Mozilla Italia at Fa’ la cosa giusta 2013

Last weekend, March 15-17, Mozilla Italia took part in Fa’ la cosa giusta 2013 in Milan (Fa’ la cosa giusta means Do the right thing!). For our association this was the fourth time in this particular event: we participated from 2007 to 2009, then we moved to Florence for a couple of years (event called “Terra Futura”) and took a break in 2012. In Milan there were six active members from our community, which is quite a gathering considering how spread we are through Italy, and two guests who helped us during these three days.

Mozilla Italia a Fa' la cosa giusta 2013

Citing from the official site: Fa’ la cosa giusta is a fair about ethical consumerism and sustainable living, with over 700 exhibitors hosted on 29,000 square meters. This year edition had more than 72,000 visitors, among them 3,300 students from 17 different schools.
The number of tech-related exhibitors is always quite limited: for example near our booth there was an area where people from Ubuntu and Document Foundation had talks about their communities and their products, there were also other realities like a lab which takes in old IT hardware (printers, computers, etc.) and restore them, or even low cost 3D printers (Waspproject).

Taking part in this kind of events, compared to more tech-oriented exhibitions, has some positive aspects. For example trying to explain the Open Web, or the importance of web standards and diversity to people who can’t really understand the difference between a browser and a search engine is quite a challenge (Q: “What software do you use to browse the Internet?” A: “I use Google.”). At the end of these three days we welcomed a lot of people at our booth, even a couple of puppies: some of them wanted help for some problems they were having with Firefox or Thunderbird, some others wanted to know more about Mozilla or just say hello to us.

More frequently questions: what is Mozilla? Why are you here, how do you fit in? In some ways answering this last question was the most interesting: what Mozilla does, how Firefox and all other products are created by a non-profit organization and a unique community equally built on employees and volunteers from around the world, what we do as an association in Italy, how our ideals and principles help creating and driving initiatives like WebMaker or WebFWD. And then see these people agree with us πŸ™‚

Fa' la costa giusta 2013 - Mozilla Italia

On Saturday and Sunday the main point of interest was this developer phone running Firefox OS. A lot of people stopped by to see and try the phone: some of them knew the project, thanks to the good coverage of the last MWC 2013 in Barcellona, others didn’t know it at all and wanted to understand what Mozilla is working on. Again, there were questions a lot more frequent than others:

  • How and when will Firefox OS be commercialized? Distribution should start soon in some countries (e.g. Spain, Brazil, Poland, etc.), and then cover other areas. In the meantime people, in particular those interested in developing Apps for the new OS, can try Firefox OS with an emulator or desktop builds.
  • When will Firefox OS be available in Italy? Well, we don’t know πŸ˜‰ Personally I hope at some point during 2014, considering that Telecom Italia is listed among the partners on the official page.
  • Will I be able to install Firefox OS on my phone and replace Android/Windows? It depends, but it can’t be excluded given the open nature of the project.

I made a set of photos on Flickr, considering the amount of people stopping at our booth I wasn’t really able to shot many photos. Enough said: at the end of those two days I almost had no voice left πŸ˜‰


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2 responses to “Mozilla Italia at Fa’ la cosa giusta 2013”

  1. Goofy Avatar
    Goofy

    Good job done dear friends, nothing compares to real life connection with people when Mozilla values are to be exposed.
    Tiny typo Q: β€œWhat software do you use to browse the Internet?” R: β€œI use Google.
    should be *A*: “I use Google”

  2. flod Avatar

    Thanks Goofy, I re-read 10 times and then forget to check details πŸ˜‰

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