Today we would like to announce an administrative change to the Dev Derby, our monthly web development contest.

The day-to-day operations of the Derby have historically been overseen by just one Mozilla staff member. This worked for a while, but the scope of the project has made the approach less and less realistic over time–keeping the lights on can alone require more time than any one person has to offer. Meanwhile, the wider Mozilla community has been doing an incredible job extending the contest in ways none could have imagined. They have started a blossoming online community of Dev Derby participants, have run several Derby-themed workshops in Toronto (complete with expert speakers, passionate attendees, and lots of pizza), and have even taken the first steps toward running these workshops around the world.

Giving these wonderful volunteers ownership of the project just makes sense. They can do more than any one Mozilla staff member, and their creativity will undoubtedly lead to many exciting new contest improvements. As a result, we have decided to hand operations of the Dev Derby off to Kensie Connor–who has been leading many of these efforts–and others from the best community out there.

The Dev Derby will take a short break from August to October so that we can prepare for this change. The July contest will run as usual, and the winners of previous contests will be announced and rewarded just as they always have, but a new contest will not begin until November. The November contest may bring some changes to the contest format, but the mission of providing a platform that helps web developers learn, share, and push the web forward will remain the same. Of course, we welcome your feedback in the comments section as we start to think about new opportunities.

We also welcome you to leave a comment if you have any questions about this transition. We hope that this initial announcement will be the start of a longer discussion, one that will foster a bright future for this important project.