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Articles by Tim Abbott
Announcing the Zulip Foundation
Today marks a major transition for the Zulip open-source project and for Kandra Labs, the company behind it: I’m stepping back from full-time Zulip leadership to join Anthropic, alongside three senior team members, and we’re donating the company to a newly created, independent, nonprofit Zulip Foundation. The new structure provides stability, a renewed commitment to our values, and opportunities for charitable fundraising to support our mission.
Zulip 12.0: Organized chat for distributed teams
We’re excited to announce the release of Zulip Server 12.0, containing hundreds of new features and bug fixes: end-to-end encryption for mobile push notifications, a major upgrade for Docker, configurable image previews, and much more! Almost 5,500 new commits have been merged across the project since the 11.0 release in August 2025. Zulip is an organized team chat application ideal for both live and asynchronous communication.
Zulip 9.0: Organized chat for distributed teams
We’re excited to announce the release of Zulip Server 9.0, containing hundreds of new features and bug fixes! Zulip is an open-source team chat application designed for seamless remote and hybrid work. With conversations organized by topic, Zulip is ideal for both live and asynchronous communication. Zulip’s 100% open-source software is available as a cloud service or a self-hosted solution, and is used by thousands of organizations around the world.
Self-hosting keeps your private data out of AI models
Last week, Slack’s users realized that under the company’s terms of service, their private data could be used to train artificial-intelligence models.
Zulip 7.0: Threaded open-source team chat
We’re excited to announce the release of Zulip Server 7.0, containing hundreds of new features and bug fixes! Zulip is an open-source team chat application designed to help people collaborate to solve any challenge. With conversations organized by topic, Zulip is ideal for both live and asynchronous communication. Fortune 500 companies, leading open-source projects, and thousands of other organizations use Zulip every day.
Why Slack’s free plan change is causing an exodus
On July 18, 2022, Slack announced that starting September 1, search history for organizations on Slack’s Free plan will be limited to just the past 90 days of message history. At first blush, this might look like a minor policy tweak. But it is in fact a dramatic change that makes Slack’s free plan untenable for many organizations, including ones that have been happily using Slack’s free plan for years.
Zulip 5.0: Threaded open-source team chat
Major releases We’re excited to announce the release of Zulip Server 5.0, containing hundreds of new features and bug fixes! Zulip is an open-source team collaboration tool with unique topic-based threading that is ideal for both live and asynchronous conversations. Fortune 500 companies, leading open-source projects, and thousands of other organizations use Zulip every day. Zulip’s 100% open-source software is available as a managed cloud service or a self-hosted solution.
Why Zulip will stand the test of time
Announcements Quill, a team chat company with $16 million in venture capital funding, was acquired by Twitter and shut down their product last week. Users were given a mere four days to export their data prior to deletion; direct messages and private channels could not be exported at all. Our sympathies go out to Quill users, whose needs were given so little consideration in this deal.
Why Zulip will not get on the blockchain bandwagon
Announcements This week, Discord teased plans to integrate a crypto asset wallet. After backlash from their user community, Discord clarified that the feature isn’t ready to ship “for now”. With many popular social and chat apps already on the blockchain bandwagon (including Facebook, Telegram, Signal, Twitter and Reddit), some are wondering whether Zulip might be next. The answer is no.
Live Tours: Waterloo The Battle for Hougoumont - 1815
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Zulip 4.0: Threaded open source team chat
Major releases We’re excited to announce the release of Zulip Server 4.0, containing hundreds of new features and bug fixes! Zulip is an open-source team collaboration tool with unique topic-based threading that combines the best of email and chat to make remote work productive and delightful. Fortune 500 companies, leading open source projects, and thousands of other organizations use Zulip every day.
Post-truth and information literacy
Post-truth and information literacy December 1, 2016 by Lane Wilkinson So there’s this phrase being bandied about: “post-truth.” As in, we live in a “post-truth era.” Popular use of the phrase is over a decade old, but its recent ascendancy lead The Oxford English Dictionary to name it Word of the Year for 2016; here’s the OED definition: relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.
Zulip 3.0: Threaded Open Source Team Chat
We’re excited to announce the release of Zulip Server 3.0, containing hundreds of new features and bug fixes to help distributed and remote teams stay productive and focused. Zulip is the open-source threaded team chat app, used by thousands of teams globally. Zulip’s unique topic-based threading experience combines the immediacy of real-time chat with the asynchronous efficiency of email-style threading.
NIH 3D Print Exchange
Image credits: Dr. Beth Ripley and Timothy Prestero. Curated by NIH/NIAID in collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Veterans Healthcare Administration, and America Makes March 25, 2020: This collection of designs was created to support the manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) or other necessary medical devices that are in short supply due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Why transformation in the car industry is good for business
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Wednesday of the Automotive Industry Transformation Fund closes a circle for us in the motor trade. It’s a wise and considered intervention, and it comes at a critical time. You don’t need to be a particularly keen observer of the motor industry to know that we’ve been under much pressure recently. Given the travails of the local market, BMW Group SA looks to the success of our export operations to justify our manufacturing presence here.
Memories of a father, sparked by autumn fires
By Tim Abbott My dad used to tell me the key to packing was unpacking. He said it in the context of loading the family car for summer vacation, but this paternal wisdom has broader applications for life. If you want to understand how something works, you may have to take it apart. If you want to solve a problem, you have to unpack what caused it. Full text available to premium subscribers only. Log in or Create an account.
Time for ‘bear crossing’ signs?
By Tim Abbott I was driving home a few days ago when an adult black bear dashed across the road. It passed in front of a car just ahead of mine. Instead of vaulting over the guardrail when it reached the other side, the bear squeezed under it. I was impressed. There is not much space between the uprights of that barrier. My wife has seen a bear hopscotch over a guardrail.
Hopes, dreams, glory, baseball and pole beans
By Tim Abbott It is no accident that our pastoral national pastime follows the agricultural calendar. It begins with seed catalogs and statistics, comparing yields and averages. During the preseason we rely on artificial light and warmer climes to condition our players and start our seedlings. On Opening Day we rake the baselines and till the soil, preparing our starting lineups.
Nature waits quietly for us to notice
By Tim Abbott It seems odd that I have not yet seen a bear this year. There are plenty around, and I know from the state of my bird feeders and trash bins in early spring that at least one bear paid my house a visit during the night, but our paths have yet to cross. Last year I saw four of them, including one that ambled down our street at twilight and others that lumbered across various highways and back roads before my approaching car. Full text available to premium subscribers only.
Heavy labor in heavy wool in a heatwave
By Tim Abbott I spent last weekend dressed in natural fibers: woolen broadcloth, checked linen and alum-tanned deerskin. This is not an unusual occurrence for me, because in addition to my professional and personal interests in environmental conservation I am an avid reenactor of 18th-century American history. What was unusual was the extreme heat and humidity. A wiser or more cautious individual might have decided to stay at home. I, of course, went to Fort Ticonderoga.
Black caps and the dreams of childhood
By Tim Abbott For many of us, the common black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) was the first foraged food of childhood. Known here in New England as “black caps,” their vines can prick and scratch but lack the fearsome barbs of the blackberry cane. Our small fingers learned the soft touch required to loosen the fruit from the stem without squashing our prizes, though stained fingers (and sometimes clothing) was the customary price of our harvest. Full text available to premium subscribers only.
‘Incubation centre’ key to manufacturing lead growth
Reviewing the current “incubation centre” framework is key to the growth and development of the supply chain in South Africa’s vehicle sector, as well as creating shared value for those living and working around motor manufacturing. Efforts to enhance downstream localisation in the vehicle manufacturing process is a significant trigger for manufacturing lead growth in South Africa.
Governments must switch on to electric vehicles
Governments must switch on to electric vehicles Governments must switch on to electric vehicles THE automotive sector’s most legitimate response to an increased emphasis on engine technology is an accelerated focus on the electrification of vehicles at scale. If you follow a simple linear train of thought, it’s only reasonable to accept that the evolution of internal combustion engines will plateau and alternative sustainable solutions will need to evolve to become the new normal.
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