From: "Stephen W. Ramsden" <sramsden@natca.net>
Date: August 10, 2012 4:30:46 PM MDT
To: "Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com" <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Macs and Science
I can say for sure after 5 years operating the highest volume astronomy outreach program in the world as a nonprofit that relying on donations in today's world is a lost cause. :)
Stephen W. Ramsden
On Aug 10, 2012, at 6:09 PM, Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com> wrote:
Dear Malte;
I have been down the "Donation Ware" path before - it's just an excuse
not to pay people for their efforts and it does not work as a
sustainable model.
I produced a Video Capture and Editing package named "My Vid Cap" on
the Mac - right before Steve came back and Apple still had a 10% world
wide market share. I was one of the first ones whom could do multi
gigabyte Video recording on the Mac - including spanning multiple hard
drives. I had 50,000 + downloads from my web site alone - and tens of
thousands of other downloads from other web sites hosting it without
my permission - but were generating revenue from advertising. I also
had unscrupulous companies like MacWorld and others whom were
including it on the CD they shipped with each magazine - which was
against the "license agreement" which required my permission in
Writing to do such a thing. It was recommended by Adobe as a test app
in case your Video Digitizing hardware did not work with Premier - and
if it worked and theirs did not - they would look into it as a Bug -
that's how reliable it was.
When I stopped it being donation ware (never had a single donation),
and charged $30 per copy - I made about 20 sales. I just about had to
hire a lawyer to get the other web sites like Macworld from illegally
distributing the donation ware copies - as wells as companies selling
Video hardware that were including that version on CD with their
software. That is how the public and companies treat donation ware -
you have no rights.
So that is why I would NEVER EVER do open source or release a product
without keys. This is how the real world works - you get screwed over.
In Academia where you you get large amounts of your funding from
Government - it's likely it's a requirement that the source code goes
with it - but they get funded regardless if the software works or not.
People writing software for a living don't have that luxury or backing.
This is why I am vehemently opposed to Open Source or Donation ware.
TTYL..
Milton Aupperle
On 10-Aug-12, at 3:24 PM, maltetewes wrote:
> Dear Milton,
>
> I've been quickly catching up with these recent mails about the
> future of Astro IIDC, and was about to ask why you don't consider
> releasing the project under GPL or similar, and prominently invite
> people to donate.
> My points were :
> - extrapolating from my amateur astronomy pals, I think that this
> could bring in more money then the 500$ golden keys. Everyone
> willing to buy a golden key to support you can still make a big
> donation, and those who want to donate less can also do it ... and
> use and *promote* the software. Clearly I don't claim any experience
> with this, just my thoughts.
> - Astro IIDC would not immediately be filed as "abandonware" at
> first sight. On the contrary : combined with some PR efforts by its
> users, an open source release could bring a popularity boom.
>
> Then I found your "microwave" post, which closes this discussion :)
> Of course I understant that you might have some code/dependencies in
> there that you still want to develop and sell.
>
> I thought I would write this anyway. I do believe in open source,
> especially in science, were results should always be reproducible.
> Related to our hobby : the community that worked and works on the
> theory and applications of wavelet transforms give an excellent
> example. They release demo code with nearly every publication. Also
> data reduction pipelines for professional telescopes around the
> world virtually all rely on open source libraries and run on open
> source OSes. Many scientists use Apple laptops precisely because
> UNIX gives them access to this command line / X window world, yet
> still the "Mac" side allows them to prepare their keynote
> presentations.
> Now this is a completely different situation, and it doesn't pay
> your bills. Just wanted to share a positive opinion on open source.
>
> I wish you plenty of success for your post-AstroIIDC business, and
> I'll try to advertise the sotware in any case.
>
> Cheers,
> Malte
>