The first week of November sees Mozilla coming to Tech City for the annual Mozilla Festival, a ‘three-ring circus of design, collaboration, and hacking the future of media’. We spoke to the Mozilla Foundation’s Executive Director, Mark Surman, to learn more about what to expect from the Festival, and why they’re bringing it to Tech City…

Tech City: Tell us a little bit about the Mozilla Festival.

Mark Surman: The Mozilla Festival is a magnet for people interested in learning about – and playing with – the future of the web. Mozilla’s grown over the past 15 years into an organisation that plugs directly into what the web can and will become. We see the Festival as an opportunity to draw as many interested people as possible into the conversation about what tech can do.

And it’s not just about tech. It’s about anyone and everyone interested in the possibilities the web has to offer, coming together and sharing their skills and expertise. We’re working with multiple partners, including media such as the Guardian and BBC, to bring this to a wide audience and hopefully make some special things happen along the way.

TC: What was the thinking behind holding this year’s Festival in London?

MS: Quite simply, because there’s much more going on in London than anywhere else. It sounds trite, but it’s true. London’s an increasingly important place for us, and the tech industry as a whole. We’re planning to significantly expand our presence there in the next few months. London is a hub of creativity and we’ve really noticed the sense of a new centre of innovation being created around Tech City. There’s so much talent and so many ideas, combined with a real sense of energy and momentum.

TC: So what can we look forward to from the Festival?

MS: Loads! This year’s theme is Media, Freedom and the Web. How can the web make us more creative, collaborative and connected in an age of broadcasters big and small? I’m really looking forward to the session we’re running all about ‘Making as Learning’ – it’s going to be a fascinating look at the manner in which we learn, and how creating things is key to that process. This is at the heart of a number of the debates going on around tech skills and education – not just in the UK but worldwide. We want to encourage educators to embrace the tinkering and bring together disparate groups from the wider creative and tech industries: film, gaming, web development, the news media, and young people to show how this can be practically applied.

There are also all the design challenges that will be taking place: hands-on hacklabs where we’ll be letting people take apart and remake some very cutting edge code. We’re particularly excited about the one we’re doing with the HTML5 version of the Boston Globe. We’re going to be running another 12 design challenges in addition to that, hacking mobile apps, games, and more, and really touching on some things that are at the absolute vanguard of coding. It’s no exaggeration to say that people will be able to get their hands on the future of code at these events.

The final thing to highlight is the London Hive Pop-up that we’ll be running on 4th/5th November. Hive is a network that began in New York, with over 30 community institutions including MOMA and the New York Public Library working together to deliver tech skills, teaching and training. It’s a model that builds on existing skills infrastructure and creates an informal network around it, rather than building something entirely new. It’s huge in New York, and is absolutely the fastest-growing tech learning experiment we’ve seen in years. We’re going to run a pop-up version over two days in London, in conjunction with people such as Young Rewired State and Apps for Good, to show what the scheme might look like over here. Eventually we’d love to see it fully established in London and beyond, as we see it having huge potential.

Catch the Mozilla Festival from 4-6 November – you can find out more information on the Festival website. If you’d like to read more of Mark’s thoughts on the Festival, you can check out his blog here.