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Build in the Open: Open Tech Advocacy for a New Era

True to our roots in open-source, we intend to go about the Foundation’s work transparently, learning and iterating out in the open. “Open” isn’t just for products – it’s a set of principles we want to bring to everything we do, whether it’s advocacy or grantmaking or community-building. (Spoiler: We’ve done this before!) This series of “Build in the Open” posts is the beginning of our re-engaging the many experts, thinkers, and advocates who care about Mozilla’s work as much as we do. Core principles shouldn’t change, but circumstances certainly do. It’s a dramatic understatement to say we live in a time of changing circumstances, with elections worldwide changing our advocacy landscape, technology itself unfurling at a dizzying pace, and the Foundation’s own reorganization. Throughout previous eras of change, one constant for Mozilla has been vociferous and bold advocacy for technology that works for people – not the other way around. That isn’t changing. Advocacy is, and will continue to be, a vital part of how the Foundation engages with the world. But we will take the opportunity to understand how we, in this new era, best work with people – yes, that’s you – to make our advocacy work maximally effective. As our colleague Ziyaad Bhorat says, we believe in town squares, not closed doors. We’d like to embrace this moment of macro- and micro- change as an opportunity to think about how we meld open advocacy with public participatory design. That’s where this post comes in.The Future We WantMozilla has always been known for fighting against harmful tech practices and defending the open Internet. At our very best, we critique and resist undesirable futures and also actively build the positive future we want to see. Critiques can open up white space of what new innovations should be built, or how existing applications of technology must evolve or cease. And so this dual approach – combining critical analysis with constructive vision – frames accountability work as essential groundwork for positive change. For example, our work to shine light on the privacy-invasive practices of modern cars, support data access for research, expose the difficulty platforms have in safeguarding elections, understand the data ecosystem supporting LLMs, and help understand and then define “open source” AI have all shaped those respective fields. That makes our advocacy work all the more critical. That’s where you come in. Essential QuestionsWe’re asking ourselves tough, necessary questions, and while we have very strong opinions of our own – we’d love to know what you think, too. Where can we make the most difference?  What are the issues that feel most urgent or underserved, particularly as the tech advocacy landscape globally shifts in the next five years? What best supports what the field needs – research, organizing, and/or communications? How can we most effectively bridge critique and creation?  How can open advocacy directly inform and fuel the development of better alternatives - both in advocacy and products? Quite literally: what does “better” or “good” look like? What does it look like to effectively engage new relationships and continue to strengthen our existing communities and coalitions around core issues? What does "building in public" mean in the context of tech advocacy? As an organization committed to openness, how can we model advocacy as transparent, participatory, and collaborative while maintaining its effectiveness? Looking AheadFrankly these are questions we should always be asking ourselves, but now is a particularly good time to do so out in the open. And while we have our early answers, we know our long-standing community, partners, and fellow travelers will have equally robust views too – and those matter deeply to us. We

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