<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 8:50 AM, Kent James <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kent@caspia.com" target="_blank">kent@caspia.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im">On 11/13/2012 3:21 AM, Jb Piacentino wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Kent,<br>
<br>
"We need a not-Mozilla organization"... but you still want to be able to enjoy the 'Mozilla Thunderbird' brand? Can you please explain how you see this happening?<br>
<br>
Jb<br>
</blockquote></div>
I think we can agree that the Thunderbird brand is one of the most important assets that exists right now in our quest to improve the product. And we can also agree that monetization is very difficult. Even with the brand, you and David Ascher struggled to achieve levels sufficient to sustain development. That will be even more difficult if the brand is not available in any shape or form to the not-Mozilla organization. So I think a lot of how to leverage the brand in ways that would not be threatening to Mozilla, or that Mozilla would view as contributing to their overall mission.<br>
<br>
I'm getting tired of calling this the "not-Mozilla organization". I'll be using the name "Swanfox" for this nascent entity in the future, so let me just start using that here as well. (swanfox.con, <a href="http://swanfox.org" target="_blank">swanfox.org</a>, @swanfox are all names I have reserved).<br>
<br>
Let me just give a few examples of possible cooperative arrangements that could exist.<br>
<br>
1) In support: If a paid support option existed managed by Swanfox, then the free support pages offered by Mozilla could point to the paid support options provided by Swanfox. Even more extreme, they could be integrated, so that paid support answers are also visible to the free users, and free users who find their questions unanswered, or who need more sophisticated support, would see clear choices to switch to a pay support model.<br>
</blockquote><div> <br> +1 for that idea <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
2) Donations: Mozilla does not appear to have any interest in managing a donation process surrounding Thunderbird. SwanFox could manage the process, doing the front-end work to prepare the in-product communications, and managing the developers that would be hired with the donations to work on the core product.<br>
</blockquote><div><br> I agree that donations are integral to getting events put together and other things so having a org for contributors could do that.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
3) Mobile: If Swanfox wanted to develop a mobile app that was designed to work seamlessly with Thunderbird, then Mozilla could license the trademark to Swanfox.<br></blockquote><div><br>I love the idea of Thunderbird for Android :)<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
4) Addons: If Swanfox wanted to publish paid addons, then those addons could be promoted directly within the Thunderbird product.<br></blockquote><div><br> and we could attract more add-on developers by offering paid addons <br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
I don't see Swanfox as a traditional investor owned organization, but closer to a coop of Thunderbird key contributors.<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
:rkent<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><font color="#333333" face="comic sans ms, sans-serif"><i><b>Benjamin Kerensa</b></i></font><div><font color="#333333" face="comic sans ms, sans-serif"><i><a href="http://benjaminkerensa.com" target="_blank">http://benjaminkerensa.com</a></i></font></div>
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