> let's say I started making big profits from the apps --don't you think > museums might get upset?
I think there are two fundamental questions here: 1) what are you charging for the distribution platform, 2) what are you doing with any profits you acquire? Are you reinvesting by expanding the app to other platforms (Android, for instance - hint, hint), or deepening the interaction the end-user has with museum's content - doesn't that justify the distribution fee? Are you using profits to help additional museum's develop content for your system (thus growing their catchment population, while adding value to your app)? Or are you saving up to buy an island in the Cayman's? Museum's understand that services, like the one you are providing, have overhead costs. Developers cannot be expected to eat the cost of R&D, and institutions are equally aware of the development costs of trying to have a go at it themselves. There shouldn't be a problem if you are upfront with them about the benefits of your service, and how you are using the monies collected from the distribution. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org Blog: www.petrovay.com/tmsblog -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of MuseumPods Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 6:13 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App An excellent point again Chad and I agree. However, I think this is a very important topic museums should consider and worthy of discussion. On my site and biz, museums and non museum people have been uploading museum media content since 2005, see link: http://bit.ly/museumpods and is one of the largest aggregate repositories of museum media in the world, and I would guess at least 95% of all the media is not Copyrighted or Creative Commons licensed. An interesting hypothetical situation is if started making mobile apps using all the content and charging for them while museum servers are streaming the media, and let's say I started making big profits from the apps --don't you think museums might get upset? I realize today I asked for participants and is a different situation but do I need to ask if app distribution platforms, framework, and service is enough of a 'valuable add' to museums to let me use the free media content as I choose? I don't think some museums would be very pleased with the hypothetical scenario. ...and probably justifiably or maybe not? Is providing the distribution platform enough?
