Friday’s Add-on-Con was a fitting finale to a very exciting week for browser add-ons. I said it last year and it was true again: I had a great time meeting so many people who care about add-ons and want to be involved in making them better for everyone.
My thanks goes to the organizers, especially Robert Reich and Fraser Kelton, for all of their work to make the conference happen. I think both sessions I was involved in (the marketplace keynote and Firefox Add-ons session) went well, as “reluctant” as some may feel I was.
It was exciting to see the increase in Google’s involvement this year with the beta launch of Chrome extensions last week. The conference was certainly more lively than I remember last year’s, where Mozilla had the only booth.
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This Friday is Add-on-Con 2009, in its second year as the only conference dedicated to browser add-ons. It takes place at the Computer History Museum again in Mountain View, California, so I’m hoping the turnout is as good or better than last year. I was very excited when I first learned that Add-on-Con would happen again this year, as I had such a great time at last year’s event, despite having 0 hours of sleep the night before.
Mozilla will be participating heavily in the event again this year as a platinum sponsor and speaking at quite a few sessions:
If you’ll be in the Bay Area this week and are interested in add-ons, be sure to register for Add-on-Con before it’s too late! Even if you’re not going to Add-on-Con, don’t forget that we have an add-ons meetup at Mozilla HQ on Thursday night.
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone for great add-on events on Thursday and Friday!
Yesterday, despite the best efforts of a snowstorm in the South, I made it to the first ever Add-on-Con hosted at the Computer History Museum about a minute or two away from Mozilla’s office. The event exceeded my expectations and was a great experience.
It was a weird, great feeling being around so many people that spend their time working on add-ons and care about them as much as I do. Some of my thoughts about the sessions:
- In the opening keynote panel on add-on business models, it was great to hear that our compatibility outreach with Firefox is helping developers and that being featured on AMO has such a positive impact on extensions.
- Brian King gave a great talk on the state of the Mozilla Add-ons universe, covering the history of extensions in Mozilla, AMO, Mozdev, and a number of other topics.
- I was unexpectedly part of the Add-on Distribution Strategies session panel, along with Rey Bango (Mozilla), Pat Buckley (WebMynd), and Alec Jeong (Cooliris). It was interesting to hear and talk about the journeys add-ons go through for better distribution and exposure, and reminded me how important metrics and statistics are to making those decisions. I have some follow-up notes on this and will be blogging about this more in the future.
- The closing keynote was a browser vendor panel of Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google. I was very glad that the questions were all add-on related rather than a generic browser panel seen at other conferences.
One of the things that struck me about yesterday was that “AMO” was mentioned in every talk I went to without ever being defined. I usually always define it the first time I use it, but everyone at the conference seemed to know what AMO is, which was a very strange feeling.
Overall, the conference was a really great thing for both business folks and technical folks, and people on the add-on development side as well as people on the browser vendor / distribution channel side, especially for being its first year. I can’t wait until next year.
I’ll be in Mountain View next week to attend Add-on-Con, a conference all about add-ons with Mozilla, Microsoft, Google, and of course add-on developers. It will be a great chance to talk with developers firsthand and take in some interesting sessions.
From Mozilla, Mark Finkle will be giving a presentation on leveraging third party APIs to create mashups with add-ons. Having Mark in attendance is great for both myself and add-on developers: I get to send all technical questions to Mark, and add-on developers don’t get incorrect technical answers from me! It’s a win-win.
Mike Shaver will be taking part in a panel on the future of the web browser, along with representatives from Microsoft and Google to wrap up the sessions. As former Director of Ecosystem Development (loosely translated: “add-ons”), Mike has a long history of working with add-on developers and improving extension support in Firefox. Plus, he’s kinda funny.
On the business track, Brian King will be exploring the state of the Mozilla Add-ons universe. You can read more details in Rey Bango’s post on the Add-ons blog.
Additionally, Mozilla will be hosting an add-ons open house the night before, so if you’re interested, you can find the details on the wiki. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the open house as my flight gets in later.
I’m also very happy to announce that I’ve accepted a full-time position with Mozilla after graduation in a few weeks, and will be moving to the San Francisco Bay Area very soon. It’s been a great 2-3 years being immersed in add-ons at Mozilla and I’m very excited for what’s coming in 2009.
