Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Ford Foundation Partners with Mozilla to Draw Young Engineers into Nonprofit Sector
Public interest groups say there aren't nearly enough tech geeks working for nonprofits and in government. New research from Mozilla and its partner, the Ford Foundation, finds that barely 10 percent of computer science students wind up working in those sectors. The vast majority — 70 percent — go to big, wealthy tech companies. While that's great for Google and Facebook, Mozilla believes building good public policy around technology means attracting more technologists directly to public service.
So the maker of the popular Firefox browser is kicking off a fellowship program designed to put young engineers in a position to affect how tech policy, particularly when it comes to managing the Internet, gets crafted in Washington. With a beginning budget of $4 million and an eye toward hiring five fellows this year, Mozilla and the Ford Foundation eventually intend to scale up the program to a total of 23 fellows over the next three years. The first fellows to be selected will spend their time at public interest groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Free Press, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, and Public Knowledge....