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Payment plug-in

Can Anastasis and/or Taler Systems SA solutions mentioned in correspondence from Berna Alp below help with implementing a Payment plug-in?

https://docs.jami.net/developer/feature-requests.html

Name:
Berna Alp

Current Professional Affiliation:

Anastasis - https://www.anastasis.lu:
I am one of the founders, heading the business development in this start-up, which secures DeFi to prevent further FTX incidents and offers "keep your own key" crypto custody via a password-less key recovery service with multi-party, multi-factor authentication. Anastasis is Free Software and only uses components which are also Free Software.

Taler Systems SA - https://taler-systems.com:
I am the CFO at Taler which pursues the goal of digitizing cash and replicating the advantages of cash, but enhancing them with functionalities such as built-in technical security, payment safety, micropayments, data minimization and privacy by design. Taler is dedicated to Free Software, leading one of the high priority projects at the core of the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) community.

I am an economist by trade, have been involved in IT projects for more than 25 years. I worked as SAP FI/CO/JVA consultant at Andersen Consulting in New York, in a trading company and for projects of the World Bank.

Community Work:
I serve as the secretary on the board of ISOC Switzerland Chapter and am on the Council of the pEp (pretty Easy privacy) Foundation. I have also been a member of the Thunderbird Council since March 2019 and I was the chair this term.

Contributions to Thunderbird:

We have made significant progress since my first involvement with Thunderbird back in 2015 where I was part of the funding and organizational discussions with the members of the Thunderbird Council and senior leadership at MoFo.

This is what the current Council has achieved under my chairwomanship :)

  • Helped onboard Thunderbird's Director of Operations with whom, I have setup and conducted weekly sessions. I also had biweekly and monthly calls with all senior members of the Thunderbird team for better alignment and coordination of activities. Today, we are proud to have a more inclusive and diverse team as a result of the Team's outstanding efforts, more specifically demonstrated by sancus, Alex and Lisa.

  • Introduced 360 reviews (I even championed for and got the Council members to participate in the 360R) and OKRs for performance management.

  • Added K9 to the Thunderbird Family again as a result of great leadership of Ryan Sipes and his exceptional interpersonal skills. According to statista, Android is the most popular operating system in the world, with over 2.5 billion active users spanning over 190 countries.

  • Set the framework for Thunderbird's operational structure and defined the ground rules between the MZLA, Thunderbird Team and the Council.

  • Established the Thunderbird Council as the top level module in the decision making hierarchy for all things Thunderbird.

  • Improved alignment between the three pillars of the Project (the MZLA, Thunderbird Team and the Council)

  • Held multiple joint meeting with the MZLA Board on product strategy, finances and I also represented the council in MZLA quarterly board meetings.

  • Increased donation revenues as a result of the excellent work by the Team in accordance with the vision set by Ryan Sipes.

As I have stated in previous years, I am not a coder, therefore, I contribute with deep experience in management and governance.

Personal Statement:

I believe the Project is on a good trajectory in terms of organizational structure, discipline and focus. We have achieved a lot in the past year through significant and dedicated efforts of the amazing Thunderbird Team, meticulous work done by Dirk and majority of the council members. This has also been achieved through a close working relationship with and generous support of Marc Surman and the rest of the MZLA Board. I had the privilege to witness the many ways we can greatly benefit from our unique set-up with our direct access to the Mozilla resources plus Mozilla's executive leadership in addition to our ever growing community. Perhaps, we can even influence or dare I say inspire Mozilla in how much Thunderbird is able to achieve with a small, very skilled and resourceful Team, and an incredibly dedicated as well as loyal community.

Over and above, what we still need to focus on are:

  • Business Strategy that allows for diversification of our Income

  • Relevance

  • Sustainability

  • Innovation

Despite the growth in messenger and chat apps, email is not going anywhere. In 2020, the number of global e-mail users amounted to four billion and is set to grow to 4.6 billion users in 2025. According to statista: "In 2020, approximately 306 billion emails were sent and received every day worldwide and this figure is projected to increase to over 376 billion daily e-mails in 2025. Recent industry data shows that the trend towards mobile also holds true for e-mail: in December 2018, 43% percent of email opens were via mobile. Desktop e-mail clients' open share had declined to 18% and webmail accounted for 39% of opens. Based on the dominance of mobile, the iPhone e-mail app was the most popular email client, accounting for 29% of email opens. Gmail was ranked second with a 27% open share, and Thunderbird was ranked 10th with 1% (March 2019).

Based on the statista report nearly 1.7 billion users check emails on their mobile phones, outnumbering the data that for desktop, which is around 0.9 billion users.

So, there is still room for us to improve.

As for innovation, I think it goes hand in hand with relevancy. IMO, we need to be more forward looking and either collaborate with other projects that are innovative, aligned with our goals and values or come up with our own ideas to set us apart from the rest of the players in the field.

How does Council fit in all this? It is important to keep the council relevant-meaning that council members should commit to invest significant time and presence in the betterment of the project. Because there is still much to be done, i.e. by laws, transparency, lowering barriers to entry, especially for non-technical volunteers, communication, continuity,...

If I am elected, I will continue to work on the business strategy and share my professional experience with Ryan Sipes and the Team. My ultimate goal for Thunderbird remains the same, I would like for Thunderbird to continue on the path towards a professional and high performing, efficient organization whilst remaining true to her core, mission, and appreciating and rewarding the Team and paying close attention to the community's voice and needs who dedicate endless hours to the Project and share the Thunderbird's success.

I will also keep working to ensure Thunderbird remains a free and open source project with a vibrant, healthy, and active community, now more crucial than ever.

I look forward to working with other colleagues who are as passionate and have big dreams and ambitions for the Project.

On a personal note, I am the proud owner of an Old English bulldog and a runner for life.
--berna