Thunderbird:Summit 2014

Toronto Thunderbird Summit October 15-18, 2014

The Thunderbird Community is planning to get together at the Mozilla Office in Toronto, Canada for 4 days, Wednesday October 15, 2014 - Saturday October 19, 2014.

Current Status

This conference is in the preliminary planning phase. We have confirmed that most key contributors are available on the proposed dates.

We have set a tentative deadline of Monday, August 3 to make a final go/nogo decision about whether to do the summit. The current issue is funding. Information will be posted here as available.

Overall Goals and Purpose

In 2012, Mozilla made a major change to the funding and structure of Thunderbird. Funding was dramatically reduced, but Mozilla agreed to provide basic funding and staff to ensure the continuing stability of Thunderbird, leaving innovation up to a community of volunteers. The departing Thunderbird staff and existing volunteers had a meeting in Warsaw in Fall 2012 to discuss the transfer of responsibility.

We've now had a couple of years to see how this is working out. Thunderbird usage continues to grow (in spite of media reports in 2012 that "Thunderbird is dead"), and we've recently released a new version of Thunderbird.

Yet there are many issues confronting the Thunderbird product that need resolving if we are to effectively serve our user base. Thunderbird has a community that would love to move the product forward, and we need to resolve some of these issues to remain useful and relevant. A short, incomplete list of issues:

• The Thunderbird staff team that was originally promised to provide stability to Thunderbird has been largely preoccupied with other Mozilla initiatives, and is not able to maintain the product.
• Existing volunteers spend most of their time keeping Thunderbird functional at all in the light of massive changes occurring in the base code, leaving little time for innovation or improvements.
• Innovation efforts that were in-process in 2012, and were badly needed, have largely remained frozen and incomplete. This includes maildir, replacement address book, async database processing, and others.
• Many volunteer contributors express frustration at the lack of direction and leadership of Thunderbird.
• The governance structure of Thunderbird is a remnant of the old staff-driven project, rather than reflecting a community-driven project.

On June 13, 2014, rkent sent out an email to approximately 20 key contributors asking if we should consider some sort of meetup to discuss issues, and see what it would take to move Thunderbird forward. The vast majority responded that this was needed, and we arrived at October 15-19, 2014 as viable dates for most people. We investigated locations, and chose the Mozilla office in Toronto as the best location, as it is fairly centrally located, visas are easy, Mozilla has space there we could use at no direct cost, and several contributors live in the Toronto area.

Likely Attendees

1. R Kent James, Mailnews Peer (US Washington)
2. Magnus Melin, Thunderbird Peer (Finland)
3. Richard Marti, Thunderbird Theme Module Owner (Switzerland)
4. Florian Quèze, Thunderbird Instant Messaging module owner (France)
5. Mike Conley, Thunderbird Peer (Toronto)
6. Irving Reid, Mailnews de-facto Peer (and assigned Mozilla Thunderbird staff), (Toronto)
7. Philipp Kewisch, Calendar Module Owner (Germany)
8. Patrick Cloke, Thunderbird Instant Messaging peer (Massachusetts)
9. Wayne Mery, Thunderbird drivers and QA volunteer (Indiana)
10. Aceman, Thunderbird key developer, (Slovakia)
11. Thomas Düllmann, Thunderbird bug triager, (Germany)
12. Hiroyuki Ikezoe, Mozilla Japan Thunderbird developer (Japan)
13. Suyash Agarwal, Thunderbird key developer and GSOC intern (India)
14. Blake Winton, Thunderbird Peer and UI lead (Toronto)
15. Joshua Cranmer, Mailnews multi-module owner and peer (New York)
16. Josiah Bruner, Thunderbird Theme Peer (Michigan)
17. Mark Banner, Thunderbird and Mailnews Module Owner (England)
18. Jim Porter, Thunderbird MIME Peer (Boston)

There are a few more attendees who are possible, as well as other that we would like to invite depending on available funding.

FAQ

1. What is the schedule? The current expectation is that Oct 15 & 16 will be work days for people to collaborate on Thunderbird-related projects. Friday Oct 17 is the "all hands" day where we will try to have any critical discussions about the project, as the most regular contributors are available on that day. The conference continues through Saturday afternoon, October 18. You may attend all or part of the conference, but if you are not a regular contributor, it might be best to attend just Friday and Saturday.
2. Who may attend? The conference is open to all. Regular project contributors are strongly encouraged to attend.
3. What will it cost? The conference itself will be without charge. We are currently trying to gather funds so that we will be able to pay the travel and expenses of 10 - 20 regular contributors, though others are free to come if you can fund your own travel and expenses.
4. How can I get more information? Email R Kent James <kent@caspia.com> or contact rkent in Mozilla #maildev IRC
5. May I make a suggestion? Sure. Use Thunderbird Summit 2014 Suggestions for agenda or other suggestions