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User talk:Eddyn:Report for Thunderbird: Difference between revisions
User talk:Eddyn:Report for Thunderbird (view source)
Revision as of 08:35, 6 August 2007
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==Introduction:== | ==Introduction:== | ||
This report was compiled from hundreds of comments, ideas and suggestions made to various web blogs, wikis and mailing lists, due to the recent [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell/archives/2007/07/email_futures.html Email call to action] by Mitchell Baker. It aims to provide an overview of the information we found important, ordered by feasibility and relevance, with possible suggestions for a future road map and plan for the Thunderbird mail application and possible revenue schemes and targets. | This report was compiled from hundreds of comments, ideas and suggestions made to various web blogs, wikis and mailing lists, due to the recent [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell/archives/2007/07/email_futures.html Email call to action] by [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell/ Mitchell Baker]. It aims to provide an overview of the information we found important, ordered by feasibility and relevance, with possible suggestions for a future road map and plan for the Thunderbird mail application and possible revenue schemes and targets. | ||
It takes into account current limitations such as a limited team of developers (2) and current focus and attention of MoCo on the Firefox browser. The report is intended to be helpful in the decision making process of an eventual organizational change. | It takes into account current limitations such as a limited team of lead developers (2) and the current focus and attention of MoCo on the Firefox browser. The report is intended to be helpful in the decision making process of an eventual organizational change and defining the future of [http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/ Thunderbird]. | ||
Thanks to many contributors for this collaborative work! | Thanks to many contributors for this collaborative work! | ||
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==Preliminary Summary:== | ==Preliminary Summary:== | ||
The enterprise market as a possible target | The enterprise market as a possible target by becoming a strong competitor of Microsoft Outlook is viewed as one of the ultimate goals of Thunderbird. Improved support of additional communication protocols (IM) and sharing/synchronization of data (calendar views, tasks, address books and more) are viewed as essential in order to accomplish this goal. Closer cooperation with software vendors of group ware applications and servers, including better support for Microsoft Exchange server are suggested. Marketing efforts (campaign), bundling with Firefox, Easy Account Setup for ISPs were also suggested for faster adoption. | ||
Reduced focus and involvement in Thunderbird by MoCo might prove to be counterproductive, which might hurt the adoption | Reduced focus and involvement in Thunderbird by MoCo might prove to be counterproductive, which might hurt the image and adoption of all products. It was suggested that expectations were high and a "breakthrough" close what usability and adoption concerns, specially in the advancing of the Sunbird/Lightning project. Rapid organizational changes might send out the wrong signals to users and volunteers, but also to the corporate world which might be the ultimate target for mail desktop applications and a source of revenue. | ||
Improvement of the code base and documentation are viewed as vital in order to gain greater support and involvement by volunteers. Shifting of organizational and other tasks to different | Improvement of the code base and documentation are viewed as vital in order to gain greater support and involvement by volunteers. Shifting of organizational and other tasks to different persons than the current core developers was suggested. Arrangements by the community of bounties, sponsored by interested parties (i.e. server and group ware software vendors, corporations) might accelerate development, fixing of bugs and feature requests. Better tools (aka Firefox user extension library) for Thunderbird might accelerate third party development of extensions. | ||
Support contracts for the enterprise via third parties, integration of Google SMS, Calendar and Map into Thunderbird could provide revenues. Exchange server support as add-on. | Support contracts for the enterprise via third parties, integration of Google SMS, Calendar and Map into Thunderbird could provide revenues. Exchange server support as add-on. | ||
==Feature Requests and Ideas:== | ==Feature Requests and Ideas:== | ||
* Full integration of calendar (Lightning). Bundling the extension in Thunderbird download. <br><br><tt>The bundling of Lightning in Thunderbird could be implemented fairly easy. The Lightning (Sunbird) extension provides many features the enterprise and (previous) Outlook user needs. This feature request could have an immediate effect on adoption and popularity without much effort.</tt> | * Full integration of calendar ([http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/ Lightning]). Bundling the extension in Thunderbird download. <br><br><tt>The bundling of Lightning in Thunderbird could be implemented fairly easy. The Lightning (Sunbird) extension provides many features the enterprise and (previous) Outlook user needs. This feature request could have an immediate effect on adoption and popularity without much effort.</tt> | ||
* Support and integration of an XMPP/Jabber compliant Instant Messenger. <br><br><tt>Contacts could be used by various means for communication. The XMPP protocol is used by Google Talk and has about 50 million users in a decentralized server network. It allows for encrypted communication, conferencing and support for VoIP. Many providers (XMPP servers) support bridges to other networks such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo! and more.</tt> | * Support and integration of an [http://www.xmpp.org/ XMPP]/Jabber compliant Instant Messenger. <br><br><tt>Contacts could be used by various means for communication. The XMPP protocol is used by Google Talk and has about 50 million users in a decentralized server network. It allows for encrypted communication, conferencing and support for VoIP. Many providers (XMPP servers) support bridges to other networks such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo! and more.</tt> | ||
**<tt>Other IM and P2P networks have been suggested (retroshare for example), however its use in TB has been questioned for various reasons.</tt> | **<tt>Other IM and P2P networks have been suggested (retroshare for example), however its use in TB has been questioned for various reasons.</tt> | ||
* Synchronization and | * Synchronization and effective sharing of data such as address book, calendar and tasks as provided by the [http://www.gargan.org/extensions/synckolab.html Sync Kolab] extension. | ||
* | * Device synchronization (Palm, PocketPC, iPod, phone, etc.). | ||
** Palm Address books with Tb address book | |||
** Cell phone call lists with Tb Address book | |||
* Integrate Google Maps for location info in the calendar (Lightning). | * Integrate [http://www.google.com/sms/ Google SMS] (from Contacts) for sending SMS. | ||
* Integrate [http://www.google.com/apis/maps/ Google Maps] for location info in the calendar (Lightning). | |||
* Integration with web applications, including | |||
** Web based mail like Gmail,Yahoo,MSN Live or Bongo mail | |||
** Web based calendars and To do lists like Google Calendar or iCal | |||
** Possibly provide an open API for developers to plug in their desired web apps. | |||
* UI: Tabs for calendar, compose, IM, etc. (Under implementation in current TRUNK) | * UI: Tabs for calendar, compose, IM, etc. (Under implementation in current TRUNK) | ||
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* MiniTB similar to MiniMo. | * MiniTB similar to MiniMo. | ||
* CAPS Documentation to guide custom CAPS for trusted domains. | |||
===Code specific requests:=== | ===Code specific requests:=== | ||
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* Rework address book | * Rework address book | ||
* Extend instructions and documents for developers | * Extend instructions and documents for developers | ||
* Protocol handler API for extensibility | |||
* Plug-in code activated for NC4.x type of support | |||
==Potential Revenues:== | ==Potential Revenues:== | ||
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==Summary and Recommendations:== | ==Summary and Recommendations:== | ||
These are the conclusions and recommendations of this report: | |||
* Defining of a road map is essential to describing current and future needs. The road map should reflect the targets as seen in this report, in respect to features, revenues and higher involvement by volunteers. | |||
* Implementation of features which are expected to have the highest impact on adoption and most frequently requested should be applied immediately, taking into consideration the "investment" needed. This specially applies for the inclusion of Lightning (calendar) in default builds. | |||
* Organizational changes should be avoided. Any change should be applied with greatest sensitivity. Current commitments should be kept in any case and depending on the road map intensified. | |||
* A team should be formed for the supervision of the project and implementation of the road map. It would be responsible for the development process and contacts with software vendors. It would preform actions to increase involvement by development volunteers as outlined in the report. | |||
* Form an Evangelist Team to do the marketing studies and search for revenues. The team would also take action to increase involvement by volunteers. The team Will need support of PR and Business specialists to capitalize on there expertise. | |||
== | ==Authors:== | ||
[[User:Eddyn|Eddyn]] 05:49, 4 August 2007 (PDT) | [[User:Eddyn|Eddyn]] 05:49, 4 August 2007 (PDT)<br> | ||
[[User:Killjay|Ron K.]] 12:35, 4 August 2007 (PDT)<br> | |||
[[User:Mohamed samy|Mohamed samy]] 17:20, 4 August 2007 (PDT) | |||