1. Explain how the KyaPanel tool works and origin of the name.

Kya is a word in Tupi-Guarani that can be translated to “Rede” in Portuguese. In Tupi-Guarani the mean is actually a hammock. But in Portuguese the word “Rede” is also used to define a set of interconnected computers. At some moments is used as if it is a synonymous for the “internet”. That’s the interesting thing. The spelling appears as this is an oriental word, but it is actually a graphic form for indigenous sounds documented by foreign specialists. Thus we have the perfect combination between meaning and value in the market.

The KyaPanel is developed in three levels. The frontend is a web interface developed in PHP, the backend information is storage bases SQL or LDAP and the midleware is done with Shell Script. This midleware is the heart of the system.
This architecture allows the KyaPanel manage multiple servers remotely, that is, it has a centralized management console and the services being offered by various servers.

Currently KyaPanel has two modules: E-mail Management and Network Management. It is true that the Management Network module is very immature and still has some problems. On the other side the E-mail Management module is quite mature and jpa integrates itself with major softwares such as egroupware and juniper.

2. How and when the development started and how many people are part of the community nowadays

The Project started to be developed in June of 2004 under the name of “JeguePanel” (Jegue means Donkey in Portuguese). The idea, as always, was to solve an internal need of a organization I used to work. With the consent of the company the code was released under GPL and thus, even after quiting work over there, I decided to maintain the project with the help of the community.

At the beginning it was two different softwares: “Jegue” (Donkey) used to manage e-mail servers and Pagode (type of Brazilian music) use to manage Samba’s servers. We decided to put it all together in one software and we baptized JeguePanel.

For marketing proposes, since is very strong the association of the animal donkey and and its pejorative meaning of “dumb”, we decided to change the name of the project to KyaPanel.

The community is a strong link in the chain of the project, but not the strongest. Unfortunately the free software community from Brazil haven’t helped as much as we hoped. Those who deserve all the credit are those at the Development Team of KyaPanel. And there are more than 30 people, with greater or lesser participation.

Those are the responsible for the maintenance of the code, translation, documentation and support.

But not to forget to talk about numbers, the discussion email list of KyaPanel has today more than 2k subscribers.

3. What is the Active Directory Plugin?

This is a “plugin” that allows the synchronization of OpenLdap of Gnu/Linux with the Active Directory of Microsoft. The idea is to allow mixed networks that use only Microsoft’s operation systems could, in a easy way, has an E-mail server by using the KyaPanel.

This is the only part of KyaPanel which is still proprietary. Is our understanding that it answers a need for those who has systems that are payed for. So if the companies can pay for those operation systems, they could pay us.

This is an item for KyaPanel team agenda and who knows, in 2009, we could review this criterion? I hope to have good news next year.

4. KyaPanel is a free software company, tell us a little bit how it works.

We are not a company. We are a group of contract professionals who are working together. The model consist in keep focus at the Software. Could be on it’s quality, innovation and resources. Or at it image at the market.

Through a network of sales representatives who are promoting the competitive differential to offer specialized services with the people who developed the software. The business model is based on the tripod: services, scale and flexibility.

The trade agreement provides the division of the value of the services into two parts: 80% and 20%. Where the majority is always designated to the party who performed the service and the rest goes to the other part. So if a representative executes the service he passes 20% of the net value of the service to the KyaPanel. But for whatever reason, the representative may not want to/can not provide the service. In this case they can trigger us from KyaPanel and we will do the job. In this case the percentage is inverted.

The idea is to reward the work. In addition the value of the services are defined by representatives, after all they who know your market and the power of investing of their clients. That’s flexibility.

In this scenario, we from KyaPanel are “the support of the support”, ie aid in whatever is necessary to our representatives in the process of installation, configuration and fixing of bugs. For services like customization and / or creation of new features the representatives consult us in advance.

The security for the customer is to know that who is providing the service to them are people qualified and certified by KyaPanel. The security for the representative is that he receives support from the team that maintains the software. And the percentage received by each service provided by each KyaPanel’s representative is what keeps the cycle running. That is how we ensure that iKyaPanel will continue its development and its free code.

5. Who are the users/clients of KyaPanel?

The users are those who realize the importance of maintaining their electronic messages under control. Over the past years there was a movement of outsourcing of e-mail service, because of the difficulties involved in managing this service. What businesses and organizations that have taken this attitude didn’t realize at that moment is that they were putting strategic information, that travel by e-mail, available to third parties. I am not accusing any provider of e-mail services of taking improperly ownership of any information, but it is a matter of security. One should not allow people outside the organization or company to have privileged access to strategic information.

The perception of the error has been widely and many companies of all sizes, has returned the e-mail service to run inside of their facilities. It is there where KyaPanel has been pursued and used: to reduce costs of installation and maintenance of that service.

Since then we passed through all types of organizations, from public universities, hotel chains and Internet providers. The network of Othon Hotel in Brazil and the Pestana network of Portugal, the City Hall of Paysandú in Uruguay and several providers of Internet, are some examples.

6. The KyaPanel is published at the Brazilian Public Software Portal. Tell us why you decided to join this model and what the its advantages?

First we would like to make clear that the KyaPanel is the only project that doesn’t belong to a legal entity but rather a group of people, which is published in Brazilian Public Software Portal - PSPB. We believe that knowledge should be a public good and therefore we supported the initiative of the Ministry of Planning since the beginning.

The KyaPanel Team provides services related to the software. This is totally legal from a legal standpoint and also from the moral point of view. What can not be done is to close the code and prevent others from gaining access to it. The PSPB and its rules ensure that this does not happen.

The other function of PSPB is to give assurances to public managers that the software that are published there are legalized and recognized by the Brazilian government. It is a way of ensuring that software is free and will remain free.

This is an unprecedented initiative in the world and has strengthened a lot the spontaneous and gradual adoption of free software by various government agencies. We are very proud to be part of it.

7. You just received the Latinoware Free Software Prize, tell us how was this experience and if it was the first prize the software had receive.

Yes, this was the first prize KyaPanel received. And its not just a prize. The Latinoware is the second largest Free Software event in Brazil and one of the largest in Latin America. Including its goal is exactly to gather all the Latin-America countries. This year there was over 3 thousand participants. Between them some very special ones, selected by the event organizers to be part of the jury that choose KyaPanel as the winner of the prize.

We are very proud of winning the prize, exactly because it has been assigned to KyaPanel by experts professional chose among several others. Hopefully it will be the first of many, after all it is very gratifying to have the work acknowledged.

8. You already work with companies from other countries from Latin America, is there interest in the market in the U.S. and other parts of the world?

It is a fact. The KyaPanel and our business model has been proven effective and has attracted the interest of other countries. Today we have three international representatives, in Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia, besides having a network of over 18 representatives in Brazil.

Our interest is to make the KyaPanel known worldwide. The Internet and the official language of the project in English are the tools we use to make that happen. This month it was published a very informative article about KyaPanel at the Linux+ Magazine which is only distributed in Australia and the United States. It is clear that the European and North American market are part of our goal. They are large markets, focused on innovation and with good investment power.

We always willing to find partners who are committed to the Free Software and the quality of services provided.