Ever wondered what you get when a software engineer, AI policy expert, and artist team up?
These may seem like an unusual group to collaborate, but at MozFest, teams like this regularly collaborate to co-design MozFest. A decentralised, non-linear, and co-creative approach at MozFest makes for inspiring conversations, ideas, and projects that live on far past the festival.
Your Chance To Shape MozFest 2024
We are looking for passionate individuals to help design our next MozFest House event. This is your opportunity to share your ideas and make a real impact.
This summer, MozFest House will be going back to the Netherlands to hold pressing discussions, collaborative sessions, artistic moments focused around Trustworthy AI and internet health. It's crucial to unite and strengthen political influence on issues like internet health and Trustworthy AI. MozFest gives you an ideal space to work together with civil society, empower those often excluded from tech, and bring together a responsible tech community.
In the Wrangler program, Mozilla convenes a diverse group of builders, developers, activists, researchers, artists, and more. The Wranglers then take the lead on designing the festival narrative, curating sessions and inviting their communities. This means that our local events can have regional nuance when it comes to session topics, event structure, and many other event elements. This decentralized approach is called federated design.
The Wrangler program is an opportunity for personal and professional growth, to connect with a network of movement builders in the trustworthy AI space, and to co-curate an event that has, for 15 years, been setting the agenda for global conversations on internet health and trustworthy AI.
MozFest House: Kenya - Wrangling in Action
The 2023 MozFest House: Kenya is a great example of the Wrangler program in action. The MozFest House: Kenya in Nairobi was truly community-led and community-designed.Wranglers co-designed a beautiful festival with almost 50 sessions and 200+ participants. This group (and some others who are missing from the photo) were critical in co-creating the event program, from co-designing the overall narrative with internal experts at Mozilla (Eyitemi Popo, Kofi Yeboah, Chenai Chair & others), to inviting and securing sessions and facilitators, to being on site and participating so fully in the event. Some of them travelled from across the continent to participate in these critical conversations.
2024 MozFest in the Netherlands
Now, as we look ahead to what 2024 has in store, we are looking for a new cohort of Wranglers to co-design MozFest House in the Netherlands, which will have a regional focus in Europe. We are looking for folks across the region and across sectors to co-design the upcoming festival.
Why participate as a 2024 Wrangler?
- Inform the MozFest program, shape the narrative on a topic you are passionate about, and create change via new collaborations at MozFest
- Be at the forefront of the Internet Health and Trustworthy AI movement and learn from other builders, thinkers, and doers
- Networking and community building opportunities, including opportunities to be featured in other MozFest related events
- Leadership development and skill building opportunities, including mentorship
- Letter of program completion from Mozilla and professional references
Past Wranglers have shared with us that the program was one of the most valuable experiences in their professional lives, and many find that it’s a space for personal growth as well. Here are some things past Wranglers have said about the program:
- The Wrangler program is the main "training" I got to become the professional I am today… I am always using the skills I exercised as a Wrangler on my job.
- This is the best experience I had to personally and professionally develop my interest in tech and tackling social issues.
- It was so valuable to make relationships through the Wrangler program which will enhance my professional work but also my life and enjoyment of my engagement with Mozilla. The opportunity to create, be creative, and design collaboratively in a supported environment with people I love working with is rare and it was amazing to do that with the Wrangler team.
We are looking for passionate individuals to help co-design the 2024 MozFest House in the Netherlands. This is your opportunity to share your ideas and make a real impact. Applications close Jan 31, 2024.
For questions about the program, reach out to [email protected]
MozFest is part art, tech and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world.
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Seher Shafiq
Seher is Mozilla’s Wrangler Program Manager on the MozFest team. She has a deep interest in the intersections of democracy & tech, with a focus on those under-represented in both.