Digital natives: freedom and hackability in a mobile future

PAST & FUTURE OF

DIGITAL NATIVES:

HACK THE FUTURE!

Tristan Nitot

Principal Mozilla Evangelist, Mozilla Europe Founder

tnitot@mozilla.com - twitter: @nitot

MOZILLA IS...

a global community of people

who believe that

openness, innovation, and opportunity

are key to the continued

health of the Internet.

We’re known for the

Firefox Web browser

MOZILLA MANIFESTO (EXCERPTS)

• The Internet is a global public resource that must

remain open and accessible.

• Individuals must have the ability to shape their own

experiences on the Internet.

• The effectiveness of the Internet as a public resource

depends upon interoperability (protocols, data

formats, content), innovation and decentralized

participation worldwide.

• Free and open source software promotes the

development of the Internet as a public resource.

I’M A DIGITAL NATIVE(AN OLD ONE)

I LEARNED TO HACK ON THESE USING

BASIC, ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE & A SOLDERING IRON

SHARP PC-1500 - Source: Wikipedia

ACORN ATOM - Source: Wikipedia

TRS Model 80 - Source: Wikipedia

THE MOST HACKABLE MACHINE I OWNED

• BASIC programming

• Disassembler

• extensible with

7 extension slots

• extensive documentation

• Electric schema included

• Screwdriver not needed

to open the case

Tinkering with the

Apple ][ was

encouraged

Source: Wikipedia

PHYSICAL COMMUNITIES ENCOURAGED

LEARNING, TINKERING AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING

• Physical spaces to:

• Share knowledge

• Share computers

• Such as:

• Micro-computer clubs

• Centre Mondial de

l’Informatique =>

• Palais de la découverteSource: INA

NETWORKS ENABLED VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

• Minitel in France

• AOL, Compuserve &

other large proprietary

networks

• Smaller BBS (Bulletin

Board Systems) were

operated from

personal computers.

LARGE VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES ENABLE

LARGE SCALE COLLABORATION

Wikipedia:

23 million articles

285 languages

365 million readers

GNU/Linux:

powers more than

90% of today's 500

fastest

supercomputers

THEN CAME THE WEB

•Simple principles: URL,

HTTP, HTML

•Open Standards

•«View Source» to learn

from existing pages

•No need to buy a SDK:

your text editor is enough

•No need to ask for

permission to participate

The Web belongs to no-one.

It’s an open, public resource

SOMETHING

OCCURRED TO ME DURING

THIS DIGITAL JOURNEY...

WHO WRITES THE CODE DECIDES

WHAT THE USER CAN DO

• Developers have a lot of

power over what users

can do

• Without source code,

• you can’t change the

software

• You don’t have the

power to do what you

want

FREE SOFTWARE HAS

NOTHING TO DO WITH PRICE.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE

USER’S FREEDOM

IN 2011, TABLETS AND

SMARTPHONES COMBINED

OUTSOLD THE PC

MOBILE INDUSTRY IS DOMINATED BY

PROPRIETARY MOBILE PLATFORMS

MOBILE CENSORSHIP

Someone decides

for me what I can

or cannot run on

the device I paid

for

NEW MOBILE RULES LIMIT

PARTICIPATION

Want to develop an APP?

•Get the official SDK / sign for the developer

program

•Use the language and APIs of the platform

•Use the AppStore / Marketplace to reach users

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

•Users are just consumers. They can’t get in the

driver’s seat.

• It’s a lot harder to understand the technology if

you can’t see under the hood

•The next generation of digital natives will discover

computing with smartphones and tablets.

•They will be taught to be passive consumers

FROM TOTALLY OPEN TO COMPLETELY CLOSED

FROM TOTALLY OPEN TO COMPLETELY CLOSED

WHAT CAN WE DO TO EMPOWER

THE NEXT GENERATION OF

DIGITAL NATIVES?

WE NEED

•Educated users

•An open platform for mobile

This is exactly what

is working on

EDUCATE USERS: WEBMAKER.ORG

Empower users so that the Web is not Read-Only

BUILD AN OPEN MOBILE PLATFORM

Firefox OS

Complete, standalone

operating system for the

open Web, built entirely

using HTML5 & standard

Web APIs

EVERYTHING IS A WEB PAGE!

Variations around the

Home screen

Variations around

the incoming call screen

FIREFOX OS: HOW AN OPEN WEB PHONE

CONNECTS HTML5 TO HARDWARE

Web Browser/Platform

Native API-based UI

Kernel (e.g. Android, iOS,

Win7, etc.)

Device (phone, tablet,

desktop)

APIs

Web-based User Experience/Web

Content

Kernel

Device

Web Engine/ Standard Device

APIs

Existing Platforms(smartphones only)

Firefox OS

Significantly

smaller stack:

Scales from

high-end

feature phones

to high-end

smartphones}

MARKETPLACE: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

FIREFOX

MARKETPLACE

Content owners can use the

Firefox Marketplace to

enhance discoverability

and make monetization

easier.

They can also sell directly

(going through the

marketplace is optional)

FIREFOX OS DEMO

AND NOW?

MOZILLA NEEDS YOUR HELP

TO BUILD THE DIGITAL

FUTURE WE WANT,

NOT THE ONE THAT’S HANDED

DOWN TO US

HOW TO HELP

•Contribute to Mozilla:

•http://www.mozilla.org/contribute

•Build Mobile Web Apps:

•https://marketplace.firefox.com/

THANK YOU

@nitot