Alix F.

Firefox 3 has so many new and interesting features, we thought it would be great to showcase them in a few screencasts. And who would be better to help create those than some of the people involved in making Firefox 3!

The screencasts:

• Asa Dotzler shows how easy it is to switch to Firefox 3
  

• Johnathan Nightingale shows the new security features in Firefox 3 and why they matter.
  

• Seth Spitzer gives a tour of the awesome bar
  

• Alex Faaborg gives an overview of bookmarks in Firefox 3.
  

The videos are posted to vimeo and youtube Make sure to view the high quality versions if you choose youtube, vimeo’s look great by default.

The process:

Each video was created a little differently, as we investigated the best way to produce them.

In each case, we identified the features to highlight, and for each one listed the main points and drafted a script to serve as a reference during the recording session. The audio recording was always done first, and video was added later. Each video took about 8–10 hours to produce.

The switch video follows the prepared script very closely. The audio for the bookmarks and awesome bar videos was created by interviewing Seth and Alex. The security one was recorded from Toronto by Johnathan, using Jing, we captured that audio to edit it slightly and add our own video recording and transitions.

One recording had to be made in Rainer’s car because we could not find a quiet place… We’ll let you guess which one!

Thanks:

Thanks to Asa, Johnathan, Seth, and Alex for taking the time to record and review the screencasts. Also many thanks to David Tenser who helped with the scripts and reviews, and Rainer Cvillink for his technical expertise and artistic input.

Next steps:

• Gather feedback on the first set of videos
• Publish them on the mozilla.com web site.
• Identify the easiest way to make the videos localizable
• Create the next screencasts: new look&feel, cusomization/add-ons manager, download manager

We would love to know what you think: are those screencasts helpful? interesting? What features would you like to see showcased next?

Hopefully the title got your attention :-)

What is this about?

As part of the launch of Firefox 3, John Slater and I worked closely with The Royal Order and Jason Meyer to create a video highlighting all the wonderful features of Firefox 3.

Where is it?

You can watch it on the new mozilla.com to see the high quality version.
But it's also right here:


If you would like to embed it in your web page, it is also available on the firefox vimeo page and the foxmoz channel on YouTube.

Thanks to Pascal Chevrel and the awesome team of Mozilla localizers, it is also available with subtitles on mozilla-europe.org

How did we create it?

The goal was to create a 1 minute overview of the exciting features in Firefox 3 as a complement the features page.

Some of the Firefox 3 features are much easier to understand when you see them in action than when you read about them, in particular for people who might be less familiar with browsers.

After listing the features to highlight, TRO worked with us to create a script. It became clear that 1 minute would not be enough to showcase everything, so we had to limit the number of features, and extend the video by a few seconds.

Then the hard work started: it's all about the details! Finding the right voice, deciding on which pages to show in the video, working on transitions, zooming, intonation... and finding stock footage of a ninja we could use!

If you would like to know more, check out John's post about the project.

We hope you like the result, and would love your feedback!

As you probably know, spreadfirefox.com relaunched a few months ago, thanks to a lot of hard work by the Mozilla marketing team (Asa, Rhian) and the community (Paul and Ian at Glaxstar, Jamey at GraphicsGuru, Ken Saunders, and many others).

The new spreadfirefox (v2) is a true community marketing platform organized around your projects.

So what’s the status today?

Good things are happening!

• New community members are joining Sfx and creating organic groups around initiatives they’re passionate about! In particular, it’s been great to see people from around the world creating local groups. We are connecting directly with many international community members (check out our starter guide to see project ideas)
• Events! All Mozilla events are posted on Sfx (thanks Mary!)
• The Firefox 3 t-shirt contest (vote until 3/30!) has been a featured project of sfx and a great success.
• 500 million downloads! The celebration happened on spreadfirefox!

There is more work to do:

• The site is alive! So we are still working to list and address the usability issues and bugs in this new version of sfx. Help us by reporting issues on the sfx2 feedback group. We are also thinking about what sfx3 should look like, so post your ideas there as well!
• We are making lots of new contacts, in particular with international community members, we need to do more to report this on the site and make it visible to all!
• We have featured many official projects, like the t-shirt contest, or extend Firefox 3. We would like to feature more of your projects: let us know which ones you would like us to put in the spotlight!

What can you do?

• Create an account
• Check out the list of current organic groups and join initiatives you’re interested in and start posting! Ask a question, make a suggestion, see how you can contribute. Sometimes all it takes is some person to help a project move forward!
• Give us feedback on the current affiliates program
• As mentioned previously, you can help us track issues and feature requests in the sfx2 feedback group.

Thanks to all the long time members of spreadfirefox and all the new members who have recently joined and are making the site a success! (To name a few in addition to the above: Ottodv, Stormbringer, LouCypher, and Jeremy Glassenberg)

Thanks also to morgamic, the webdev and the IT teams at Mozilla for all their help!

This blog doesn’t have a specific about me section, so it’s time to create one for the curious ones among you who would like to find out more about who’s writing this.

I’m currently a Product Marketing Manager at Mozilla. I’m working with the community to spread Firefox around the world, in particular in Mexico, Brazil, and India right now. I’m also working on the launch of Firefox 3, in particular to describe the exciting new features you’ll soon enjoy (you’ll see these in materials like the reviewer’s guide, videos, or on the new web site). Finally, I’m working with fantastic community members and Mozilla team members to keep spreadfirefox.com running.

Here’s some history:
Before Mozilla, I spent two years at Harvard Business School getting an MBA. There, I focused mainly on Marketing and Entrepreneurship, learned more than I ever thought I would, and met amazing people (classmates and faculty).

Prior to the MBA, I did a lot of different things. I spent some time as an entrepreneur in France. I was also a software engineer at the Cisco Technology Center, working on cool stuff like www.mpeg4ip.net) and at AltaVista (remember AltaVista? :-).

You can also find my full profile on Linkedin or find old web sites of mine on the Internet (you know how to search right?).

Garmin is using a Panhard PL 17 in its superbowl ad (2008):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16aUPT9LEms

This is really exciting for me since I’m running panhard.com for my family (see my great-grandfather). The cars aren’t made anymore so it’s nice to see one back on the road in a US commercial!