After joining Mozilla Messaging just over seven years ago, I start a new job later this month. I am thankful for Alex's introduction to David that led to the Mozilla job.
I moved up to Vancouver to experiment with web-based messaging. That led to a few experiments at Mozilla, most recently the Firefox OS email app front end. However, all the experiments I worked on at Mozilla were eventually shut down. It is time for me to try working on a different kind of project.
I will be cheering on the efforts at Mozilla to improve the browser, and integrate web content better with native platforms via features like service workers and web manifests. I would like to see first class placement of web experiences on native platforms that work well with background updates, offline use. A Mozilla-infused Android distribution with web content front and center, some secure messaging and ties to local communities would be neat to see.
The web rendering developments in Servo are exciting too. Do you want to learn a neat language and help them out? Check out the first bugs list. The Rust and Servo communities are really great.
While I appreciate the value of platform work, it is more work for me than the flow I feel when building on web apps. So I am off to work on a web app that helps educators organize their classes. I still plan to do some light open source work on my own time, make sure I keep up maintenance releases for RequireJS related tools. But I will be busy with an exciting new job, and I will not have a lot of left over energy for a while. I will be staying in Vancouver.
Thank you Mozilla, and the people I worked with, for seven years. It changed my life. I recommend working at Mozilla particularly if you are a platform or systems developer. Or, just contributing in some way to support the great work of the Mozilla Foundation.