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About mozilla.org @ school  
What is mozilla.org @ school
mozilla.org at school is an idea I (Rich Pizzarro - rhp@netscape.com) had to start evengelizing the work mozilla.org is doing to people in their technical "formative years" (i.e. students). So, with that idea in mind, I ran the concept past some faculty/administration at my alma-mater (Shippensburg University) and they were very receptive. What we did was have the students create a couple of projects based around the Seamonkey code.  I've worked with Dr. Carol Wellington and Dr. Rick Ruth at Shippensburg to make projects based on Mozilla part of the curriculum a 2 semester advanced course in computer science. In this course, the the students work on a single project for two semesters, performing all the phases of software development (i.e. functional requirements, product specs, coding the product, etc....) I had an online conferences with them via IRC and exchanged email and news postings about the work. The results we really great and the students seemed to enjoy the experience. So, using this as a proof of concept for myself, I am now hoping to expand this effort across the state of Pennsylvania (why Pennsylvania...because I live here...why else :-)

Why did I start doing this?
Well, there are several reasons that I took the time to start this effort.

  • "Spreading the News"

    • I truly believe in the work we are doing with mozilla.org...and as they say in the latest Nike ads..."the more, the better...can you dig it"! So, with that in mind, I am trying to get anybody and everybody I can talk to or persuade them to get interested in this effort. Getting students involved, especially if done as part of the school's sanctioned cirriculum, is a great way to get people involved early in their careers. 
     
  • Keeping the Internet Safe for Standards

    • Why is mozilla.org a good thing in my opinion. Well, once upon a time, there was a think called competition for Internet web browsers, until competition was illegally trounced by Microsoft like a Narcotics Officer at a biker rally. Now before you dismiss my colorful analogy as bitterness, please read up on what the United States Justice System has to say about my comments (of course you can still dismiss all of this if you think you are above the law ;-)
      So what does this have to do with standards....PLENTY. As you can see from the above two documents, Microsoft has done all it could to eliminate Netscape as a competitive threat in the Internet Browser software market. Why, because when you don't have competition, you can do what what you feel in your software and the customer can either accept it or...accept it. The Internet's phenomenal growth can be attributed to the fact that no one company controlled the standards for communication. Now that Microsoft is claiming market share victory in the "browser war", its very interesting how their standards support seems to be drifing. For proof of this, check out Netscape Standards Challenge. mozilla.org is the best chance to have an Internet Watchdog for browser standards. As long as Mozilla based browser products are on the market and viable, Microsoft will be forced to support standards in their products. 
Press 
Shippensburg University students participate in Netscape project
This was an article that was written by the Shippensburg PR department and posted on the school's web site. I'm reposing here because I don't know about their retention policy on Web docs.

Students Writing Netscape Code
Here is a nice article from the Shippensburg University alumni newspaper, Vista.

SU Students work to simplify Internet Use
This is a scan of one article about the Shippensburg project. 

Netscape, Students team up on project
This is another scan of an article on the Shippensburg project with mozilla.org.

Shippensburg Students Participate in Netscape Project
This is just a short little article that was in a Hispanic focused magazine for higher education.
Future Plans 
Evangelize to the 14 Pennsylvania State Run Universities
I would love to see to see all 14 state run universities in Pennsylvania working on Mozilla.org as part of their curriculum. This would be great for the students in giving them exposure to a real world, high tech project as well as teaching them about how remote/distributed development can easily be done with the help of the Internet. Luckily, I have contacts with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education that would support me in this effort. I have meetings in the next few weeks to discuss the project and how we can get this jump-started across the state. 

Promote to Anyone Willing to Start a Similar Program
I've already been contacted by the University of Pennsylvania which is in Philadelphia, PA to get something started similar to what we did at Shippensburg. I hope to follow up on this lead and several others I have in the state.

Contact Me
So, if you are interested in getting something started at your school, just drop me an email at rhp@netscape.com
Projects & Alumni
Projects & Alumni
What's a school without an Alumni organization? So with that in mind, I have created the office Projects & Alumni page. This will show the outside world what we the various projects are related to mozilla.org @ school.

Now with such an honor, you may be asking what type of recognition you may receive as part of the Alumni club. Well, if I can pry some cash out of the effot, I'm hoping for T-shirts...hey...waddya' want for nuttin!  :-)