Mozilla

Welcome Mozilla Messaging

February 19th, 2008

Mozilla’s revitalized focus on mail and Internet communications takes flight today with the launch of Mozilla Messaging, Inc. Mozilla Messaging is a new Mozilla organization focused on email and Internet communications. Its first area of focus is Mozilla Thunderbird, bringing new features such as integrated calendaring as well as new attention to community development and involvement. We expect Mozilla Messaging to develop a broader scope as well, providing experimentation, innovation and improvements in various forms of Internet-based communications.

Mozilla Messaging grows out of Mozilla’s long involvement with email. It is firmly rooted in the traits which make Mozilla unusual and effective. Mozilla Messaging lives within the umbrella of the Mozilla Foundation. (Technically, it is a wholly owned subsidiary, a sister organization to the Mozilla Corporation.) It exists to advance the Mozilla Foundation’s public-benefit mission and promote the Mozilla Manifesto. It’s an open source organization that uses the organizational principles and tools of the Mozilla project.

The decision to create a separate organization for Thunderbird and messaging was made last fall. During the summer we had a vigorous public discussion about how to make Thunderbird and Mozilla’s messaging efforts stronger, more innovative and involve more people. As a result of these discussions we found an excellent organizational leader for these efforts in David Ascher. In September we announced the decision to form a new Mozilla organization to focus on these goals.

Today the organization comes to life. Mozilla Messaging has a small set of employees, both to do great things themselves and to serve as catalysts and scaffolding for a broad-based community effort. It has a high level roadmap for Thunderbird. It’s got an organizational leader with a long background in both mail and Mozilla technologies. It’s got millions of users who care vigorously about Thunderbird and mail. It’s looking at an enormous and fundamental aspect of our online lives. It’s got great challenges, great responsibility and even greater potential.

I’m personally thrilled to see this happen. I am exceedingly eager to stop thinking so much about how to organize the Thunderbird / mail effort and to start seeing all that energy go to improving our product. That day has come. We have the tools to make email much, much better. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating. And then join the Mozilla Messaging effort and help make interesting things happen.

9 comments for “Welcome Mozilla Messaging”

  1. 1

    Amsterdammer said on February 20th, 2008 at 3:22 am:

    Sorry, I have a problem with the language en-US (I am German native speaker, who learned “Queen-English” en-GB on school), so perhaps I misunderstand the place of Mozilla Messaging within Mozilla Organisation:

    a “subsidiary” means “Tochter-Gesellschaft” , (from Tochter=daughter),
    a “sister organisation” means “Schwester-Gesellschaft”, but this in en-GB: “affiliated company”.
    So please: What is the exact place of Mozilla Messaging within the Mozilla Organisation?

  2. 2

    Sander said on February 20th, 2008 at 4:32 am:

    Amsterdammer: The Mozilla Foundation (MoFo) is the parent. It has two daughters, namely the Mozilla Corporation (MoCo) which focuses on Firefox, and the new Mozilla Messaging (MoMe) which focuses on Thunderbird (and messaging beyond Thunderbird).
    So, “it is a wholly owned subsidiary, a sister organization to the Mozilla Corporation” is a sentence consisting of two parts, the first saying that MoMe is a subsidiary of _MoFo_, and the second saying that (as such) it is the sister to MoCo.

  3. 3

    Amsterdammer said on February 20th, 2008 at 6:03 am:

    Thanks, clear now! Mozilla Corporation is a taxable entity, so Mozilla Messaging is a for-profit organisation too, I think. That was unclear on MozillaZine.
    http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=3262727#3262727

  4. 4

    jogil said on February 20th, 2008 at 11:16 am:

    These broad, new visions are fine, but the nitty-gritty does need to be dealt with. I have been using Thunderbird for a few months, and I keep finding loose ends. Example: it is not possible to print selected text from a message. Research disclosed that this problem has been recognized since 2002, but it is still not fixed. This kind of neglect destroys confidence in the product. Instead of looking forward to Tbird 3, I’m thinking about moving to Eudora.

  5. 5

    Laurent Bauvens said on February 20th, 2008 at 2:49 pm:

    @jogil: This is why Mozilla Messaging has been created. Look at this post: http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2007/07/25/email-call-to-action/
    With MMI, this is a real second birth for Thunderbird (Phoenix was the former name of Firefox 😉 )

  6. 6

    Freee!! said on February 21st, 2008 at 11:17 am:

    @jogil:
    Eudora is also Mozilla since Qualcomm discontinued its activities for Eudora. See also:
    http://www.eudora.com/

  7. 7

    Pingback from Mozilla Lanches ‘MailCo’: Mozilla Messaging « OSS Blog

    […] Lanches ‘MailCo’: Mozilla Messaging Seeing as this has received quite a lot of press attention, I thought I might add my own […]

  8. 8

    Dr C. James Bacon said on March 3rd, 2008 at 6:24 am:

    Dear Mitchell

    In late February I published an article on “Firefox & Mitchell Baker”. It was an article about The Firefox Way – of doing business, and the lessons that can be learned.

    I’d be grateful if you could have a look at this article (in baconsbusiness.blogspot.com), to ensure that it represents you and Firefox accurately and appropriately.

    You are a great inspiration Mitchell.

    Best regards,

    James

  9. 9

    Au Pair said on March 17th, 2008 at 7:23 pm:

    Hello from Spain! My English is not good but is seem like a very nice web site, thanks

Skip past the sidebar