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10 May 2012, 11:11

Mozilla Spaces opens in London

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Mozilla Spaces, the initiative to create open working spaces for open web and open source developers to gather in and work together, has officially launched the London Mozilla Space. Situated near Covent Garden, the new space is attached to Mozilla's new offices where a number of the non-profit's employees can work. The open space includes six meeting rooms, a larger meeting area with a "Splendid Bar", Wi-Fi, and a space for storing bicycles.

Talking with the H, Tristan Nitot, President of Mozilla Europe said: "The idea of an open space from Mozilla was that everybody who needs a meeting space to do something creative about the open web and to have a few meetings to talk about things can have one, without being encumbered by a company having them sign an NDA to get into their offices". He added that "it is also showing that Mozilla as a non-profit is as good as businesses are". The location also provides Mozilla with offices where it can, for example, meet future mobile partners or other businesses that it would like to work with.

In the near future, Nitot hopes to see a new Mozilla Space open in Paris: "We already have a space but it's so crowded you can't use it properly. We're taking Spaces to a whole new level in London where you know if you show up you'll meet interesting people who share a passion for open source and the open web."

Christian Heilmann, Mozilla's Developer Evangelist, also pointed out that the open nature of the space also helps explain Mozilla's open nature: "It's really hard to explain to people how we work in the open. People say 'So when I work for Mozilla how do I go about publishing things' and I say 'Well you publish them with us and then they are out in the open'. Our meeting notes are open, our meetings are open, you can call into them, there is no hidden agenda, and that shows in the building as well".

The space also allows people to demonstrate new projects. At the launch, Mozilla volunteers were showing Webmaker projects. These are projects designed to be used in the Mozilla Summer Code Party which aims to create a more web-literate generation. The tools on show which will help with that goal include WebPage Maker, an assisted playground for students to learn how to remix the web.

Mozilla's offices and open space are at 101 St. Martins Lane, London WC2. The Mozilla Spaces page has more information about the spaces around the world, both open and proposed. For other information, email mozspaces@mozilla.com.

(djwm)

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