[Drawkit] CreativeCommons a permanent part of DrawKit?

[scott.francis at thomsonreuters.com]

Hi,

This is an interesting predicament you have.  It appears your framework
is gaining some fans.  Tougher commercial requirements means betting
you'll gain more dollars from your individual coding efforts vs. being
the guardian of an open source project that achieves critical mass and
becomes a defacto way of doing graphics.

How could you make money without closing the source to commercial use?
I tried to think of a few ideas, mostly dealing with the fact that you
know the code best, and have the clearest idea of where you want the
code to move.

1)  Charge to have features/fixes move higher in the priority list.
2)  Take on project work utilizing your framework.  I would think you'd
be better charging for a flat rate, rather than by the hour.
Implementation of proprietary Feature X - $8,000, implemenation of open
source Feature X - $4,000.
3)  Write a book - 1st half is an example using your mapping app or your
demo app, 2nd half reference.
4)  Write code (extensions/features), advertise their availability and
provide them to people who pay, but only release them as open source
once they have been payed for (including your profit) by individuals.
This would require some transparency as too how much time you spent on
the feature (which is likely good for you in the long run).

You seem to be very responsive to people on the list.  That type of
engagement bodes well for either method of trying to make money.  If you
were a poor communicator I would suggest the tried and true method of
closing your code to commercial use.  However, since you do communicate
well I would go for trying to achieve graphics kit notoriety.  It would
be a lot more fun, and I think the potential upside could be much
greater.

Keep up the good work.

-Scott


-----Original Message-----
From: drawkit-bounces at lists.apptree.net
[mailto:drawkit-bounces at lists.apptree.net] On Behalf Of Graham Cox
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 8:47 PM
To: drawkit at lists.apptree.net
Subject: Re: [Drawkit] CreativeCommons a permanent part of DrawKit?

Hi Troy, Everyone,

 From today, DrawKit no longer uses the Creative Commons license (which
was not very appropriate in any case). Instead, a BSD-style license will
apply. The next Beta drop, due very soon, will include all updated
headers and a new licensing text document. The CC license will probably
still apply to documentation, etc where it is more appropriate.

I'm sure the use of a BSD-style license won't be controversial.

What might be however, is the fact that I'm considering charging for
commercial use (definitely free for non-commercial and education
however, and this is clearly stated in the licensing doc). This stems
from the fact that I too would like to put food on my family's table,
and right now, Drawkit is not helping me do so. My aim is to build
commercial apps on top of DrawKit and generate income that way, but the
fact is that work on DrawKit is taking up substantial amounts of time
which is directly delaying work on other projects, which as a result are
unlikely to be completed for a while yet. Having given up the day job in
order to commit fully to these projects (and Drawkit
itself) this leaves me in a position where it's only the good will of my
wife that is keeping us afloat. Therefore I have started to think about
whether I should try and make some income from DrawKit itself.

At this stage I'm not committed to the idea, but mulling it over. I
would expect that any such fee would be negotiated on a case-by-case
basis with the potential user - clearly if you're Microsoft I would
charge much more than if you are a struggling Indie developer.

So please let me know your thoughts. I don't want to kill off the
interest and traction that is slowly being gained, but hey, we gotta
eat! If you are a commercial developer, would this cause you to rethink
your project? Look elsewhere? What?

cheers, Graham




On 21 Jun 2008, at 1:27 am, Troy Rollins wrote:

> I know that this issue has been discussed on the list from reviewing 
> the archives, but I'm wondering what the final result is. Since I feed

> my family from selling the software I make, I can't afford to use 
> anything in it which virally affects my ability to sell it. As I 
> understand it, the CreativeCommons license will have this impact, and 
> force me not to use DrawKit - which would be a real shame, since I'm 
> really getting the hang of it.
>
> I honestly don't mean to be "pushy", but any chance this will be
> (officially) clarified sometime soon? Do I need to rip it out of my 
> app now, before it goes too far?
>
> Either way, thanks again Graham.

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