Firefox Web Browser Advocates to Buy Full-Page Ad in the New York Times
Volunteers organize world’s largest community marketing campaign for open source software; full-page ad will recognize, by name, thousands of contributors who support the upcoming Mozilla Firefox 1.0 product launch.
(PRWEB via PR Web Direct) October
19, 2004 -– A group of community volunteers today launched a drive to purchase a
full-page advertisement in The New York Times. The effort, endorsed by the
Mozilla Foundation, will celebrate the launch of Firefox 1.0 – the Mozilla
Foundation’s innovative new web browser – and include the names of thousands of
small-donor contributors who will support product launch activities.
The
advertisement is one component of a larger community marketing campaign, dubbed
“Spread Firefox.” The campaign is the world’s largest community marketing effort
ever undertaken for open source software.
The original idea for the ad
campaign as well as all of the research, development and design has been done by
volunteers.
In just four weeks, the SpreadFirefox.com site has swelled to
coordinate the community marketing activities of close to 25,000 registered
users. The site’s first goal of one million downloads of the most recent
pre-release version of Firefox was surpassed within three days. To date, more
than 5 million copies of the latest version of the open source web browser have
been downloaded in just over one month.
“Since introducing Firefox 0.8
last February, we have seen a tremendous surge of grassroots interest to support
the Firefox web browser,” said Bart Decrem, a spokesperson for the Mozilla
project. “The Firefox 1.0 launch will be a celebration – both for a great new
open source product and for the large open source community who made it
happen.”
The New York Times ad will run following Firefox 1.0’s
widespread availability this fall.
COMMUNITY MARKETING
Historically,
open source software marketing has been carried out by large organizations that
offer complementary software and services. The Firefox 1.0 community marketing
campaign is the first time the open source community has embraced national
advocacy tactics to celebrate the launch of a new product.
Community
marketing is the distributed execution of numerous marketing or advocacy
initiatives focused on a collective goal and emphasizing a common set of
messages.
Leading up to the launch of Firefox 1.0, Mozilla Foundation
staff have worked with community volunteers to organize numerous
marketing-related initiatives including:
• Downloading
and installing millions of copies of the web browser.
•
Developing Firefox buttons for users to include on their home pages. To date
more than 90,000 web sites feature Firefox promotional
buttons
• Contacting news and blog web sites to request
donated banner ads.
• Creating a media team to respond to
omissions or inaccuracies in news stories.
• Creating a
referral system that has generated over 200,000 visits to
GetFirefox.com.
“Through the Internet, people have become more aware of
their power and capability to organize collective action. As consumers, people
are increasingly demanding a reliable, highly customizable web browsing
experience,” Decrem said. “We are on the cusp of a new chapter for open source –
the community is growing from developing useful, secure software to advocating
for it.”
GETTING FIREFOX
A preview release of Mozilla Firefox is
available as a free download from www.getfirefox.com. Firefox is optimized for a wide range of
operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
ABOUT
SPREAD FIREFOX
Spread Firefox is the community marketing campaign of nearly
25,000 Firefox advocates worldwide. Community members can submit ideas and join
volunteer teams by visiting http://www.spreadfirefox.com.
ABOUT THE MOZILLA
FOUNDATION
The Mozilla Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with
the mission to preserve choice and innovation on the internet. Established in
July 2003 with support from America Online’s Netscape division, the Mozilla
Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal, and financial support for a
group of open source software projects. More information is available at http://www.mozilla.org.
Mozilla and the Mozilla logo
are registered trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation. All other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.
Contact:
Bart
Decrem
Mozilla Foundation
650-473-6581
e-mail protected from spam
bots
Rob Davis
Haberman & Associates
612-338-3900
e-mail
protected from spam bots
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/10/prweb169813.htm