Most people are familiar with Mozilla because they use the organization’s popular free browser, Firefox. However, fewer actually know much about Mozilla as an entity and organization.

Mozilla is a non profit with a mission to “promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the web.” In an effort to get the word out about this mission and connect with its user base, the end of last week it launched a campaign called Mozilla Mark Up. This campaign puts forth that we are all “authors of the web,” and encourages you to “leave your mark” by casting a digital signature and enjoying the interactive experience that follows.

Mozilla partnered with integrated brand agency The Barbarian Group, which has an office right here in Boston, to create an online experience around this call to action. The campaign puts forth that we are all authors of the web, asking you to “make your mark” in support of keeping it open and free in the future. The experience allows you to cast your signature, or Mark, and then enjoy a 3D visualization of that mark connected with other contributed Marks.

Here are a few interesting notes about the initiative:

• #1 priority was making it accessible to anyone (meant they couldn’t use WebGL to create a 3D experience, and instead used a workaround)
• Used HTML5 to create the visualization
• User-submitted Marks are continuous and in 3D
• Built the ability for gurus/high visibility contributors to also include a quote with their Mark
• Evan Roth, a world renowned designer and culture researcher, and Lawrence Lessig, director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard alongside sitting on the Boards of prominent organizations like Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

This main Mark experience is wrapped with other things Mozilla, such as organization info, the ability to download the Mozilla browser, and a really neat section called Web O’ Wonder that allows you to “explore the amazing creations of the web!”

What decree are you actually signing by taking part in this interactive signing? Here is the official language:

By making a Mark you are indicating that you also believe that…

The Web is an integral part of modern life.
It is an educator, a communicator, an entertainer, an inspirer, a collaboration of all our creative efforts.
It sparks movements and enables us to share our ideas, our thoughts, our dreams.

The Web is our creation.
We are all contributors, the ones who use the Web every day.
And all the comments and uploads we make add up to something bigger.
This is why we believe that the Web must remain open and accessible to all.

Mark Up is a celebration of that freedom.
Each person’s mark is an individual expression on a continuous line symbolizing solidarity.
It is a declaration and a chance to show your support for a people’s Web.

And here is what The Barbarian Group has to say about the initiative:

“Much like Mozilla, we believe that the Web is the greatest tool available to us. It connects and empowers us, and allows for the open sharing of ideas. Mozilla Mark Up is about celebrating this resource and making a statement that an open Web is an essential part of our future. … Collaborating with talented artist Evan Roth (yet another reason for us to get excited about this project), Mark Up was born – at once both a beautifully visualized metaphor of everyone’s contributions to the Web and a call for support to keep it open and collaborative.”

We encourage you to check out this cool initiative, and leave your mark!