Mozilla Proposes Open Web App System - InformationWeek

Just days before Google plans to launch its Chrome Web Store to distribute Web applications, Mozilla has decided that it wants to see more Web app stores.

The open-source software organization, which just announced a new CEO, said on Tuesday that it wants to create a way to simplify the discovery, acquisition, installation, and use of Web apps while simultaneously helping developers monetize said apps.

Mozilla is not the first organization to come to the realization that software distribution needs to be rebooted. There are currently dozens of stores hoping to replicate the success of the iTunes App Store, mainly for mobile apps.

In a post on the Mozilla blog, VP of products Jay Sullivan announced the availability of technical documentation for a proposed open Web App ecosystem, which is intended to work with any modern desktop or mobile Web browser.

Such browsers include Firefox 3.6 and later, Firefox for mobile, Internet Explorer 8, Chrome 6, Safari 5, Opera 10 and WebKit mobile.

Web apps are applications that run in the user's Web browser; they may or may not require network access or local storage. The installation process is akin to making a Web bookmark, though the experience has been reimagined in a way that makes it feel more like installing a desktop application.

Mozilla isn't planning to open a Web app store of its own or to provide payment infrastructure. Rather, it wants to create the code necessary to support free and paid Web app installation by individuals and distribution by developers.

Mozilla motivation for doing this is because the vertically integrated experience pioneered by Apple in its iTunes ecosystem presents "problems such as an opaque approval processes, lack of choice for developers, platform lock-in, [and] high(er) development cost when going cross-platform," the company explains on its Web site.

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Mozilla Names New CEO - PC Magazine

Gary Kovacs is taking the reigns of The Mozilla Corporation as the new chief executive, the company announced Thursday.

"He melds the fundamentals of a good executive with a powerful understanding that Mozilla's non-profit, public benefit mission drives everything we do, including those activities which might look like 'business as usual' to a casual observer," Mozilla Foundation chair Mitchell Baker wrote on her blog. "Gary brings a deep understanding of the mobile space and rich media from his time at Macromedia/Adobe and Sybase."

Kovacs brings a wealth of experience with him to Mozilla; he's the former senior vice president of markets, solutions, and products at Sybase, and he used to be the general manager and vice president of mobile and devices at Adobe. Kovacs also served as vice president of product marketing at Micromedia, and he spent a decade working for IBM.

According to outgoing CEO John Lilly, the search has been a six-month process. Lilly announced in May that he would be resigning to join venture firm Greylock Partners. Lilly remained at Mozilla during the search process, easing the transition before Kovacs takes over on Nov. 8.

Kovacs is the right person for the job, Lilly wrote, because "he's got deep background in the battlefields that will define the future of open Web: mobile and rich media, and he's been involved in building great organizations several times over."

Mozilla's products already reach 400 million people around the world. Baker said that they hope to increase that number to half a billion.

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