Mozilla's Open Innovation and New Challenges

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Based in Mountain View, California, Mozilla was the for-profit subsidiary of the non-profit organization Mozilla Foundation. During the mid-1990s, the most widely used web browser was the Netscape Navigator, launched in 1994 by Netscape Communications (Netscape). By 1995, Netscape Navigator had gained a market share of 80%. However, in August 1995, with the launch of Windows 95 and its own web browser, the IE, Microsoft began to challenge Netscape. Unlike Netscape Navigator, IE was free and came bundled with the Windows OS. By late 1990s, IE caught up technologically with Netscape Navigator which soon began to lose market share...

Mozilla's philosophy was to make the Web open and participatory and create a portfolio of free, open source products and technologies. The organization was involved in open innovation wherein it used open source software and invited developers and volunteers to be part of the innovation process and develop new products. Mozilla created a global community of users, contributors, and developers as it believed that openness and innovation were vital to improve web capabilities. Baker played a central role in driving open source innovation at Mozilla. In her role as 'chief lizard wrangler' (general manager), she redefined the legal and functional model of the organization to allow the open source community to share responsibility for product development...

Over the years, Mozilla had been at the forefront in making the Web a more capable and dynamic platform. Mozilla employees and contributors world over contributed to the development of innovative products on the Web and improved the online experience for people globally. Spearheading Mozilla's innovation program was Chris Beard (Beard), Mozilla's Chief Innovation Officer, whose mission was to involve more volunteers in Mozilla's product development process in order to build innovative Internet technologies for desktops, mobile, etc. To encourage participation from designers, Mozilla built programs and launched Design Challenges with thousands of entries from all over the world...

The concept of open source at Mozilla led to collaboration among members in product development, marketing, and promotion of products wherein developers typically volunteered for tasks and worked together virtually to develop a software program and distribute it. According to industry observers, by adopting open source innovation, Mozilla promoted choice and innovation on the Web rather than aiming for mass-market domination. Moreover, the open source development model helped Mozilla to develop products at lower costs compared to traditional proprietary products in the industry as the organization benefitted from the free source code that was integrated into its products...

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