100% Organic Software -Your New "Green" Firefox Browser

Move over Whole Foods! The Mozilla corporation, creator of the superb Firefox web browser, has declared their software to be 100% organic. In a revealing interview with with Treehugger, Paul Kim, Mozilla VP, who helped launch Firefox 1.5 and 2.0, explains why the term is relevant.

According Kim, Mozilla is  not trying to create a new model. Instead, what they're trying to do is "to help new sets of people who know nothing about open source software quickly start to understand that Firefox is something different from the software they're currently using to access the Web. 'Organic software' is a concept we came up with that we thought would resonate with end users in ways that 'free software' doesn't. I think 'free software', at least in the US, doesn't carry the same valence that 'FLOSS' does in, say, Europe."

For people in the open source movement, Kim, continues, the term 'organic' is a lot clearer and immediately graspable. "I think in the broader culture, and again I'm speaking of the US, the word 'free' gets filtered through a consumer lens. So yes, it's a terminology issue for end users - trying to communicate clearly what practitioners already grok."

Kim believes that Firefox both respects the user, but ut it also respects open standards, which create a level playing field for any individual/company/organization to create Web content for others. And it is a manifestation of Mozilla's core belief in the importance of providing vehicles for participation on the Internet.

"I think there is something more primal about open source," Kim continued "more primal than communism or capitalism. It is the ability for anyone who has the passion and knowledge to make things better. I think I would bore with you tales of what I've seen from the programmers I work with - heroic efforts to fix security issues that require all nighters. You don't' do that kind of thing if it's just a job."

"So organic as it relates to labor process; I think the pastoral myth has at its core a notion of land and farmer bound together in a virtuous cycle. I like to think that in open source software development, we've recaptured some of that goodness. We're set up as a public benefit organization owned by a 501(c)3 nonprofit foundation, and we view our work as a public trust."

Firefox is global and local. They shipped Firefox 2 in over 35 language versions the day it was released. "And that's because we have a huge volunteer localization community. For example, Firefox is available in all 11 official South African languages. Contrast that to, say, Internet Explorer 7, which shipped in one language at first release."

Posted by Casey Kazan.

 

If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on Digg, Reddit, or StumbleUpon.Thanks!

 

Link: http://www.mozilla.org/about/mozilla-manifesto.html

Comments

[RS]

yeah, "organic" like "web 2.0".

You web-devs make me sick.

Organic are only substances that contain Carbon in chemistry science - not computer science, keep it that way, you marketing monsters...

:|

[Duncan]

@RS: Relax and allow for a little "poetic" licence.

"Organic" here may not strictly relate to carbon based molecules as you point out, but in the broader understanding of the word it does convey the impression intended by the originators.

I understand the meaning as a "self maintaining system" or "chaotic but cohesive" or something to that effect which can be seen in "organic" systems.

[samrolken]

I actually thought this was satire when I first saw it.

[snkngshps]

Sounds to me like he's using the hype of "organics" as a marketing catch phrase to get more people interested in the software.

[troye]

I think that he has to use the word "organic," because US browser market sees 'free' as something that is not of value.

Us Americans are voracious consumers. We want bang for our buck, so 'free' is perceived to be junk by most Americans.

'Organic' is new to Americans, and it is not as rapidly peceived as junk software.

Good marketing. It's not the best product that sells or the best candidate to win the presidency. It's about the presentation. That sales pitch that entices the buyer. In the end, you have to play mind games to capture the interest of a reader and buyer that has hundreds of other ubiquitous things to capture their attention. That's right, Mozilla must promote the 'Fox in the best way possible.

Anyways, what America does, the world will typically follow (in terms of fashion and style).

GO FIREFOX 3!

[Vincent]

WTF is "organic" software? Software grown without pesticides? How about throwing in "leverage, synergy, synthesis," and a few other meaningless buzzwords while we're at it?

[john]

not a new term, see Robert Metcalfe on wikipedia ...

[Internet TV]

I think open source works just fine, there's no need to 'dumb it down'.

[christo]

Organic software means Microsoft-free software. Got it?

[christo]

Organic software means Microsoft-free software. Got it?

[knoxvilledaniel]

Oh, for Pete's sake !!! Firefox is merely using the term " Organic " as a marketing buzzword to get an in with the extreme - tree - hugger
crowd..... To make it trendy. If Foxfire had been around when the idea of being " born again " had been trendy, they probably would've used THAT & targeted it at the evangelical market or something. Eager companies try to use the latest catch - phrases & hot - button words, it has very little to do with the concepts behind the words.

[ceti]

Organic makes sense in this context. Organic doesn't just apply to produce but also to works of the mind and our social relations.

See Gramsci's definition of the organic intellectual:

"As theorized by Gramsci, an Organic intellectual, unlike a traditional intellectual, is a bourgeoisie scholar who cultivates strong roots in his/her community, working to maintain links with local issues and struggles that connect to the people and their experiences. While traditional intellectuals imagine themselves as an autonomous group with an historical presence above and separate from political class struggle, they are in fact strongly allied with the dominant ideology and the ruling class. On the other hand, organic intellectuals openly recognize their location within the dominant ideology and their function in perpetuating it, and use their positionality to cultivate strategies for helping their communities to develop a self-inspired, organic consciousness."

Sounds about right to me. The only problem is that the organic term in the food sense is also getting hijacked by big producers. You'll have to go to community supported agriculture to realize the full environmental, health, and social benefits.