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Great stuff overall, and I really appreciate all your hard work to
get this stuff rolling Kent!<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/9/14 1:25 PM, Kent James wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:540F3807.904@caspia.com" type="cite">While
Thunderbird remains a strong product with a growing user base,
it's become apparent that we need to rework some basic ways that
we operate if we are to successfully meet our user's expectations
in the future. Here I present in brief summary the key features of
a plan that I believe are necessary to move us forward. Let's
discuss this and see if we can reach a consensus so that we can
begin the process of implementing any needed changes in
conjunction with our upcoming Thunderbird Summit.
<br>
<br>
Thunderbird Reorganization: Summary Plan
<br>
<br>
1) Thunderbird to remain an independent project under the Mozilla
umbrella, but with a large degree of autonomy. Thunderbird to be
subject to the Mozilla Manifesto and brand, but may depart from
the current Mozilla Mission of promoting the web as a platform.
<br>
</blockquote>
"Promoting the web as a platform." This was mentioned quite a bit at
the 2013 Summit, but I'm curious as to its real place in the
organization. Is this really the new "Mozilla Mission"? A primary
goal? A goal? A plan that the corporation has (as opposed to the
foundation)? I would be interested in finding the information on
that, maybe someone around here already has it. <br>
<br>
Regardless, I agree Thunderbird won't probably push for that idea,
at least not within our own product. I'm just not sure we're
necessarily "depart[ing] from the current Mozilla Mission", just a
single goal.<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:540F3807.904@caspia.com" type="cite">
<br>
2) Overall authority for the Thunderbird project to be held by a
group of people representing various stakeholders, including
representation from both the community and Mozilla staff, as well
as representation from developers, support, marketing, qc, and
users. The name and structure of this group are yet to be
determined, but initially call it by the neutral name of the
"Oversight Group" or OG.
<br>
</blockquote>
Sounds good to me.<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:540F3807.904@caspia.com" type="cite">
<br>
3) The OG has primary responsibility to manage Thunderbird
expenditures, staffing, releases, income sources, code, support,
quality control, marketing, user and public communications, or any
other issues that may arise associated with the Thunderbird email
client. Mozilla to retain veto rights over OG decisions, but need
not approve each decision through existing departmental channels
except for certain exceptions that may be specified by Mozilla.
Reasonably the OG would delegate much of that authority to module
owners, or use existing Mozilla infrastructure.
<br>
<br>
4) The existing volunteers and staff are struggling to maintain a
viable Thunderbird, let alone move forward, within the complex,
rapidly changing Mozilla environment in which Thunderbird exists.
A dedicated staff of approximately three people is needed to meet
the minimum reasonable expectations of our users as a major
product under the Mozilla brand.
<br>
</blockquote>
Three is definitely ideal, yes. Were you thinking that these three
would be existing TB developers or brand new employees? 2 already
involved and experienced TB developers is definitely better than 3-4
new ones.<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:540F3807.904@caspia.com" type="cite">
<br>
5) Thunderbird to raise income through a direct appeal for
donations to our existing base of approximately ten million daily
users, using in-product means such as the start page. A reasonable
target for annual income is $500,000 per year.
<br>
</blockquote>
I'm a fan of this idea for sure, but I have a feeling this will be
one of the harder things to get agreement on (and implement).<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:540F3807.904@caspia.com" type="cite">
<br>
_______________________________________________
<br>
tb-planning mailing list
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:tb-planning@mozilla.org">tb-planning@mozilla.org</a>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/tb-planning">https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/tb-planning</a>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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[:JosiahOne] </div>
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color: white;"> Front end & UX Developer. <br>
Mozilla Thunderbird.
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<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:josiah@programmer.net">josiah@programmer.net</a>
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