December 8th, 2009
Email on the desktop just got a lot better. Mozilla Thunderbird 3 is here.
Thunderbird 3 is a vastly improved email client. More powerful — check out the new search capabilities and the new tabbed functionality, similar to tabs in browsers. More polished — many UI improvements that make life much more pleasant. More extensible. So extensible that an extension like Personas, which was conceived for Firefox, now works in Thunderbird
The extensibility is an important part of the future roadmap as well. It’s clear that for many people “email” as a category is changing to a broader “messaging” category that includes tweets, RSS, IM, etc. The Thunderbird extension mechanism allows a massive increase in exploration as a complement to the exploration underway in the Raindrop project.
I’ve also found that the update mechanism for Thunderbird 3 — beta to RC to final — has been great. In other words, painless, including my extensions. This makes using a separate client a lot easier.
I’ve been using Thunderbird 3 beta builds for some time now, and it’s been great. Get it here: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Categories: Mozilla | Tags: add-ons, messaging, release, Thunderbird |
October 22nd, 2009
Most of us receive messages from many online sources — email, instant messages, tweets, Facebook messages, links. Raindrop is a new, experimental Mozilla project exploring how to manage all these sorts of messages. Raindrop aims to make communications more about the person and less about the technology in which the message was created. It’s the brainchild of the team responsible for Thunderbird.
You can find Raindrop over at Mozilla Labs, among a range of other projects exploring how to innovate at scale.
Categories: Mozilla | Tags: Labs, messaging, news |
June 4th, 2009
A lot of people are drawn to this phrase. It comes up regularly when we discuss trying to capture Mozilla in a few words. I’ve always wondered if it feels too American, if it is as appealing world-wide. If you’ve got thoughts I’d love to hear them. And if you’re a native speaker of a language other than English it would be helpful to know that as part of your comment.
Categories: Mozilla | Tags: language, messaging |
June 4th, 2009
Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions for describing the Mozilla mission for a business card. Also to those involved in the related conversation on the characteristics that make the web better over at Mark Surman’s blog.
After reading the suggestions a few times I realized I want to try something that is explicit about the public benefit or non-profit nature of Mozilla. This concept helps people understand that we are fundamentally different from most of the software vendors they are accustomed to. And i think it makes it easier for people to believe that our talk of “open” or “shared control” or “benefit to the user is first” reflects our guiding principles, and not simply nice-sounding words that promote some other goal.
Mozilla offices are moving this weekend and I need new cards in a hurry so I went with something very simple for the first batch. I’m not remotely done yet with this project though. I’ve already got ideas for the second batch, and I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate more ideas from the recent discussions.
The front side is a template, where colors, the Mozilla dino logo and the text block are predetermined. The back side is open for exploration. Here’s my first batch.
For the second batch I think I’ll try adding a second line, so the text next to the Firefox logo says:
Public Benefit Internet
Opportunity for All
I like many of the other ideas quite a bit and am working on incorporating them in future versions, until I find one that really works. I hope anyone who feels inspired to use these ideas in any setting to describe Mozilla, please of course feel free.
Categories: Mozilla | Tags: brainstorming, messaging, office |
May 22nd, 2009
I’ll be ordering new business cards shortly. I want to use the back side of the card to test out ways of describing the Mozilla mission. The front side with have a Mozilla dino head image. I’ll probably put a Firefox logo on the back because so many people I meet recognize Firefox but not Mozilla. Next to that I want to put a short, pithy statement that goes way beyond our products. I’d like to either capture our mission, or spark a conversation that allows us to describe the mission. I’ve put a few possibilities below. I am looking for other ideas.
My examples will be in English, but I’m also interested in good ways to express key Mozilla concepts in other languages as well.
- building opportunity into the Internet
- public benefit internet
- Building the Internet as a global public resource
- opportunity for all
Categories: Mozilla | Tags: brainstorming, messaging, office |