I

n a 40-square-meter room on Jl. Cikini Raya in Menteng, Central Jakarta, a 35-year-old man, Yofi Setiawan, was sitting at his desk in the late afternoon one day earlier this week designing his own website template.

Meanwhile, three other persons, all female, were cleaning up the room, which has a big “Mozilla” logo made of plastic attached to one wall.

These were among the daily activities of Mozilla Community Indonesia (MCI) members in the room on the second floor of the Cik9 office building. The community, which has been active since 2011, has its own space for its members to gather, conduct courses, or just express their obsession for software production from Mozilla — a renowned free-software community in the United States.

Fully empowered by Mozilla and run by Mozilla Community Indonesia, the MCS is an interactive space provided particularly for Mozilla enthusiasts. The space is equipped with a big work bench with seats, a mini-bar with snacks and drinks, a projector and a high-speed internet connection. It is open every day from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Mozilla, established in 1998 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, is perhaps most popular for its free and open-source web browser Firefox, which is available on major operating systems like Windows, OS X and Linux. Mozilla’s notable projects also include an email program, news and chat client Thunderbird and a bug tracking system called Bugzilla.

“Even though the MCS is provided by Mozilla for its enthusiasts in Indonesia, other communities and members of the public, particularly those with the same passion for software development, could also use this space,” said Yofie, who acts as the space’s manager.

Yofie said the community often conducted free-of-charge public courses with limited seats as the MCS’s space was adequate only for up to 25 people. “At the courses, participants can learn web design, basic PHP, MySQL, basic photography and other kinds of software developments. Within a month we can organize approximately 30 events and courses here,” he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Yofi said that the room could also be used by the public for various purposes, such as discussions and meetings, as long as they made a booking two weeks prior to the scheduled event.

The MCS’ event manager, Iriyani “Rara” Queencyputri, said that with the MCS, the community no longer had to move from one place to another to meet up and do other activities. “Before the operation of the MCS, we had to gather or hold courses at various places, such as coffee shops and universities,” Rara said, adding that the MCS was also visited by Mozilla enthusiasts from outside Jakarta.

MCI members, like their fellows in other countries, can also develop Mozilla-based products at the MCS.

Besides the MCS in Jakarta, Mozilla community spaces have also been established in three other Asian cities — in Taipei, Taiwan, in Manila, the Philippines, and in Bangalore, India.

Yofie commented, however, that the Bangalore community had terminated its operation because of several internal problems.

Throughout the world, Mozilla has more than 40,000 community members in different countries, including England, Canada and Japan. (adt)