Re: [libreplanet-discuss] [fossil-users] [OT] Who's interested in project management & collaboration tools? And...

[Miles Fidelman]

Zygo Blaxell wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 07, 2012 at 11:18:53AM -0700, Mark Holmquist wrote:
> > On 12-08-06 05:33 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> > > > Supported by the fact that your beta/alpha users (and release users?
> > > > must be a typo?) will only have access to the source code if they pay
> > > > you extra. That's not how free software works, I'm sorry to break it
> > > > to you.
> > > I've got to have some kinds of incentives to raise money!  I'm going
> > > with a limited release model of both object and source - can't quite see
> > > releasing to the world until I've gone through a couple of revs.  Of
> > > course, with a GPL, anybody who gets the alpha or beta code will be free
> > > to redistribute.
> > If you're ignoring users' digital freedom simply because you want to
> > make money, take your advertising somewhere else, because this is
> > clearly not the place for it. I'm sure there are a lot of free
> > software mailing lists where people straight up wouldn't care, but
> > this is not one of them.
> >
> > Of course, maybe I've misunderstood the purpose of this list. If so,
> > I invite dissent!
> Freedom is not necessarily incompatible with charging a fee for access
> to a distribution service that happens to contain specific GPLed content,
> assuming that's what Miles meant by "limited release."
>
> For this particular kind of software, though, would it not make more
> sense to offer contributors some number of hours of professional support
> service, site integration, or even server hosting (if that's necessary
> or helpful)?  Serious users of a project management tool are using the
> tool to coordinate other people's activities to achieve a goal within
> a deadline *by definition*.  Those users may be willing to pay for
> assurance that at least one contractor with skill and domain knowledge
> (and who is _not_ already committed to other tasks, perhaps by the
> very same project management tool!) will be available to help keep it
> all working as advertised when it's crunch time, or help recover from
> various disaster scenarios.

for a kickstarter project, it really comes down to trying to figure out 
something meaningful to offer to contributors - the two things I could 
come up with were:

i. earlier access to the initial code (the whole "limited beta" model) - 
the goal is to release everything as GPL, but in the early stages:

- I'm really uncomfortable inflicting really early code on the world at 
large - folks who are going to test it, hack it, is one thing, but I get 
really scared about naive users who might expect more than the initial 
code can deliver (not to mention support requests and such)

- there has to be a server-side component - for distribution, protocol 
services, and such - ultimately the idea is that some folks will run 
their own servers, we'll offer a paid service, others will do so as well 
(think email servers - lots of choices) - but.. during development the 
protocols will still be in flux, as will the server-side software, and 
our servers will be going up and down all the time -- so, there's an 
issue about controlling load and usage -- leads to the idea that one 
"reward" is early access to the code for folks who might be thinking of 
running their own servers

- beyond that, I'd really like to run one or two large-scale experiments 
with the tools - hence the notion of finding a sponsor or two who has an 
upcoming need to organize a conference, or an event, or a crowdsourced 
data gathering effort  - my time is the real limit here - I can support 
maybe two of these - more than that, I won't have time to code or build 
infrastructure

Thanks!

Miles



--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra