The Spread Firefox crew, of which I happen to be a near-unwitting member, has launched what we hope will be an exciting and worthwhile campaign. A couple of our other campaigns have fallen a little flat, but so far, only a few hours into this one and with no official publicity yet, we’ve gotten off to a good start, having already met about 3% of our goal.

So what’s so great about this campaign? If you donate $30, you get your name in a full-page ad we’re taking out in the NY Times. You can also donate more (or convince your employer to make a donation) and get your friends’ or coworkers’ names in the ad as well. And if you’re an sfx user, you get beaucoup rollcall points (100 per name and 1500 if you sign up 10 names) for donating and for referring others, provided you use the affiliate link provided at the site.

Reportedly, this is “the most ambitious launch campaign in open source history.” In any event, it’s unprecedented as far as we know, and it’ll help us gauge how well grassroots marketing really can work.

Make a donation if you value the freedom and security open source software affords and if you love America and Jesus.