Frontier Journal (FJ): You are both very good at both software development and software marketing. In Firefox project, how did you balance between your role as top developer and your role as chief marketer?

Blake Ross (BS): In most companies, the engineering and marketing organizations are completely separate and often at odds. This is not ideal, since the most effective marketing is engineering a product that's so good people *want* to tell their friends and family. By integrating development and marketing, the Firefox team remains focused on achieving this level of quality while avoiding traditional (and often unctuous) marketing campaigns. "Marketing" in the Firefox sense means little more than giving users tools to spread the word more easily and efficiently. We don't craft this "word" ourselves. In a world where the fine print invariably admits that "Angela is an actress, not a dentist," we've found nothing more powerful than genuine, unscripted recommendations between friends.

I haven't had any difficulty balancing the roles because I enjoy both the strict discipline of programming a product and the creative outlet of bringing it to the world.

FJ: Suppose Firefox was spinned off from Mozilla as a startup abandoning open source model aspiring for IPO, what would be different as you might imagine?

BS: We created Firefox to realign ourselves with users after Netscape's greed edged them out, so reintroducing money into the equation would be a disaster. The project could not succeed without the support of its thousands of volunteers who, like me, would rather have made change than money when life's curtain falls.

FJ: What are the Pros and Cons of open source business model? In the new venture Parakey, which was co-founded by Joe Hewitt and you, would you adopt open source business model or go back to traditional business model in software industry?

BS: I'm not sure what an "open source business model" is. I see open source as a development methodology. It *affects* the business model but does not in itself imply one. Parakey will be open source, but it will not make money through search deals as Firefox does, because that model simply doesn't make sense for the product.

FJ: Do you like to use buzzword Web 2.0? If yes, what is your projection on where it will head on, say three years from now?

BS: I think we'd all be better off if we spent less time on the terminology and more time on the technology, which is still lacking in my opinion.

FJ: Since the beginning of the Internet bubble, lots of ups and downs happened in our industry, do you think who are the major drivers for the technical breakthrough and business innovation, elites or grassroots, and why?

BS: There are two parties here: the people who create the products and the people who drive their adoption. The best innovators generally come from the same mold: they are bright, dedicated people with the unique ability to both understand and *empathize* with their customers. If they do their job well, the drivers in my experience are simply the customers themselves. Much is made of "influential" pundits, but a wizened technology reporter might not understand the appeal of MySpace, and a college hotshot might miss the allure of scrapbooking software. Many entrepreneurs fail because they try to please the handful of people who use software for a living at the expense of the millions who don't.

FJ: How do you value the role of software engineering education in the academia comparing to the "learn-by-doing" mentality in software industry?

BS: I think the best background is probably a hybrid of the two. Academia's strength is the well-rounded education it delivers. You can surely get by learning as you go, but you'll be a better programmer if you understand the underpinnings of your compiler and operating system, which you might not encounter in a "learn by doing" approach. On the other hand, a class assignment is never going to be as interesting as a project that keeps you up at night, and that's where "learn by doing" excels=97once you're excited about an idea, you quickly devour the knowledge you need to execute it.

If professors allowed students to design and implement their own projects, they would have the best of both worlds. Of course, they would need to address the attendant problems of grading and fairness.

FJ: Any career advice you would like to offer for our software developers?

BS: Our industry is one loud echo chamber. To build great consumer software, escape it. Talk to regular folks who don't care what web 2.0 is and just want to get things done. Don't obsess over the criticisms of self-proclaimed "influential" people, or your traffic stats, or your Google ranking, or the latest competitive startup, none of which will matter to you in a few years. I create software to make life easier for non-technical people like my family. Ask yourself why you do, then live by the answer.

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