Web development documentation collaboration among browsers project

Mozilla heads the development documentation collaboration project across browsers. The collaboration streamlines the work of a web development company.

Mozilla is a free-software community built in 1998 by Netscape members. The community utilizes, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products, thus exclusively promoting free software as well as open standards. Mozilla is a lot of things, defined best as a non-profit, global organization that’s dedicated to advancing innovation and opportunity on the web. However, it’s also known as a browser vendor and browser vendors often are perceived by the ad tech community as just inconveniences. The browser stays an unknowable force that works by its own rules that the entire industry has learned to adapt in time.

MOZILLA TEAM UP

The plan of Mozilla is to grow collaboration with the major industry leaders. It aims to consolidate information regarding web development for other browsers and not just Firefox. Mozilla teams up with Google, Microsoft, and W3C, Samsung as well as other technology industry leaders as part of a joint effort of making web hosting and design a bit easier, through bringing documentation for numerous browsers to their MDN Web Docs educational platform. The project would be led by the newly formed Product Advisory Board for MDN, which would handle relations between the organizations involved, keep up-to-date documentation, keeping MDN browser-agnostic and keeping web developers aware of platform and documents updates. Besides the representatives from the participating companies, the group has put on a call to active community members who want to serve on the board.

As part of the project, Microsoft already has redirected more than 7,700 pages of MSD documentation library to corresponding pages on the MDN Web Docs of Mozilla. Website development providers at Microsoft had taken primary steps earlier by giving more than 5,000 community edits to MDN Web Doc’s information on their Edge browser. The developers of a web design company need not chase down API documentation across standards bodies, third parties and browser vendors. There must be one, canonical source that’s community-maintained as well as supported by all key vendors.

Mozilla stated that at present, MDN sees more than six million unique visitors monthly, has seen a major 40 percent growth every year and has witnessed 76,203 edits from 8,021 users from the beginning of this year until the announcement. MDN supports directly the overarching mission of Mozilla. The company strives to make certain that the internet is a global public resource that’s accessible and open to all.

WHY THE NEED FOR COLLABORATION?

Simply, Mozilla is doing this to make web development a bit easier. More than six million web designers and developers currently visit the MDN Web Docs every month. Furthermore, readership is rising at an amazing rate of 40 percent, year after year. Popular content includes tutorials and article on CSS, JavaScript and HTML, as well as comprehensive, detailed documentation of new techs such as Web APIs. The core of MDN’s success are community contributions. Hundreds of thousands of voluntee5rs helped build as well as refine MDN in the past twelve years. This year alone, 8,021 users made 76,203 edits, greatly boosting content quality and scope. Cross-browser documentation contributions include input from Google and Microsoft writers. Writers of Microsoft have made over 5,000 edits so far this year. The cross-browser collaboration adds valuable content on compatibility of browser and new web platform features. Moving forward, Microsoft writers focus their Web API documentation efforts on MDN and would redirect critical pages from the Microsoft Developer Network towards MDN.

A WIDER FOCUS

These days, the new Product Advisory Board for MDN is making a more formal manner of absorbing all that is going on across standards groups and browsers. Initial board members include the representatives from Microsoft, Samsung, Google and W3C, with more prospective members in the future. By reinforcing relationships with experts across the industry, the Product Advisory Board ascertains MDN documentation would stay relevant, is browser-agnostic and would help developers keep up with the most relevant aspects of the web platform.

THE MOZILLA VISION

The vision of Mozilla for the MDN Product Advisory Board is to create collaboration, which helps the MDN community and maintain the MDN collectively as the most complete, comprehensive and trusted reference documenting the most important aspects of modern web standards and browsers. The board’s charter is providing feedback and advice on MDN content strategy, platform/site features and strategic direction. Mozilla remains committed to MDN as a reference that’s open source for web developers. Furthermore, its team of technical writers would continue working on MDN and collaboration with corporate contributors and volunteers. Google is committed to creating a better web for users and developers alike. It stated its excitement to work and collaborate with Microsoft, Mozilla and Samsung to guide MDN into becoming the best source of extensive, updated documentation for web developers.

The interest of Mozilla in the web economy is fundamental. The web is free to implement, to publish on and is a cross platform that offers opportunities for many. There is no other medium that shares these properties. The web is considered as the biggest tool for sharing and collaborating knowledge. This is the reason why Mozilla invests in the development of open standards, fighting censorship and advancing the web on mobile devices. Mozilla was a key contributor to the DNT mechanism, hoping that it would provide the ad industry a way of understanding and honoring the choice of the consumer.

At a glance, what the giant internet organizations are doing all points to a specific direction. The Siri of Apple, the Now of Google and the Echo of Amazon point to a future wherein direct response advertising would be more contextual and more directed by the control of the user. A future that’s described by some as ‘intent chasing’, wherein the user is in control of the demand signal that they generate. Mozilla’s project is at its best when creating products that embody values and could bring partners into the community. Advertising and monetization on the web should evolve to respect a user.

Ritesh Mehta is the Sales Director at TatvaSoft Australia, a Software & mobile app development company. For Over 15 years, he has been professionally active in financial management, software development.