(Cross posted from my personal blog).

I’m happy to announce the launch of Mozilla’s Mark Up, a 3D collaborative art project for the open Web. Get involved and make your “mark” for the world’s largest resource.

We Believe
Mark Up is a site created for you to make a “mark” and stand in support of these values for the open Web.

The Web belongs to us all. We all contribute to it every day, from maintaining our personal blogs to sending emails and watching videos, everything we do online contributes to the Web’s ecosystem. No one organization or company should control the choices you make, the content you create or the technology you build. These strong beliefs, along with the original Mozilla Manifesto, helped us to write the following “We Believe” statement and the core of the Mark Up site.

Make your “Mark”
You can use your mouse or track-pad to input your “mark” for the Web. What that “mark” is, however, is completely up to you. For example, you may decide to submit a doodle. Others may write a sentence of support. Others may sign their name, and others still may try and create something intricate. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what kind of mark is made—what matters is that you actively choose to make one.

Watch the following screencast to see the full site experience.

Once you’ve submitted your mark, you’ll see it replay, along with a randomly generated unique URL. You can then use that URL to share it with your friends, giving them a direct link to your mark. You are also able to browse everyone else’s marks with your mouse or arrow keys, browsing an ever-extending 3D line of solidarity.

Project Background
The original idea came from Evan Roth, co-founder of the Graffiti Research Lab, co- creator of Graffiti Markup Language, open source advocate and popular graffiti artist. Evan worked closely with Mozilla and The Barbarian Group to conceptualize and finesse the idea through several rounds of creative and development.

Technology
Mark Up uses open-source technology like Graffiti Markup Language (GML), Canvas and JavaScript, and is accessible with Chrome, IE9 and Firefox 4. The use of GML was particularly key in the project because GML stores movement information on the X, Y and Z axes, recording details about individual strokes, varying pressure and speed. This allows for rich expressions that can be replayed in the exact time it took to make the mark. Most importantly, all the code and GML data used on the site is available for everyone to access and improve on Github.We’re excited to see what kinds of projects Mark Up inspires you to create!

Thanks
I want to thank the countless people who will contribute something to our collaborative art project for the open Web, and for all those who helped make this site and project a reality. Make your mark, take a stand, and help spread the message about the importance of the open Web.