There was so much to learn and do at MozFest 2021, and even though this year’s festival has ended, the relationships and collaborations begun there will continue well after the last session. MozFest isn’t only a convening: it’s also a mindset and community that lasts year-round. New friendships endure; new ideas take shape; new pathways open across the internet health and trustworthy AI movements. The MozFest motto rings true: arrive with an idea; leave with a community.
However, it’s not always easy to know the next step, especially after an event as full and inspiring as our first ever virtual MozFest. To maintain your momentum after MozFest, check out these helpful tips for staying connected with the communities, people, and projects you discovered there.
Learn more about the past, present, and future of the MozFest by visiting the brand new, online edition of the MozFest Book. The MozFest Book can help you maintain your MozFest momentum, learn about the festival’s history and spirit, and imagine new possibilities for participating in the future. As festival Communications Manager Kristina Gorr explains:
The work for a healthy internet isn’t done yet – so what does our community envision when they look ahead to the next ten years of the festival and the internet health movement? Where do we go from here? The authors of these essays share their thoughts on the many paths the future offers the digital world and how our choices will shape the festival and the web for everyone.
To succeed, every MozFest needs an enormous amount of coordination and cooperation between festival staff and community members like Facilitators, Wranglers, and Volunteers. Ahead of MozFest each year, we build comms, resources, and training programs for these groups as part of our collaboration on the festival. However, those aren’t the only programs the MozFest team offers, and we want to continue making opportunities like these more accessible and inclusive than ever.
To do so, we facilitate several programs a year meant to help people improve their facilitative leadership practices and advance their work on internet health and trustworthy AI. For example, visit this blog, our Slack, and other channels like our newsletter, to learn more about the programs we’re planning to offer later in 2021, like:
- The Trustworthy AI Working Group: This group, which will hold an open call for its second cohort in June, explores how we can help AI builders shift industry norms and build more trustworthy technology leading up to the next MozFest. Email co-chair Temi Popo or ping @Temi on the MozFest community Slack to learn more.
- The Civil Society for Trustworthy AI Working Group: This new group, launching later in 2021, will explore how we can help civil society actors shift industry norms and government practices regarding the design, development, procurement, and deployment of civic tech in our communities. Email co-chair Chad Sansing or ping @chadsansing on the MozFest community Slack to learn more.
- A facilitative leadership and federated design program: This new professional development program, launching later in 2021, will help MozFest community members increase their capacity to convene and manage participatory, accessible and inclusive events and communities that advance our shared work in internet healthy and trustworthy AI. Email program manager Chad Sansing or ping @chadsansing on the MozFest community Slack to learn more.
Remember that the MozFest Plaza remains open to all registered-ticket-holders for 90 days after the festival. From the plaza, you can visit the schedule to search for recorded sessions you may have missed the first time around. Discovering new sessions that spark new ideas is a great way to maintain your momentum after MozFest.
In addition to available recordings, the schedule will also link out to a session’s other available resources from its page in the program. While recordings and Miro boards will be removed after 90 days to preserve participants’ privacy in the long-term, you are welcome to review those materials and then document and share your own learnings from them. The magic of each MozFest session isn’t in this document or that - it’s in how we learn from one another and then share that learning with others across our online and local communities afterwards.
If you didn’t get a ticket for MozFest 2021, don’t worry! You can still check out plenty of MozFest content on this playlist of videos available to everyone.
Remember that the MozFest community Slack remains active all year long and is full of opportunities to share your work and connect with like-minded people working on similar internet health and trustworthy AI problems and solutions in their parts of the world. A great way to maintain your momentum after MozFest is to join forces with those folks and move ahead together. Channels like #jobs-and-opps and #self-promotion can help you find and share new ways to contribute to one another’s work. The #loc- channels (like #loc-africa, #loc-asia, and #loc-c-s-america) can help you find people in the MozFest community from your region of the world.
Your MozFest Space channels and Wranglers will be around, as well, to continue conversations and advance outcomes from spaces like #creative-ai, #global-culture-and-heritage, and #neurodiversity. Don’t see a channel you need after browsing the list? Let us know! Ping @chadsansing or @marcwalsh to discuss creating a new channel or adapting an existing one for your needs. It’s our hope that the connections you make here will help you discover new communities, opportunities, and perspectives from around the world.
Be sure to check out a few of the new initiatives launched at MozFest, as well. There are many new, community-sourced projects listed in the program, including:
- Anti-surveillance Toolkit for the Remote Worker
- Become an Advisor for the Cities’ Digital Rights Helpdesk!
- Building a security practitioners toolkit for social revolts
- Building community of networks for development
- Building the world we deserve: a new framework for integrating physical, digital and social infrastructure
- Stop raging against the machines : Building a citizen linguist lab that detects hate speech
- Sustaining Farming Through Technology
Colleagues from across Mozilla participate in MozFest each year and bring their own communities of partners, fellows, awardees, and contributors to the event. You can learn more about other Mozilla communities and projects participating in the festival by visiting their homes on the web. Check out:
- The Internet Health report.
- Our Insights team’s research initiatives.
- The Data Futures Lab.
- Our Fellowships & Awards programs.
- Mozilla Hubs.
- Project Common Voice.
You can also stay in contact with MozFest most directly by:
- Joining the MozFest community Slack.
- Subscribing to our newsletter.
- Following @mozillafestival on Twitter.
- Following us on LinkedIn.
Let us know what else you’re up to after MozFest! Have you joined a new community of practice, project, or working group? Have you launched a new project of your own? What kinds of learning, reflection, and rest have you engaged with after Mozfest 2021? Share your latest internet health and trustworthy AI news with us on Slack or Twitter Using @mozillafestival and #mozfest. Before we know it, it’ll be time to dream big together about MozFest 2022. How would you like to return to the festival? Maybe 2022 will be your year to facilitate, wrangle, or volunteer for the first time!
Chad Sansing works on leadership and training, as well as facilitator and newcomer support, for MozFest. When he’s not at work, you can find him gaming, reading, or enjoying time with his family. Prior to joining Mozilla, he taught middle school for 14 years.
