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