Wrangler Guidebook

Wranglers: The Architects Behind Mozilla Festival

At the heart of Mozilla Festival are the Wranglers: People challenging and advancing the future of technology and the internet.

These educators, activists, engineers, artists, and researchers bring the festival to life, exploring the most urgent and important issues, from reimagining the very fabric of the internet to rethinking the role of AI in our world. Wranglers push the boundaries with their fresh perspectives, making sure Mozilla Festival is a space where real change happens.

Federated Design: How Mozilla Festival Works

Federated Design has always been at the heart of Mozilla Festival. We value the collective input of every Wrangler, each of whom helps guide the direction and design of the festival.

Wranglers create the framework that Facilitators (session hosts) use to turn ideas into hands-on experiences. We believe in the importance of collaboration, where each perspective contributes to a shared vision and drives the Festival’s impact.

What Wranglers Do

Wranglers help shape Mozilla Festival's direction, from the themes to the experience. They:

• Define festival themes and connect them to global conversations
• Curate sessions and design spaces for connection and conversation
• Bridge the gap between big ideas and hands-on experiences
• Work with Facilitators—our session hosts and the faces of Mozilla Festival—to bring the Festival to life

Their impact extends beyond the event. Wranglers spark collaborations and ideas that ripple outward, influencing policy, advocacy, and innovation in ethical and open-source AI and our own corners and communities of the internet. If Mozilla Festival sparks change, Wranglers lit the match.

Why Become a Wrangler?

Being a Wrangler is about leading a movement. It’s a chance to:

• Shape the future of the open web and AI ethics
• Drive Mozilla Festival’s program and elevate the issues that matter to you
• Collaborate with global thinkers, builders, and activists
• Develop leadership skills and gain mentorship opportunities
• Expand your network and gain visibility in Mozilla events
• Earn recognition with a letter of completion and professional references

If you love big ideas and making things happen, this opportunity is for you.

What to Expect as a Mozilla Festival 2025 Wrangler

Firstly, thank you for being open to joining us this year as a Mozilla Festival 2025 Wrangler! The journey will be both exciting and rewarding. While there’s a lot of fun planned, the role also requires dedication. Here’s a breakdown of what we expect from you and what you’ll get in return.

Your Role as a Wrangler:

• Weekly time commitment of 2-3 hours: This includes attending a regular cohort call, working with other Wranglers to refine event narratives, meetings with the Mozilla Festival team, and reaching out to potential speakers and partners. Curation time commitment is on top of the weekly time commitment (see below).
• Attending regular cohort calls. Attendance of our regular Wrangler cohort meetings is crucial. This is our primary space for collaboration, where we share updates, deliver training, and more.
• Attending other calls connected to the program. Depending on what phase of the program we’re in, you may need to organise smaller meetings with other wranglers on the cohort, with potential session facilitators, Mozilla Festival staff, and other stakeholders for emerging/ad hoc conversations and issues.
• Narrative development and speaker outreach: Collaboration with the Wrangler cohort and Mozilla Festival team to refine event narratives, sharing the call for proposals on your social channels and within your networks to reach out to potential speakers, artists, etc.
• Session curation: Dedicate an additional 4-6 hours during the curation stage of the program to curating sessions submitted through the call for proposals. This includes using our PreTalx platform to review, score, and align sessions with event themes, accepting those that fit and rejecting those that don’t.
• Promoting Mozilla Festival: Promoting tickets for the event far and wide – on social media, within your networks, and more.
• Attending Mozilla Festival in Barcelona, Spain from November 7-9, 2025!

Support from the Mozilla Festival Team:

• Travel support: We’ll cover your flights, accommodation, a per diem, and anything else to enable your travel to Mozilla Festival.
• An honorarium: We recognise that Wrangling for Mozilla Festival is a significant commitment. We offer community Wranglers (i.e. non-Mozilla staff) an honorarium of 2000 USD to appreciate the time and effort you put into Wrangling, and as a token of our gratitude.
• A temporary Mozilla Festival email address: You’ll receive a temporary Mozilla Festival email address that will provide you access permissions to our Wrangler Shared Drive and our event platforms.
• Multiple resources: We’ll share a Google Drive for storing and sharing documentation, along with a collection of useful collaboration resources, notes from the weekly Wrangler meetings, an archive of recorded calls, help sessions, trainings, peer shares, and more.

Updates and continued support: A regular email sent from us with all the important reminders, deadlines, key tasks and opportunities for further support or involvement, as well as ongoing support from the Mozilla Festival team

Social Contract for Wranglers

We are here to co-dream and co-create the future of Internet Health and Trustworthy AI. At the heart of this programme is building strong, meaningful e connections with our communityBelow are our shared values that guide our collaboration during the Wrangler programme.

Authenticity

A big part of this space is the freedom and empowerment to show up authentically. As a team, we have a collective responsibility to continue to foster this environment for ourselves and others. We encourage you to be true to yourself. Your unique experiences and perspectives make MozFest richer.

Collaboration

Collaboration and co-creation are at the heart of the Wrangler program. Your ideas, skills, and enthusiasm fuel our collective work. Diverse experiences, perspectives, and energies converge to shape our shared vision for the journey ahead. Through collaboration and harmonious co-creation, we harness this diversity to fuel growth and innovation.

Connections

Connect with people. An incredible takeaway from MozFest is that people leave with connections and expansions of thought. Don’t hesitate to reach out, share, and build with other members of the MozFest community.

Participation

Our core design principles are action and participation. As a member of the Wrangler Program, it is important that you honor this role, engage fully, share your expertise, and take accountability for your role in bringing the Festival to life.

Thank you for choosing to join us as an integral part of this journey with us. The path ahead is not just about what we’ll achieve together but the connections we’ll forge, the knowledge we’ll share, and the future we’ll shape for the internet and beyond

Tech and Platforms

You'll be using a range of platforms while Wrangling MozFest, and we've put together guides to help get you up to speed. This list will continue to evolve as documents and guides are developed.