Gnomedex: Blake Ross on open source marketing of Firefox
Firefox co-founder Blake Ross spoke at Gnomedex today. He started off by talking about the misconceptions of how Firefox started. He said it wasn't about annihilating Microsoft or liberating the world from proprietary software. Firefox was started to create an easy-to-use browser for mainstream people. He said they didn't want to "take the Linux route". So they had to "figure out what Mom and Dad want" from a web browser. He took a dig at the social networking system trend right now, where anti-social developers in Silicon Valley are trying to build world-leading social networking services.
He says one of the challenges is to get viral uptake - "Firefox is not naturally viral". But he said some network effects are beginning to take place now, as web standards acceptance increases. However, he noted, it's not enough to rely on natural network effects via early adopters. They wanted to find a way, outside of traditional means, to get grassroot marketing going that would appeal to mainstream users. In 2004 they started the 'Spread Firefox' initiative - "our attempt to achieve open source marketing". This is where people spread the news about the product in a viral way.
A question from the audience asked Blake said that while Microsoft will try to achieve parity with Firefox, he doesn't believe they'll do much beyond that. how much of Spread Firefox was driven by the competition with Microsoft. Blake said they came up with the slogan 'Take back the Web', which he said rallied people to spread the news about Firefox. Chris Messina (ex-Flock.com, another open source browser) asked a question about open source innovation, that open source development and tools had to diversify. Chris said that IE7 will have a lot of the compelling features that Firefox has, so how does Firefox market itself then to mainstream people? Blake said that while Microsoft will try to achieve parity with Firefox, he doesn't believe they'll do much beyond that.One of the messages he has for people is: how can you trust a company that abandoned them 4 or so years ago?
Blake then referenced the Firefox flicks project - and played a video called "Wheee!" from it that poked fun at Microsoft IE, which got a great response from the geeks in the Gnomedex crowd. However Dave Winer found it in poor taste, because it doesn't address users. Dave asked: "what are you going to do for us?". Dave said that he thinks Firefox will become just like Microsoft. Blake didn't accept that - at which point a bit of a 'Dave vs the crowd' ruckus ensued. Chris Pirillo, Gnomedex organizer and host, had to step in and ask that the "conversation" be carried on later.
A final question asked about how Firefox will scale. Blake said that "I'm not looking to scale up to the size of Microsoft". Overall a very interesting session, spiced up by Dave Winer and also Steve Gillmor's interventions. The crowd was very much in support of Blake and Firefox, but even so Dave's point that Firefox has to appeal to normal users instead of focusing on fighting Microsoft was a good one.
Photo: Scott Beale