Mozilla is all about a movement that helps you to preserve your rights as a citizen of the Web. Recently with Windows 10, Microsoft made it quite hard to change the browser for some folks. So, Mozilla decided to throw campaign to help them.

Rajshahi University is one of the leading universities in Bangladesh. On 9th November, 2015 me along with some of my fellow Mozillians, headed for RU to aware them about the importance of their rights as the citizen of the web and help them in case they had any difficulties with the new browser default system.

So, we headed up for the venue at 2:30PM as the event was at 3PM. After reaching the venue we set the banners up and checked the projector and sound system. The participants started to come from around 2:50. Soon, we had our expected number and we started the sessions.

First of all, I talked about Mozilla, why it’s necessary and what could happen if we didn’t have Mozilla around us. I started all the way back from the WWW and Mosaic and talked about how they made the Firefox, that we use now. I talked about the Browser Arm races, Microsoft’s evil moves to lock down the internet and all the good stuffs.

Then I asked them if there was anyone who’s default browser wasn’t Firefox, as expected, a few rose their hands, that was a fun question anyway. But when I asked if anyone of them was having any trouble with making Firefox default on Windows 10, holy, half of them raised their hands! I was quiet astonished at that moment. After hearing their experience personally, I showed them a few videos and blogs that demonstrated the process. We also distributed the copy of latest Firefox through flash drive to them who didn’t use Firefox as their default and asked them to give it a shot.

After these, we asked them a few questions, like, how many steps did it take to make Firefox the default browser, who is the inventor of WWW and many others. Based on this questioning session we gifted Love Mozilla Wristbands to those who could answer the questions correctly.

At last, we distributed the swags, the stickers and buttons and the snacks. This was a really great event, met with a few very wise and passionate men.

PS: For my real slow net connection, I could not attach any photos to this post, but if you want, you can see them all from here

With the release of Firefox OS, Web App gained a new identity. Firefox OS gave Web App the honor of being able to talk with the hardware and be native apps. In general, Web Apps in Firefox OS is no different than your regular HTML5+CSS+JS built Web Apps but why special training? Well, when you’re making an app for a hand held device which can do more than just displaying a few information, you’ll need a way to communicate with the device hardware to tell it to vibrate, ring, access microphone and other crazy stuff. To do these awesome things, you’ll need something we call APIs. Mozilla has worked really hard to create some Web APIs and Firefox OS Specific APIs. People generally don’t know these APIs and they may know how to code HTML and CSS but a great part of the App is the manifest file which is OS specific. Teaching people how to write a badass manifest file is the primary object of these training.

On September 09, 2015, I along with my fellow mozillians payed a visit to Varendra University Rajshahi to introduce them Web Apps for Firefox OS.

The event was at 9AM but we reached there at 9AM, we’re lazy. Then after setting up the awesome banners and testing out the projector and sound system, we were good to go at around 9:30AM. But we’d to wait for a few more attendee. We, eventually, started at 9:45.

First, I talked about Web Apps in general, why we need them, how we’re surrounded by them and why they are important for a healthy application ecosystem.

Then, I started diving into developing Web Apps for Firefox OS. First I showed them how the WebIDE can help them and what the interface looks like. After that we together created the very first manifest file.

After the manifest file, they went brainstorming so that they could create something that they. Many of them came with awesome ideas but only a few could be done on spot. A group created a demo app for managing classes. Bravo!

Then we had our lunch.

After lunch, the participants did some practice on what they learned and then we started talking about APIs and why they’re a big deal.

After messing around APIs a little bit and installing apps on device just for fun, we started the Q/A session. The participants really had a few awesome questions.

Last but not least, this event really went well and I’m thinking to re visit them soon enough.

In my last post I’ve said that I was talking with Noor vi for a Webmaker event in my school, Horimohan Govt. High School. But I didn’t even know when Noor vi contacted with Istiaque, a Mozillian, and organized an event of awareness campaign in Imperial Polytechnic Institute,one of the leading privet polytechnic institutes here.

Istiaque vi was in-charge of getting the permission from the Imperial authority while I’d to manage my school’s authority. Noor vi sent us the applications for asking for the permission and fixed 28 and 29 August for the events. We talked with the authorities and managed them to agree with our proposed date.

Noor vi and OS shuvo vi, the Mozillians who would attend the event, reached Chapainawabganj on 28 Aug @6 AM. They stayed @Hotel Al-Nahid. The hotel and the venue of first event was in 2minutes distance.

The first event was @2pm. Noor vi and OS Shubho vi were tired so they rested in the hotel while Istiaque vi managed the banner and stage setup at the first venue, Imperial. At around 1pm Istiaque vi called me hurriedly and asked to join them immediately @hotel. So I did so. When I reached Noor vi was busy in finalizing his presentation with Popcornmaker. After sometimes Istiaque vi reminded me of calling Aminul vi. So I phoned him and asked to join us. In a short time He joined us too. Then came Jibon vi and his friend. We cut joke at Jibon vi as he mixed Firefox OS with Android! For around half an hour we had a lot of fun. Soon we realized that we were late for the event as it was already 2. We left the hotel for the venue but we were empty stomached! We hadn’t eaten our lunch!

We reached the venue and the people there introduced us with their students. Then Noor vi gave a short entry and started playing the movie “code_rush” and went to eat 😛

After sometimes the team came back and Noor vi started talking full-on!! He covered a wide area. Starting from Mozilla products to how Mozilla works and why. When Noor vi talked about the products of Mozilla, we found that many of them only thought that Mozilla only markets Firefox Browser. From Noor vi’s speech they came to know about Persona, Thunderbird and Firefox OS. Noor vi made them aware of their “rights” to the web and made some privacy concerns clear. Noor vi also mad ethe point clear that how Mozilla helps the web to be a better place and why they should contribute to Mozilla and help to do the good stuff faster. Some of the people listening to Noor vi were confused about how Mozilla manage to run the whole company and what is the fund source of Mozilla. Noor vi cleared how Mozilla earns and why we should work for Mozilla claiming no fees. Then he showed the real power of HTML, the mighty Firefox OS installed in Keon. People got interested in that phone so much because even though it’d a small amount of memory it rocked! Specially, Aminul vi liked it. Noor vi talked and answered many questions. Then Shubho vi went on stage and detailed localizaton. He described why we should work in the localization sector and how to work in there. After Shubho vi’s speech Istiaque vi explained how add-ons can be used to make life easier. Then we distributed mozilla stickers and the Imperial authority distributed snaks. After taking a group photo the event was over.

You guys maybe wondering where was I all the time??? Okay, I was behind the camera taking snaps through the event. 😀

Now the best part: You all may know that 28 August was a public holiday and students become lazy on holidays. So how we managed to organize the event? Well, thanks goes to Istiaque vi. He made the Imperial authority to phone students and ask them to join the event 🙂 because it was the authority’s fault taht they didn’t mentioned the holiday.