Dear Friends,
My name is Cyrille Béraud, and I am the president of Savoir-faire Linux Inc. the company behind the Jami project.
I am writing to you today because we are launching a donation campaign as the year draws to a close to pursue and accelerate the development of Jami.
But before explaining the reasons for this campaign, I'd like to say a few words about our mission and what drives us to keep moving it forward.
Our mission is to provide everyone with free, secure communication software that respects their privacy.
In the 13th century, Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, wishing to discover man's natural language, is said to have entrusted several newborn babies to wet nurses with orders never to speak to them, as he wanted to find out in what language they would express themselves. All these children died one after the other.
Communicating is not just a human need, a possibility, or a right; it is a vital necessity for all human beings.
Today, there are merchants who believe your privacy should belong to them. States or governments, some of whom claim to be democratic, think they should control what you say or think, even in your private life. We don't.
Enabling lovers to whisper to each other words they didn't even know they had, enabling teachers to share values and knowledge with their pupils, enabling friends to laugh at things they shouldn't laugh at, enabling parents to share their hopes and tenderness with children who are far away, enabling entrepreneurs to create wealth through their work in the digital age: That's what Jami is all about in the 21st century.
In developing Jami, not only are we fighting for freedom of expression, civil liberties and human rights, but we are also working to give everyone in the digital age the freedom to invent their own lives, because the world of words makes the world of things.
Jami is free/libre software. This means that anyone can study how it works, make changes, and redistribute it as they see fit. As a GNU package, Jami is developed under the protection of the Free Software Foundation. This makes Jami a common good.
So, who are we, and why do we need your support?
Jami has been in development for several years with the support of Savoir-faire Linux Inc. We're an established and experienced service company specializing in open source technologies, and when someone in our team is available, we ask them to work on Jami.
Over the years, a stable team of four developers and numerous interns has been developing and improving the project. A large and active community also participates in our GitLab, reporting bugs, proposing ideas, and improving the various translations. This is very useful, but far from enough.
Jami is a complex piece of software, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Developing a distributed multi-device video, audio, and messaging system that works even with low bandwidth is a major technical challenge.
Furthermore, developing Jami for all existing technological platforms and in all possible languages while communicating with the community, looking after the website, writing articles, and sorting out bugs and requests for improvements is also a huge job.
Freedom can't be protected; it has to be won.
By giving to Jami, you can help build a freer, more human world for all, not just a few:
Thank you for your support, thank you for sharing this message.
On receiving your donation, Savoir-faire Linux Inc. and the Jami team pledge that:
— Your donations will be used exclusively to develop and improve Jami.
— Jami will always be free software, published under the GPLv3+ license.
— Jami will not ask for any personal data to use the application.
— Jami will remain free for all.
— We will publish a full report of funds raised through the donation campaign.
