Mozilla Festival is moving to Amsterdam

 

Last Mozfest in London

The word is out… MozfeLast is officially moving to Amsterdam.

The decision to move locations after 9 years in London wasn’t taken lightly. London opened its arms to us in 2011, and we loved its multicultural diversity and entrepreneurial spirit. But it was expensive, and harder to get visas for our guests each year.

During many conversations with the community in Amsterdam, we were consistently impressed with the alignment in values between Amsterdam and Mozilla, as well as the enthusiasm they brought to the proposal process. Amsterdam has publicly-stated principles around protecting data transparency, privacy, and internet access for citizens. And, it is home to a robust and eclectic community of creative thinkers. Our common goals for progressive, radical change in areas of AI, digital rights and literacy, with community inclusion at the fore, will make us great partners in executing a festival that will be a convening force for supporting a more open and healthy internet for all.

Lets say I had a sneaky thought this might be the case when it was first announced that Mozilla was moving the festival.

The bigger surprise is the date change….

Moving to Amsterdam is not our only news. We have also decided to wait until March of 2021 to host our next MozFest. The extra time allows us to critically assess our design to ensure that what we build is robust and accessible and it allows us to embed ourselves in Amsterdam to get to know the local open advocates and activists.

March 2021, is likely a good idea with the Cornoavirus on the rampage right now to be fair.

Mozilla have a couple of Ask Me Anything sessions planned for Wednesday 18th in their Slack group.

  • Session 1: 9am-10am GMT/5-6am ET
  • Session 2: 5:30-6:30pm GMT/1:30-2:30pm ET

Author: Ianforrester

Senior firestarter at BBC R&D, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser. Can be found at cubicgarden@mas.to, cubicgarden@twit.social and cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io