Kolab - A OSS Groupware Solution

Kolab is a comprehensive Groupware solution for Linux/UNIX, based on proven applications like Apache, ProFTPd, Postfix, OpenLDAP (on the server side) and KOrganizer and KMail and others on the client side. With Kolab, work groups can schedule meetings, check each other's availability, assign tasks, and of course handle email. The communication is using open and well-defined protocols and formats, such as IMAP, SSL/TLS, iCal, etc. By means of a plugin, it is even possible to use Outlook as a Kolab client. The first phase of Kolab development in 2003, commissioned by the German Federal Agency for IT Security (BSI), led to a base groupware system, that OSS developers are now building upon to create an even better solution that should be usable in most Groupware settings. Among our goals are a "secretary mode" (scheduling appointments for your boss, by extension accessing anybody's calendar to which you have access rights), the possiblity of keeping multiple calendars in the same client, comprehensive rights management, and many other goodies. In my talk, I will present the technical and organisational challenges of Kolab development, present our goals, and even show an alpha version (or maybe beta, if we have come that far by then) of the new client and server.

Kalle Dalheimer is a founding member of the KDE project and currently the President of KDE e.V. He has been involved in many areas of the KDE project, including library maintenance, KChart, KMail, and lately the Kroupware project which brings groupware functionality to KMail and KOrganizer. Kalle Dalheimer is also the President & CEO of Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB, a company specializing in platform-independent software solutions; often developing simultaneously on Windows and Linux. Kalle Dalheimer holds a MS in Computer Science and General Linguistics from Hamburg University, and did the first port of StarOffice to Linux in a previous career instance.