Volunteerism — the heart of the open movement
The open movement presents a broad landscape covering multiple disciplines, businesses, organisations, the public sector and more. But there is one strand that weaves the whole spirit of open into a coherent cloth — volunteers.
The ethos of volunteering lies at the very core of the open movement.
Spike is a longstanding Mozilla volunteer and the volunteer co-ordinator for MozFest. He has been involved for many years and brings great energy to the project, filling the volunteers with enthusiasm. He describes volunteering for MozFest: “It’s my fun job. I love being a part of MozFest and it’s great to see so many people getting involved. I’m really hoping to encourage volunteers from the festival to become involved in other projects, too.”
Something that may come as a surprise is the level of detailed planning behind the volunteer activity. Some people may think it is a case of turning up and doing things, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. There is a detailed roster system, allocating volunteers to tasks that meet their interests while ensuring everyone gets the opportunity to enjoy the festival and its activities.There is even a schedule outlining who gets to dress up as the fox!
Another of the MozFest volunteers is Tom, who will be livestreaming the festival those who are unable to attend. Tom has volunteered for Mozilla for seven years but this will only be his second MozFest.
“I love the communities that form around the festival,” Tom said. “These communities have a really important role to play because the challenges the web faces around web literacy and the critical assessment of content aren’t addressed in formal education. Schools focus on teaching young people to code, but they don’t teach about digital citizenship or how to be safe online.”
Perhaps most of all, what MozFest shows on a grand scale is that without the spirit of volunteerism there is no open movement. Here’s to all of the volunteers who give their time, energy and skills freely, with smiles and lots of heart.
