Cloud Services/Developer Services
Contents
What is Developer Services?
Developer Services is an effort to provide services to web developers that support Firefox product experiences, support the Mozilla mission, are uniquely Mozillian in nature (and unlikely to be offered by others); the goal is to support developers' ability to create a better Internet, not just a better Internet for Firefox users. To have web developers who are writing the best code for the web -- code that's secure, compatible, and accessible. And it means pushing our knowledge and influence to people where they're developing, instead of waiting for them to seek it out.
What does this mean in practice? It means we're focusing on Cloud-based services, which may be integrated with Firefox (Dev Tools or otherwise) where it makes sense on a per-service basis.
In the future, some or all of these services may be offered under a freemium model.
Why?
Developer services fall into five basic categories:
- Browser Parity (meet expectations of a modern browser)
- Tools that make our browser better, asymmetrically/orthogonally to our competitors
- Improve the ecosystem of web development in general
- Influence how web apps are built
- Things that only Mozilla can do or that only Mozilla cares about
For any service, the value proposition is this:
- Solves the user's problem
- Catches common issues in new code and running web sites.
- Easy to start using
- Fits into existing workflow; little or no time to learn; no additional test code to write
- Mission-driven pricing
- (If pricing is necessary.)
- Backed by Mozilla
- ...and open source.
What are the Developer Services?
Based on these ideas and MDN survey data, the following services are being prototyped:
- a dashboard for developers working with Push
- a compatibility scanner
- a security scanner
Other developer services may also be provided in the future, such as:
- an accessibility scanner
- a geolocation service
- a device database API
Where can I find more information?
- on IRC at #mds
- email list: mds-public@mozilla.com
- meeting notes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14hnnZdTXa0wYO2n6j92cQ81SAbSrTIcNuPwL6tivj8c
