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Mitchell Baker recently posted two articles about the use of the “feed icon”) (also known as the “RSS icon”), originally created for use with Firefox, and how best to promote universal use of the icon for use with RSS, Atom and other open web syndication formats. In this post I discuss how the Mozilla Foundation proposes to approach this issue. However first I want to personally apologize for any confusion and miscommunication around the issue of the feed icon and our proposals for promoting its use, as well as the delays in getting this issue dealt with. (I had meant to post on this topic earlier this week but family medical issues kept me occupied and offline.) I pledge to do what I can to get things back on track and get this issue resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. ...

Ever since its founding eMusic has been repeatedly discovered by people who either don’t get the concept (“Hey, where’s Britney Spears?”) and/or have severe difficulty using a computer and the Internet; these people also often seem to have a fuzzy grasp on such matters as grammar and spelling. And thus on August 11, 2003 (a date which will live in infamy), after experiencing problems with downloading music mrcat first uttered those immortal words, ”E Music is SWindle.” ...

For quite some time now I’ve been a subscriber to eMusic, a digital music site that offers DRM-free MP3 tracks by artists on independent (non-major) labels. (At one point I cancelled my subscription because I wasn’t finding that much to download, but I re-joined after a few months and have been with the service ever since.) eMusic also has a quite active set of message boards, and from time to time I’ve posted on various topics, most notably my thoughts on eMusic’s business model and prospects vis-a-vis the digital music industry in general. ...

I previously blogged about the Mozilla Foundation and the CSUN conference on information technology and persons with disabilities. As noted in the post the Mozilla project and Firefox are really gaining traction with people concerned about web accessibility, thanks to the hard work of people like Aaron Leventhal. Inspired by Aaron’s recent interview in the online publication Voice of the Nation’s Blind, I want to take a broader view and present my thoughts on why accessibility is important for the Mozilla project, the role that Mozilla and Firefox might play in the world of assistive technology (AT) as it evolves, and what the Mozilla Foundation might do to help this process along. ...

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the week ending May 19, 2006. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did the week ending May 19: XTech. Gerv Markham attended the XTech conference in Amsterdam and did a blog post about his experiences. Gerv’s comments about the nature and purpose of XTech sparked a public discussion to which I contributed a comment. (Basically my point was that I’m happy with XTech as far as the Foundation is concerned; however I also see the possible usefulness of having a separate meeting focused solely on Mozilla stuff.) See also Daniel Glazman’s post responding to Gerv and Robert O’Callahan, as well as Mike Beltzner’s report on the conference itself and Tristan Nitot’s XTech wrap-up. Next action(s): I’m going to discuss with the Mozilla Corporation plans for future conferences, including proposals to have a European meeting targeted specifically to Mozilla contributors. Accessibility grants. Work related to the previous grants for OS X and XForms accessibility is proceeding apace. Next action(s): I’m still trying to get another accessibility grant under way. CA certificates and Mozilla. I approved the application from StartCom to have its root CA certificate included in Mozilla-based products (bug 289077). Next action(s): Start working on other pending CA applications. Administrivia. I took a day of vacation. Next action(s): None at this time. ...

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the week ending May 12, 2006. This week I worked on a number of different projects, with no major theme standing out. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did the week ending May 12: Accessibility grants. Håkan Waara has been working on the project to create an implementation plan for accessibility on Mac OS X, and has published some work in progress: a comparison of accessibility architectures on our three major platforms. Next action(s): Still trying to get another accessibility grant under way. CA certificates and Mozilla. I tracked down some more background information relevant to the application from StartCom to have CA certificates included in Mozilla-based products (bug 289077). Next action(s): Complete action on StartCom’s application, start working on other pending CA applications. Mozilla history project. I visited the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University to discuss their planned Mozilla history project. I reviewed the current state of their online site (still in development) and did an interview for the oral history portion of the site. Administrivia. I set up VOIP phone service for my Mozilla Foundation work and fax numbers, and added the new numbers to my contact information. Next action(s): None at this time. ...

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the week ending May 5, 2006. This week I worked on a number of different projects, with no major theme standing out. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did the week ending May 5: Accessibility grants. The Mozilla Foundation will be making two more accessibility-related grants. The first to improve the accessibility of the optional XForms extension; Alexander Surkov will be doing the work for this. Although XForms is not part of the default Firefox build, XForms technology is of interest to corporate and government users, and corporations and governments typically have rather stringent requirements for accessibility (e.g., the U.S. government’s Section 508 requirements). Improving XForms accessibility is therefore (among other things) an investment in promoting future adoption of Firefox in enterprise environments. Next action(s): Get the second accessibility grant under way. Encryption export control. I updated all the export control notices on the *.mozilla.org sites to make them consistent (bug 336205). Next action(s): Correct any notices on *.mozilla.com, plus other follow-up activities as appropriate. CA certificates and Mozilla. I worked on the application from StartCom to have CA certificates included in Mozilla-based products (bug 289077). Next action(s): Complete action on StartCom’s application, start working on other pending CA applications. ...

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the week ending April 28, 2006. This week I worked on a number of different projects, with no major theme standing out. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did the week ending April 28: XTech conference. Gerv Markham will be attending the XTech conference in Amsterdam May 16–19 representing the Mozilla Foundation. Next action(s): Work to ensure that all necessary arrangements are made for conference attendees being sponsored by the Foundation. NetSquared conference. I registered for the NetSquared conference May 30–31 in San Jose. I also had a phone conversation with a couple of representatives of CompuMentor (the organization sponsoring the NetSquared conference) to discuss the goals of the conference. Next action(s): Make travel arrangements. CA certificates and Mozilla. I had some email correspondence and a phone conversation regarding how Certification Authorities involved in academic grid computing initiatives might get their CA certificates included in Mozilla-based products. (For some background on this topic see the proceedings of the recent NIST PKI R&D Workshop.) Next action(s): If it’s warranted I might schedule a meeting later this year to discuss this general topic with representatives of various academic networks working in this space. GPLv3. I provided detailed feedback to Discussion Committee A highlighting confusing language in section 7 of the GPLv3 draft (on license compatibility) and requesting clarifications if possible. Next action(s): Put together a final set of comments in time for the May 15 deadline for the first round of comments. Gerv Markham. Gerv’s surgery went well and he will be working on Mozilla stuff again soon. Next action(s): Pass back to Gerv various tasks I was doing during his absence. ...

I previously blogged about the Mozilla Foundation and the CSUN conference on information technology and persons with disabilities. As noted in the post, the Mozilla project and Firefox are really gaining traction with people concerned about web accessibility, thanks to the hard work of people like Aaron Leventhal. If you’re interested in this topic (and I think we all should be) then be sure to check out Aaron’s recent interview in the online publication Voice of the Nation’s Blind. ...

This is my report on activities of the Mozilla Foundation for the week ending April 21, 2006. The major news for this week is that we’re continuing to fund work to support improved accessibility of Firefox and other Mozilla-based products. Projects for the week Here’s a partial listing of what I and others at the Foundation did the week ending April 21: Accessibility implementation plan for OS X. The Mozilla Foundation is making a small grant to fund creation of an implementation plan for improving the accessibility of Firefox and other Mozilla-based products on Mac OS X. Next action(s): Work with Aaron Leventhal to monitor the progress of the work. XTech conference. I’m working with Mike Shaver on having some Mozilla attendees at the XTech conference, May 16–19 in Amsterdam. Next action(s): Work with shaver to ensure that all necessary arrangements are made. NetSquared conference. I’m planning to attend the NetSquared conference on technology and nonprofits (among other things), along with Paul Kim of the Mozilla Corporation. Next action(s): Work with Paul to get registered. CA certificate policy. Nicholas Bebout did the work to get the official Mozilla CA certificate policy published to the mozilla.org web site (per bug 332517). Next action(s): Modify selected other pages to include a link to the policy. Gerv Markham. Last week Gerv had the first of two surgeries to remove some tumors in his lungs; I’ve haven’t heard from him yet, but as far as I know he’s recuperating now and hopefully should be up and around in a bit. His surgery went very well (his words) and he hopes to be back home later this week. (However don’t expect him to answer any emails for a while yet.) I’m sure I can speak for all of us in extending to Gerv our best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery. Next action(s): Gerv confronts his overflowing inbox . . . ...