I am Satoko Takita, serving as Chair of Mozilla Japan.
I am known by my nickname "Chibi" in the Mozilla
I have been involved in the worldwide web for 15 years.
Since joining Netscape in 1995,
I have been working day and night on browser development and delivering a better web environment for everyone.
It is not so much that Mozilla has changed things.
Engineers involved in the internet around the world, such as browser developers and
people creating standards created unique technologies
one by one thinking carefully about what would be best for users.
People may think Mozilla has changed the world,
but I think it was the users first and foremost that changed the world.
We still have a long way to go.
Rather than trying to change the world on our own,
we need to listen to users, and enable the features and services
As users become more outspoken about what they want from the web in their daily lives,
those of us involved in Mozilla and the internet will work to achieve it.
I think that is how we will proceed from here.
We at Mozilla must not try to decide everything by ourselves,
but rather must take up the challenge to meet users' needs, keeping abreast of the rapid changes.
We need to think together what is possible by applying the internet and
web environment to people's daily lives and lifestyles.
For example, a decade ago, the worldwide web was basically a source of information.
People enjoyed the web by viewing information in those days.
Then engineers found ways to do many more things,
making the web a marvelous platform. And others started getting new ideas.
For instance, some people made good use of this environment to do business.
The web helped people connect to people and communicate better.
Since the internet is a barrier-free media without national boundaries,
it has kept growing exponentially, connecting people to people, countries to countries, and enabling new ways of doing business.
It is always evolving,
so engineers feel motivated to keep developing new features and technology.
Users have the power to change the world;
it should not be the engineers that decide the specifications.
I feel that is an important point for technological evolution.
It is interesting how people first dreamed of going to outer space,
and then started working together to create the technology to do so.
The same is true of the internet.
It all started with someone's wish.
For instance, in order to receive a file, we used to have to wait days for the floppy disk to arrive in the mail box.
But people found a way to send the file in an instant by hooking up networks intelligently.
Around 1991, when the internet had just been created, its main use was for e-mail.
I think it was the browser that really changed how we could use it.
The browser made the previously invisible internet visible.
Search technology also played a key role.
When browsers first came out, their main mission was to let people view documents.
Now people want an environment where
they can view video clips, speak with each other, watch movies,
go shopping, or control their finances from home without going to the bank.
These technologies were created because many people wanted them.
If people have a dream, for instance,
to create a world like that in Star Wars,
I am certain that engineers will bring it closer to reality in the near future.
An important key for achieving this is “openness.”
If everything were developed within the walls of some company,
progress would be slower and it would take longer to make dreams come true.
The internet has evolved into such an amazing medium and infrastructure in such a short span
because it has been developed in an open environment with dialogue between engineers and users.
I think the importance of keeping the web open is
that it allows not just a dozen people
but rather hundreds, thousands or even millions of people to think together and achieve
much bigger progress and dreams than if all the work was done in a closed environment.