I guess it's just leaves me with a good feeling about the project...

Even though I don't know you, Mitchell, I wish you the best of luck in finding a new "day job," and hope it allows you to continue your work with mozilla.org.

Anyway, I'm going to bed... got whipped by swim practice and ski team dryland... heh.

Scott

"The worst day skiing is still better than the best day of school -- unless you tear your ACL."

I porefer the Chief Lizard Wrangler. It has more character. What about Lizard-in- Charge? or Chief Lizard Advocate?

Chief Lizard Ramrod. :-)

Gerv

How about "The Lizard formally known as Chief Wrangler

I know people who are victims of downsizing. I never thought it was newsworthy. I hope this person does not experience the financial troubles of some of the unemployed people I know.

I wonder if this was a measure to reduce cost or if this was done because people at America Online were disappointed by Mozilla and its progress. I can imagine somebody from America Online asking, "when will it be done?" only to be answered with, "when it's ready." Maybe the changes will lead to a better web browser or whatever they think Gecko is.

I do my best to stay as positive as possible, but I have to make this comment:

What has Mitchell done for Mozilla besides attend meetings and conferences? I have met her in person, but still have no clue about what she has really done. Can someone answer this?

Now, I'm sure Mitchell has done a great job handling with Netscape in the past, but the Netscape-Mozilla relationship is symbiotic. They depend on each other in ways that we now know... so there is probably not much to negotiate anymore. That's probably why she got laid off.

I hope Mitchell can devote some time to plan how Mozilla 1.0 will be distributed. Will there be Mozilla.org binaries? Will it be source-only? Who else might distribute binaries? These are important questions that have yet to be answered.

I, like Eric Murphy, wonder what Mitchell does for Mozilla - not Netscape. From the mozilla.org website,

"Mitchell is the manager, problem arbitrator, and speaker to suits, which involves doing mysterious political things of which technical people are blissfully unaware. She also translates between suit-speak and the language the rest of us understand. If it's a question that's not about code, she's probably got her fingers in it.

As one of the first people in Netscape's legal department, Mitchell helped the company get big and became a manager. More recently, she helped unleash Mozilla's source code on the world with her work on the Netscape and Mozilla Public Licenses."

I read that as two roles: 1) Makes decisions for Mozilla.org 2) Historical icon - created (hopefully to be defunct) MPL

How much time is Mitchell going to have to spend doing 1 now that she's not getting paid to do it?

Joseph Elwell.

Well, it really ought to be an unpronounceable lizard-shaped symbol :)

Practically speaking, though, I do like Wrangler At Large, but how about "Lizard at Large"?

Stuart.

PS I'm reminded of _So long and thanks for all the fish_: "I come in peace. Take me to your Lizard".

I think you should keep the current title. Of course, you could always start singing, "DOM, DOM on the Range..."

In a way, though, this is good for the credibility of mozilla.org. People are always saying Mozilla === Netscape, when that's really not the case. It reminds us that Mozilla is a huge but loose alliance, where people are (almost) as interchangeable as the code they write. If the Chief isn't part of the primary company sponsoring the project, that gives a degree of objectivity you just can't get anywhere else.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't like the idea of anyone getting laid off either. Have we heard anything about where the Chief Lizard Wrangler will be going next?

Keep the title. And I hope Netscape chooses a good Ambassador.

In retrospect it only seems appropriate that Mitchell fulfill her important role out here in on wild range of the open source community.

First the source code for Mozilla, next all the development resources (like Bugzilla, Bonsai, LXR and Tinderbox), and most recently Mitchell Baker. Netscape just keeps giving their most valuable assets away.

Thanks, Netscape! I can hardly wait to see what you give us next :)

P.S. I like "Wrangler at Large".

with all the value that Mozilla brings to someone wanting to deploy their own web based application, is this being tapped as a market? Is there someone out there selling Mozilla and charging for consultation and expertise?

Well, hopefully I've been something more than a figurehead ;-)

Aside from meetings, conferences, and a good chunk of time working with Netscape, I've been spending a good amount of time working with other companies using Mozilla and/or wondering how to get involved in Mozilla development. This is a more complicated question for a company development team than it is for an individual hacker.

I also spend a lot of time trying to forge consensus about mozilla.,org policies and procesures, and beginning to document them. The Review and Super-review FAQ http://www.mozilla.org/hacking/code-review-faq.html may not seem that complex, but actually writting something down, tracking down the people involved, verifying how things actually work, and developing consensus on how they ought work is a very time consuming task.

As to the future, I'm not sure what sort of job I'll have. I am delighted to have a break. I started at Netscape back in its dim pre-history and am very happy to have a rest. The Mozilla project is both important and filled with great people. I plan to stay involved.