Asa Dotzler

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Asa Dotzler
Asa Dotzler in 2005
Born	(1974-06-05) June 5, 1974 (age 37) Summertown, Tennessee, United States
Occupation	Product Director for the Firefox desktop browser, Mozilla Corp.
Spouse	Deanna L. Pierce
Website
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/

Asa Dotzler ( /ˈeɪsə ˈdɒtslər/; born June 5, 1974) is an American software developer best known for his work in development of the Firefox browser through its evolution from his volunteer work when Netscape released Mozilla as open source code and employment as community coordinator for several Mozilla projects to director of Mozilla's Firefox desktop. He was founder of Mozilla's Quality Assurance (QA) and Testing Program, which grew under his leadership from just a few contributors when Dotzler joined the project to tens of thousands of volunteers today.

Dotzler is also co-founder of the Spread Firefox project with Blake Ross, launched in October 2004, where he spearheaded Mozilla's open source marketing program. Spread Firefox is charged with empowering Firefox community members to raise awareness of the popular web browser. Today, he works with Mozilla's Technology Evangelism team, helping people understand, build, and benefit from the Open Web.

Dotzler has been an active member of the Mozilla community since 1998. After volunteering for more than a year, Dotzler joined "staff@mozilla.org", the leadership team for the Mozilla organization, and has played a key role in delivering products including the release of Mozilla 1.0 and the release of the Mozilla Firefox web browser and Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client. He has spoken about Firefox and Mozilla's mission around the world in cities including Tokyo, Moscow, Seoul, Beijing, São Paulo, Rio de Janiero, Buenos Aires, Monterrey, San Diego, Seattle, and Portland (OR).

Dotzler is known in his community for tracking the 2009 Lockheed Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains^[1].

Mozilla work

Dotzler is currently an employee of the Mozilla Corporation, producers of the Firefox Web browser. Before moving to the Corporation, Dotzler was one of the original employees at the non-profit Mozilla Foundation^{[citation needed]}. Dotzler's first paying job on the cross-platform Mozilla web browser was in Mountain View, California as an employee of Netscape Communications Corporation. He was hired by Netscape in May 2000 to work with the "staff@mozilla.org" team. When AOL shut down the Netscape browser unit in July 2003, Dotzler was an original member of the team to start up the Mozilla Foundation. Before joining Netscape, Dotzler worked on Mozilla as a volunteer for over a year while living in Austin, Texas. Dotzler moved to Austin in 1997 after meeting his spouse, Deanna Pierce.

Blog

Dotzler maintains an active weblog with an emphasis on Mozilla development and news, and also at times cover topics of personal or academic interest.

Quotes about Dotzler

• "Finally, Mozilla had a product that could compete with Microsoft. The question now was how to publicize it. Open-source management seemed to work well when it came to developing software. But open-source marketing was an unexplored concept. Would people be willing to volunteer to get the word out on Firefox? Baker thought they might, and one reason was Asa Dotzler."

Inc. Magazine February 2007; "Mitchell Baker and the Firefox Paradox"

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Asa Dotzler

Official sites

• Asa Dotzler's Blog — Asa Dotzler's personal weblog
• Deanna Pierce & Asa Dotzler — Asa and his wife Deanna's website

News and media

• LQ Radio Interview — Interview with Dotzler on LinuxQuestions Radio (July 27, 2005)
• Behind the scenes at Mozilla HQ — A glimpse of the Mozilla Foundation office including Dotzler from ZDNet UK (July 19, 2005).
• Firefox: The alternative history — Interview with Dotzler from ZDNet UK (July 19, 2005).
• Firefox: Doing it for love — Another interview with Dotzler from ZDNet UK (July 19, 2005).
• Mozilla: IE 7 to boost Firefox growth — from CNet (July 18, 2005)
• Why Linux isn't ready for desktops — Commentary by Dotzler from ZDNet Australia (July 18, 2005).
• Job Morph: Herding Cats — Fast Company magazine article on Dotzler (March, 2007).
• 25 Years of PC Magazine: Year Twenty 2001, Innovators: Asa Dotzler — PC Magazine article on Dotzler (September, 2007)
• Firefox Turns 500 Million — Interview with Dotzler on NPR (February 25, 2008).
• Mozilla's Asa Dotzler on Firefox, Fighting Bloat and the Problem with Democracy — Interview with Dotzler on WIRED Blogs (March 27, 2008).
• Mozilla at 10: A Photo Tour of the Lizard’s Lair — Dotzler in WIRED Gallery celebrating 10th anniversary of the birth of the Mozilla project (March 29, 2008).

References