1. cognitive modes
1.1. BEFORE I FORGET: let me write this down before i forget it
1.1.1. after i write it down, i'll figure out what to do next
1.1.2. i'm in a brainstorming session
1.1.3. i'm writing meeting minutes
1.1.3.1. in media res
1.1.3.2. ex post facto
1.2. IIRC: where did i see X? search a corpus of past interaction.
1.2.1. i'm researching a subject and need a place to keep my notes
1.2.2. I remember sending X to Y. let me find it again.
1.3. BRING IT ON: i'm ready for new email
1.3.1. i'm ready to fight back on running projects
1.3.2. just a quick scan for something urgent i'm expecting
1.3.3. preparing for passive entertainment
1.4. ESSAY WRITER: i'm composing a document which will require several sessions of mental energy
1.5. CHAT ME UP: participate in a synchronous, instant messaging conversation where the other parties are also chatting
1.6. CHECK THAT OUT: share a URL
1.7. CHECK ME OUT: i'm checking in to a place, or mood message, i'm now listening to x, i just bought or sold a stock, here's a picture of what i'm eating right now
1.8. TAKING YOUR PULSE: what are other people saying realtime about X? search twitter hashtags, news.google.com, etc.
1.9. ON THE JOB
1.9.1. i'm collaborating with a team on a document
1.9.2. i'm collaborating with a team on a plan of action
1.9.2.1. within an email thread
1.9.2.2. we're scheduling a formal meeting
1.9.2.3. we're plancasting / foounding a less formal meeting
1.9.3. is the ball in my court? is someone expecting me to do something? am i slipping through the cracks?
1.9.4. select my next action from an extant list
1.9.5. organize my actions reflectively
1.9.6. ludic stigmergic distributed cognition
2. End User Value Proposition
2.1. a unified messaging client
2.2. for writing any text to any channel
2.3. minimalist
2.3.1. attention-sparing
2.4. powerful
2.4.1. memory augmenter
2.5. Just as Spotlight is the first reach for search, TB4 will be the first reach for
2.5.1. sending a message
2.5.2. of any length
2.5.3. over any medium
2.5.4. to any audience
2.5.4.1. including "self"
2.6. less is more
2.7. pain points
2.7.1. overwhelmed by messaging volume
2.7.1.1. priority inbox
2.7.1.2. xobni
2.7.2. cognitive burden too high
2.7.2.1. have to choose a protocol and a messaging environment before composing a message to someone
2.7.2.1.1. sometimes we start a message with
2.7.3. constant flood of new services, protocols, etc
2.7.3.1. don't want to have to re-sign-up to facebook, twitter, quora, etc, etc, etc
2.7.4. mail is not quite cloudy enough
2.7.4.1. maybe automatically create a gmail account with every TB4 download and use it as the backend
2.7.4.1.1. get the jump on evernote and dropbox which have quota costs
2.7.5. archiving is lacking
2.7.5.1. let's make the lives of future biographers easier
2.7.5.1.1. everything we write, irrespective of medium, should be saved
2.7.5.1.2. (firefox) everything we read should be saved
2.8. all existing clients are too slow and make me feel stupid when using them
2.8.1. support for keyboard-only operation, please
3. Vision
3.1. The next time a new medium like Twitter comes along, Tweetdeck won't be a startup: it'll be a TB4 plugin
3.1.1. the TB4 architecture should allow someone to implement TweetDeck in less than 1000 lines of code.
3.2. The product will be a net profit center for Mozilla
3.2.1. through an app store
3.2.2. through an advertisement box
3.2.3. through paid downloads
3.2.4. through systems which are orthogonal to opensource the way Amazon is, as described in Tim O'Reilly's piece. if Mozilla can partner with JungleDisk to be a paid value-add atop S3, that'll be good
3.2.5. extend that concept: just as Firefox : Search box : Google : Ad revenue, maybe we can have Thunderbird : component : partner : service revenue.
3.3. Maybe Firefox and TB4 should share the same underlying architecture, but take a different set of plugins, in the same way that Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are the same core with different plugins
4. Success Criteria
4.1. at least as many opensource developers on the project not working for Mozilla as paid
5. Product Promise through Plugins
5.1. READ IT: handle any input
5.1.1. IMAP
5.1.2. RSS
5.1.3. Wikipedia
5.1.4. HTML
5.1.5. Twitter
5.1.6. Plurk
5.1.7. Quora
5.1.8. Facebook
5.2. VIEW IT: in a number of different forms
5.2.1. flipbook
5.2.2. screensaver mode
5.2.3. plurk / twitter timeline view
5.2.4. three-pane view
5.2.5. thread focus
5.2.6. single message focus
5.2.7. annotate and markup
5.2.8. IM-style
5.2.8.1. scrollback: it isn't just for IM! Why not display an email in an IM format? If the message (excluding sig and quote) doesn't exceed 140 chars, just display the whole thing inline like an iChat or iPhone SMS interface. Add chevron option to view in detail.
5.2.9. predictive viewing tries to guess which messages / threads you care about most, and how you're likely to react to them.
5.3. WRITE IT: Rich Document Editing
5.3.1. emacs keybindings, please
5.3.2. SMART EDITOR: editor affordances dynamically adapt to currently selected read/save/send/audience specification.
5.3.2.1. if responding to a tweet, automatically limit to 140 chars
5.3.2.2. if editing a wiki page, groks WikiWords as links
5.3.2.3. if about to send as email, automatically offers to downres JPGs
5.3.2.4. don't support fancy fonts when publishing to a medium that doesn't support them, eg IRC or Skype or Twitter
5.3.2.5. auto-bit.ly
5.3.2.6. other twitterlike tricks gleaned from tweetdeck, seesmic, osfoora, etc
5.3.2.7. other email tricks gleaned from gmail like the "attachment" sanity check, the addressee sanity check, etc.
5.3.2.8. can a gmail plugin run within thunderbird?
5.4. SAVE IT: Storage Backend
5.4.1. local harddrive
5.4.2. backed by Google Docs
5.4.3. backed by Evernote
5.4.4. backed by S3 filesystem
5.4.5. backed by an IMAP server
5.5. SEND IT: Multiprotocol Plugin Support
5.5.1. Instant Messaging
5.5.1.1. AIM
5.5.1.2. MSN
5.5.1.3. Jabber
5.5.1.4. and other libpurple
5.5.2. VOIP
5.5.2.1. Google Voice
5.5.2.1.1. check your voicemail through TB4
5.5.2.1.2. initiate a Google Voice call through TB4
5.5.2.2. Skype
5.5.2.2.1. initiate a Skype call through TB4
5.5.3. Email-like messaging
5.5.3.1. SMTP
5.5.4. Social media messaging
5.5.4.1. Facebook
5.5.4.2. MySpace
5.5.4.3. LinkedIn
5.5.4.4. Twitter
5.6. TO ANYONE: Unified Addressbook
5.6.1. targeted audience
5.6.1.1. iOS4 already merges multiple addressbooks
5.6.1.2. every new protocol, every new account, integrates the new contact list into the Unified Addressbook
5.6.2. public audience
5.6.2.1. to a blog
5.6.2.2. via googledocs
5.6.2.3. via a wiki
5.6.2.4. to twitter