Mozilla Service Week 09

Many of you may already be aware, this week is Mozilla Service Week. It is an opportunity for the community to use their internet skills to assist members of their own community who may not be as tech-savvy.

My commitment was assisting with an event that Lukas Blakk organized called “Ask a Geek”. In a nutshell, it was an opportunity for people to come to the Parkdale Library in Toronto and ask us any questions they had about the Internet and technology. It was an opportunity for education and enlightenment.

We were there for four hours on Monday. In that time, we were only visited by three people. However, these three people were extremely eager to learn and had many questions. All three of them started off by saying “I have so many questions; I’m trying to remember what one to ask”. In each case, there was a cascade effect. Each question asked brought up several more questions. The questions ranged from blogging to watching video online to netbooks to website suggestions. We chatted with these people for almost an hour each.

I found this to be a bi-directional learning experience. It made me happy to teach people by answering their questions. I was equally happy to learn something from this experience. What did I learn? Well, I learned that people like me, so called “experts”, are a minority. The majority of people have a minimal set of knowledge about the internet but they are eager to learn more. All they need is someone to reach out a hand. The internet is a vast landscape which can be quite intimidating. A reached out hand tears down this barrier and relieves the intimidation.

I think everyone walked away from this with a greater set of knowledge than when they entered – armed with enough information to research answers to other questions. My only regret is that we were only able to provide this service for four short hours. It made me feel sad to tell people it was a one time session when asked “Are you going to be back tomorrow?”.

This whole experience has made me evaluate how I contribute to the Mozilla project. It has made me realize that contributing to MY community can be just as important as contributing to the Mozilla community. I can take what I have learned from the Mozilla community and use it to benefit my community. I think it would be great if the Mozilla Service Week concept could be extended to a weekly activity and not an annual event.

All in all, it was a great experience. I hope to do something similar in the future.

Thanks a lot to Mary Colvig and Co. for organizing Mozilla Service Week. Thanks a lot to Lukas Blakk for organizing the Parkdale Ask a Geek session.

Let’s do it again sometime!