Public free (libre) mailbox hosting service for everybody!

[Georg C. F. Greve]

On 2013-02-28 11:04, אנטולי קרסנר wrote:
> If I can connect to the Kolab mailbox from any desktop client, 
> including
> KMail, Evolution, Thunderbird, and also smaller ones such as Balsa or
> even Mutt, then the solution your company offers is great.

The server is fully accessible through IMAP, ActiveSync and the web, so 
a native Kolab client will also be able to make use of the offline 
Calendar, Task & Address book functionality. Right now KDE Kontact and 
Mozilla Thunderbird / Lightning with latest SyncKolab have support for 
V3 groupware data.

Some time in the summer we also plan to add access to the groupware 
data through CalDAV/CardDAV, see 
http://kolab.org/news/2013/02/27/roadmap-kolab-3.1-irony-included


> 1. Will the pricing be for the whole service, i.e. you get a mailbox,
> spam filter, calendar, etc. paying the same amount every month?

Most likely we'll do some differentiation based on parameters such as 
ActiveSync enabled, storage size and so on and so forth.

You can find some brainstorming at 
http://wiki.kolab.org/Hosted_Kolab_for_Kolab_3.0

So it would for instance be possible to do a pure webmail offer if you 
wanted.


> 2. I'd like to make the Free mail service as popular as I can, and
> encourage people to join. I'd also like it to be a community project
> which can receive funding and possibly even run for free (price=0). 
> This
> way I can still send a donation, while people who aren't familiar with
> free software get a chance to migrate from GMail without paying.

I understand.

Some things to consider: Google has massive infrastructure & staff to 
provide that service and the people you seem to want to target will 
likely expect similar levels of reliability or you will lose them again 
as fast as you gained them. We're talking a minimum of two data centres, 
four hypervisors, SAN, backup storage, plus power, network, physical 
security cost, administrative overhead, staff cost to provide reasonably 
fast response times. And that's just to get started. ;) Google's revenue 
model is clear - so you'd find yourself competing with no income against 
a very strongly data driven revenue model. So you have to be careful not 
to disappoint people with such a service, otherwise you'll achieve the 
opposite of what you aim for.

And finally don't forget to consider human psychology: If it doesn't 
cost anything, it's likely not worth anything. There is plenty of 
examples where price alters perception to the level of the same wine 
being considered to taste better purely because it was sold more 
expensively.

Not saying a free service cannot provide some value, but I'd take these 
factors into account.


> If I told you I have funding for the project, let's say from the FSF, 
> so
> your company can get monthly payment, and in return it will run the
> service at no cost for individual users, will you agree?

Sure. It all depends on details, of course.

Kolab Systems is a fully Free Software company and likes to support 
Free Software initiatives and projects, so we're basically happy to 
support such activities where they promote Free Software or help the 
ecosystem in other ways at a level of them not losing us money.

The hard limit would be where we start losing money, because that would 
be money lost to developing more Free Software, primarily Kolab. So as 
long as we have enough income to offset the associated cost with 
providing a service that meets our quality standards (we would never 
like to provide sub-par services) we're okay.


> 3. If you can't accept the offer to get funding for any reason, I have
> another option on my mind. Since you use free software, someone should
> be able to setup a private server just like yours. So, that someone 
> can
> get funding and thus offer the same service you offer, without 
> charging
> for it.

Yes, of course you can take the software and set up the exact same 
service, if you want.

I doubt you can do it without cost (see above), so you would need 
income, as well. And I'd strongly suggest you check the legal 
requirements of providing such a service in the jurisdiction of your 
choice, because I would not want you to get into trouble over this.

But yes, *everything* we do is fully Free Software.

So if you want to set this up yourself, that is perfectly fine with us 
and we'll even help you as much as we can through the usual community 
channels.


> What do you think?

Generally speaking, I think it can work.

 From our perspective, if this was a service aimed at spreading Free 
Software awareness or even supporting Free Software projects and people 
directly, we would be happy to run this at a "no loss" proposition, or 
agree to ways in which any income could be allocated to further 
development of the solution, perhaps even through a community feedback 
process where people can vote for their most popular feature. So many 
things are possible.

Best regards,
Georg


-- 
Georg C. F. Greve
Chief Executive Officer

Kolab Systems AG
Zürich, Switzerland

e: greve at kolabsys.com
t: +41 78 904 43 33
w: http://kolabsys.com

pgp: 86574ACA Georg C. F. Greve