headed there again tomorrow and can't wait :) Related Link
Helping returning Soldier
my new neighbour of 1 year resantly returned home from Iraq, my wife and I cooked a nice Bahamian dish using our special made jerk marinade. We used the fish that he caught for his wife and two baby girls .His wife is a student at the local university(TSU) and he is presently active and attending school, so we are currently helping them with a computer connection problem.To that end I have reconfigured her computer system and this week I am going to set up a complete wireless network to help them with their online classes and class assignments.
Due to the fact that my family and I have made a commitment to help anyone that we can (we have 3 children, that we home school), we must make a living at this so as to take care of our treasure and help who we can while we can.
We just had my daughter's 3rd b-day, we ended up turning it into a back-to-school party for the under privilaged children 2days before school, it was soo much fun.
With my three children, I had 3 'C' sections, and it has left my body not at its full potential, so some days i'm up and some days I fight to get out of bed, because a woman's work is never done. But if I make the money I could pay someone to help.
We want, actually need, a business than can give us flexable time. Definitely not a 9-5er.
Thank you for helping us to reach our full potential, we intend to PAY IT FORWARD!!! Related Link
Pre Medical Students Connected Across USA
Hello,
I am a 3rd year medical student. When I was applying to medical school it was difficult to know how other pre-meds were doing. I would like help Pre-Med Students connect with other pre-meds across the United States. I have created a network PreMedicalStudentsOfAmerica at www.PMSOA.com. I dont know how to get the word around and get students on the network. I would like to expand to allow students to talk on the forums, get information about medical school application process, interviewing, etc.
As of now I need help to get members to join.
Thanks,
Mozilla! Related Link
Free Website + Donor Management Software Contest
We're volunteering by giving away 3 free websites with integrated donor management software, complete with a custom web design.
We will work with your organization to provide you with a full web package that will help take your fundraising to the next level.
To enter, visit 3MinuteCharity.com, click the Mozilla Service Week banner, and fill out the short form! 3 winners will be drawn early next week. Deadline to enter the contest is Sunday, Sept. 20th at 11:59pm.
We look forward to hearing from you! Related Link
A Second Chance for the DNS
Imagine that in 1983 Vint Cerf had visited a global city like New York, climbed the steps to City Hall and said to Mayor Koch that he and Jon Postel had begun thinking about an Internet enhancement that would make it easier to find the cities digital resources. That they were thinking of calling it the Domain Name System (DNS) and using names such as .com, .org and .edu.
And imagine Vint explaining his vision about this new technology's prospect for addressing the multiplicity of city needs; concluding with a plea that the mayor gather the world's smartest minds in New York City, help detail a desired DNS's feature-set and in the process develop a model that other cities might follow.
But as we all know, no one knocked on that City Hall door and the DNS was created without considering its impact on cities. And when it escaped from the lab, the technology spread like a virus and changed the world for better and for worse.
Remarkably, the DNS opportunity is again at hand. ICANN will deliver on its key mission in 2010 and we'll soon see cities sporting new TLDs such as .nyc, .berlin, and .paris.
The not-for-profit Connecting.nyc Inc. advocates for a more intuitive Net and a public interest based .nyc. We’re looking for Mozilla Week help creating a "Name Droppers Competition" - see http://bit.ly/qzNmZ. Related Link
WAVE Trust: evidence based solutions to abuse and violence
I have started volunteering for the WAVE Trust, an unusual charity in that it's focused on examining and carrying out research into violence and abuse, and the most effective ways to reduce or eliminate them.
Violence and abuse are huge worldwide problems with severe consequences for the many victims, but the vast majority of initiatives to tackle them have little impact and simply lead people to believe that there are no real or long term solutions. I was drawn to WAVE because of its focus on root causes and evidence, because it has demonstrated in its reports that violence and abuse are in fact most often avoidable/solvable given the right approach, and because it is focused on getting the right information into the hands of governments, policy makers, health care organizations and others best in a position to make a significant difference.
WAVE has recently achieved some major breakthroughs such as public recognition and support from various members of government/parliament in the UK, but its old frame-based website is holding it back:
http://wavetrust.org/
I'm joining a volunteer professional designer to work on a new replacement website. Most likely we'll choose an open source CMS that will allow the designer and content authors to directly modify and update the site. However, there's way more to do than one part time designer and developer can handle, so if you or someone you know may be interested in helping, email me ***@***.***
Related Link
BBC helping Find Your Feet
The BBC have teamed up with Find Your Feet, a charity working with vunerable families living in rural India and Malawi.
Find Your Feet are in the process of redesigning their website and are looking for ideas around SEO, UX Design and their Social Media strategy.
The BBC have found some willing experts who have volunteered to help Find Your Feet out with all 3 of these areas.
Related Link
Documenting Internet Course on C4S
We are providing documentation for our Seniors Internet course on our web site instead of the traditional book, Related Link
Computers4seniors webmaster
I wrote and maintain the web site at http://www.computers4seniors.org/
Our site is in the top 10 Senior sites on Google.
I also have taught Internet at the Senior Centers in Cobb County for 7 years.
Michael Conti
Related Link
How Open source Changed My Life ?
Though I have used computers in college- Until my second year in master degree ,I don't even know how to insert a CD in a CD-Drive (lol).I got computer (using loan) and installed linux and started exploring it and did a linux mini-project,which allowed me to get campus recruited with my average skills in english.Although campus recruitted,company didn't offer me job at appropriate time.So decided to write a project to get a job.I thought about writing ext3ed (inspired from Gadi oxman's ext2ed ) but later ended it with giis.-an ext3 undelete tool-It's true the project didn't follow any coding standards or anything.
But a recover company came forward with an offer.Later the project won FOSS India Awards.
I have never met Gadi Oxman (I don't know where he is from,what's his job), but he (through his open source project ext2ed and it's documents)_really_ made a difference in my life.I would love to meet him :)
I strongly believe my life is powered by Linux and Open source.I would spent rest of my life supporting open source, thus helping others :)
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