Bandung was the first place in Asia for WebFWD (Web Forward), an acceleration program by Mozilla. As we reported earlier, WebFWD hosted two meetups held in Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and Pikiran Rakyat Bandung building, on Monday, November 14, 20011.

Fauzan Alfi, Regional Leader for Mozilla Community in Bandung told us that ITB students gave a positive response for the event, attended not onlye by ITB students but also from other schools. Participants were enthusiastic following the presentation by Diane Bisgeier, Mozilla WebFWD Program Manager, about WebFWD and other announcement for Mozilla community. The second round of event weren’t as crowded compared to the first one in ITB, but that doesn’s shrink the enthusiasm from attendees.

WebFWB is an acceleration program from Mozilla in support for the early stage development of projects and products focusing on technology openness and web innovation. Diane also explained that WebFWD wants to help develop these projects into a real sustainable product. Some of these projects are OpenPhoto, CashMusic, Synbiota and Verese.

She also explained about the benefits from this program. Because it’s focusing on collaborative effort, the program has strict rule on registration, consultation, discussion conducted online although Diane also pointed out that there are numerous offline encounter with the project owners. Mentors involved in this program are the big names in world of programming and internet, definitely a gold point for this program. Some other support also given such as legal, server, investor connection and Mozilla community support.

Besides looking for projects/products or startups, WebFWD also receive registration for scouts and mentors wanting to be involved in developing the open web products. Detailed information can be found on their website.

I think this a good alternative from Mozilla besides the existing acceleration program currently flooding Indonesia’s tech scene. The open web approach is unique but also opens the possibility for startups to grow a sustainable and independent product.

This program itself will be run for 6 months because Mozilla wants the project owner to give more time to finish and polish the product. Here’s my interview with Diane Bisgeier, sorry for the low-quality video, I forgot to turn on the flash.