MrPowerShell

MozillaFellowshipApplication2026

Why this focus area? What unique perspective or approach do you bring to this challenge? (400 characters)

Making open infrastructure easier for everyone has been my life's work for decades.

I helped build PowerShell and bring the ethos of easy to millions.

I have been developing since before the dawn of the internet.

I am bringing back old learning tools like Turtle and moderinizing them.

I hope to carry the torch of knowledge forward to the next generation, and make webdev simple, easy, and fun.

Fellowship Motivation: Mozilla Fellows are the kind of leaders a better technology future demands. How do you hope the Fellowship will advance your evolution as a tech leader? What do you hope to gain from this experience? (800 characters)

I love helping people learn and grow. I love building tools for everyone.

If I could, I would devote every day to altruism.

The Mozilla Fellowship would be life-changing!

It would give me the financial security to devote a full year to public good.

It would provide a platform to share this good with the world.

It would also introduce me to a new cohort of colleagues and allies (hopefully also driven by altruism)

My greatest hope is that it would effectuate a shift in my career towards altruism.

I prefer to use my talents to help people learn and grow, rather than help companies improve the bottom line.

Cohort Contribution: What would you bring to a global cohort of technology leaders working toward better futures? How would you contribute to your fellow Fellows' growth and success? (500 characters)

I would bring decades of development experience and historical understanding of the tech industry into the future.

I have a deep understanding of operating systems, web standards, language design, software engineering, logic, and mathematics.

I am always eager to help people learn, grow, and succeed.

I hope to share as much understanding as I can with my fellow Fellows and the rest of the world.

Most Relevant Professional Experience: highlight 2-3 examples of your work that best demonstrate you're ready for this Fellowship. Focus on projects where you had significant impact or leadership responsibility. (1,200 characters)

I believe the vast majority of my career demonstrates my readiness, and picking a few projects gives only a small slice of the story.

During the past 5 years alone I have released over 40 projects and made more than 10000 contributions to open source projects.

I am a pretty prolific programmer: I normally produce upwards of 1mb of new scripts a year.

I am lucky to have extraordinary impact in my career.

I am most proud of my work on PowerShell (2006-2010 at Microsoft, 2010-Present as a consultant).

I helped make the language easy to use, and was responsible for sheparding adoption by partner teams.

I also evangelized the language, provided public guidance, and have brought the language to sector after sector ever since.

Most notably, I created the first client UI libraries in PowerShell, and have been doing web dev with PowerShell since 2011.

Most recently (and pertinently), I rebuilt Turtle within PowerShell last year, and released the alpha of Reptile earlier this year.

This means that unlike many potential projects the Fellowship may be considering, I already have functioning public Minimum Viable Products.

See: https://psturtle.com/

Technical Expertise: what technical skills and experiences do you have that best equip you to carry out your proposed Fellowship project? (400 characters)

I have deep experience in language development, web development, framework development, and infrastructure as code.

I know from a lifetime of experience that I can build anything.

I have been a webdev since the dawn of the Internet and know web standards well.

I know the past and present of computing well, and hope to bring that knowledge into the future.

Public Engagement & Communication: please describe your experience sharing your work with broader audiences (e.g., writing, speaking, teaching). How do you make complex technical concepts accessible to diverse audiences? You can include links. (600 characters)

I have been evangelizing technology nearly as long as I have been creating it.

I have extensive experience in public speaking. I have spoken at roughly 2-3 conferences/year for the past 16 years.

I run user groups and enjoy platforming new speakers.

I build content creation tooling, and creating more content all the time.

I am always looking for new ways to help people learn and grow, and enjoy tailoring the message to each audience and individual.

Project Title (100 characters)

Turtle & Reptile

Project Summary: clearly outline the project you wish to undertake as part of your Mozilla Fellowship. What will you build or create? What challenge does it address? (1,000 characters)

Last year I rebuilt Turtle into a web friendly language.

Earlier this year, I released an alpha of Reptile, a framework for making safe interactive REPLs.

I intent to make Turtle & Reptile even easier to use and understand.

I intend to produce Educational REPLs for different age groups (Pre-K-12), so that they can learn math, science, computing, and web development.

This addressees the perpetual problem of learning to program, by making it more easy and accessible.

This also aims to address systemic inequality in technology, by letting anyone learn creatively at their own pace, free of social pressures.

Last but not least, this hopes to address the difficulty curve of web development by making it easier for everyone.

Vision Alignment: how does your proposed project advance Mozilla Foundations's vision of technology that is "built with care, powered by people, fueled by imagination"? (600 characters)

I first encountered the wonders of computing as a child by playing with Turtle on the Apple II.

It was my and many others' first introduction to programming and graphics, and it made it easy and fun.

Development has gotten quite a bit more complicated over the years.

As I've told many mentees wanting to learn: There is no "shallow end" of the pool anymore.

I will help bring things back to their roots and make web development easy enough a child can wade in and begin to learn how to swim.

Community-Centered Approach: who are the communities most affected by the challenge or issue area your project is designed to address? How will you connect to, listen to, and learn from these communities? (600 characters)

The children of the world stand to benefit the most from learning technology.

All seeking knowledge are welcome, and those with the most to learn may benefit the most.

I have been doing limited beta testing of the projects across age groups, and intend to eagerly absorb any feedback from anyone who will give it.

I will be reaching out to schools and charities to find more communities in need.

I look forward to learning what makes things easier for each community.

Success Metrics: how will the impact of your proposed project be measured? Please include both quantitative and qualitative indicators in your response. (500 characters)

The more people that learn and grow, the more successful I will consider the project.

I will consider the project a greater success if:

Project Milestones: please provide a high level quarterly timeline for your proposed Fellowship project, detailing key milestones and anticipated deliverables. Please note that all proposed project milestones and deliverables are subject to potential revision in consultation with Mozilla and/or Track I Host Organizations if you are selected for the Fellowship. (500 characters)

By Q1 I would like to have Turtle Reptiles for five distinct age ranges (Pre-K, K-8, 8-12, 12-18, 18+)

By Q2 I would like to have identified target partner institutions and localized the tool.

By Q3 I would like to have Turtle Reptiles for each grade and an affordable prototype

By Q4 I hope to have partnered with several schools to help teach technology to the next generation.