Mozilla: An Ethical Career

A couple of months ago, I was asked to write a 250-word summary of my job for a booklet on Ethical Careers to accompany an Oxford University Ethical Careers Day. This is what I wrote:

An ethical career is one which enables you to love God and love your neighbour. The range of careers available which meet those criteria is very wide.

My chosen career is one example. The Internet is one of the greatest drivers of human prosperity and happiness the world has ever seen. The ability to communicate easily across long distances, for business or pleasure, has enabled unimagined trade, friendship and connection. It has empowered many people. However, the free Internet as we know it is under threat – from governments, businesses and organizations who want to control or restrict what information passes. And when control and restriction increases, for whatever reason, opportunity and innovation suffer collateral damage.

That’s why my ethical career choice is to work for Mozilla, an organization which aims to preserve and protect the open Internet as a level playing field where everyone can communicate, contribute and take full part – without having to pay gatekeepers, have a relationship with particular companies, or give up their privacy or security. We are most famous for building Firefox, a web browser which embodies these principles, but we are also moving to counter other threats to openness and consumer choice in the areas of apps, online identity and mobile operating systems. I aim to “love my neighbour” by making sure that the Internet of the present and future (when billions of people not yet online join us there) gives as much opportunity for prosperity as it has in the past.

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  1. Pingback: Aim for the high ground, not the high horse. | dougbelshaw.com/blog

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