As the discussion has raised a number of points I had also tried to
express in a post to the use-revolution list on July 21st (when most of
the Revolution team was at the Mac Expo in New York) I repeat this post
here for those members of the Metacard list that are not at the same
time reading the revolution list:
July 21st
Subject: Re: Rev 2.02/New pricing
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(snip)
On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 Geoff Canyon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The problem with the 10 line limit in the Starter Kit is that it's both
> too big and too small.
>
> It's too small in that anyone unfamiliar with Revolution thinks it's
> worthless.
>
> (snip)
>
> But it's also too large, in that anyone who knows what they're doing
> and are willing to put out the effort can get almost anything done in
> ten lines or less.
>
> So the Starter Kit has the dual problem of not being as effective as it
> could be at bringing in new users, and also of hurting sales because
> people find they can do whatever they need with it.
>
> regards,
>
> Geoff Canyon
>
>
These points could also be seen from a different perspective.
My impression is that the Starter Kit did *not* hurt sales. It did not
hurt you (the Revolution team) in amassing enough money so you could buy
out Metacard. The Starter Kit and the Free Edition helped you to get the
necessary money in the medium run, because quite a number of people
tried the Free Edition for a time longer than the meager thirty days of
a trial version and then bought a full license.
The Free Edition compares favorably with a number of other low-end
authoring systems (in the price range up to 150 US$) - in that is has at
least their potential - and will therefore diminish the sale of such
products.
On the other hand you are right when you say that "almost anything (can)
be done in ten lines or less" with the Starter Kit - that is one of the
many (may I say "former") beauties of Metacard/Revolution.
There may be indeed that occasional programmer that puts out a
wonderful application, because he has overcome the ten-lines barrier
with much effort and ingenuity. But for any programmer - other than a
casual hobbyist - that intends to create applications on a more regular
basis, the effort and time needed to overcome the ten-lines barrier by
far outweighs the money saved by not buying a regular license.
This occasional programmer will not hurt sales, on the contrary, by
showing what could be achieved with so much effort, his application
could be an incentive to buy a regular license that allows creating
similar programs without such tremendous effort and in much less
time.--
We have a special problem here in case the Starter Kit should really
die:
In addition to a full license we have used the Starter Kit for a number
of years as an introductory tool for the (university) students in our
multimedia seminars and workshops. The students need to be able to work
on projects at home outside class hours. They can experiment, try out
basic functions, and put together small projects. On the other hand,
they can get - or download from our ftp server (or from the many sites
that offer Metacard and Revolution stacks) - examples that have been
developed with a full edition and run them with the Starter Kit. These
stacks will be mostly small, because they are not standalones, and
because of that can be downloaded quickly (which is an important
consideration, because not many students have a DSL connection at home).
The students get a printed documentation introducing them to a basic
set of commands and algorithms and a number of sample stacks especially
designed for this level.
When the semester finishes, they still have the Starter Kits and can
take second looks and maybe start anew exploring Revolution and showing
it to others.
Both by experimenting on their own and by looking at examples (and their
scripts) - also such produced with a full version -they can develop a
feeling for the rich potential of Metacard/Revolution and could either
be prospective buyers or people that spread the word and encourage
others to buy such a wonderful product.
>From obvious reasons it would be out of the question to expect that
these students would buy a product for 75 US$ (assuming this will be the
educational price for the Express version) at the beginning of a
workshop, a product they do not yet know at this point. Given our budget
restrictions it would be likewise impossible that our institution could
buy a number of new licenses each semester for the students.
Quite a number of students have written research papers connected to or
supported by a Metacard/Revolution project. Since the pressure to
produce research papers is great - in most courses of studies leading to
M.A. level about 60 research papers have to be handed in before
admission to the M.A. examination process - students that have
participated in classes using the Starter Kit like to take advantage of
this creative situation and combine their projects with a research
paper.
Others have chosen topics related to educational programming and
xtalk-languages for the oral parts of their final examinations or even
produced M.A. theses with included Metacard/Revolution projects.-
So what are our options for the future?
Naturally we are also licensed users of a number of other authoring
systems, among them Hyperstudio, Hypergasp (what a name), Supercard,
Mediator, Neobook (www.neosoftware.com), MulitmediaBuilder
(www.mediachance.com), Macromedia's Director, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks
(on the basis of a special agreement we get the Macromedia products
here for a tenth (!) of the regular prices - under the provision not to
turn out commercially used programs).
We abandoned Toolbook long ago - we still keep and occasionally use our
older licensed versions - because the price went up into stratospheric
regions.
We preferred to focus on Metacard/Revolution instead for our work with
students, i.e. until now we offered to choose between both Starter Kit
IDEs.
We have used "MultimediaBuilder" a few times alongside
Metacard/Revolution as an example of a lower-end authoring system in our
workshops. MultimediaBuilder is an interesting program with many
appealing features on this "low end", but does not (yet) include an
xtalk-scripting language. There are impressing graphics features, an
embedded web object, and a number of accompanying programs, among them
"RealDraw Pro" (50 US$), which has many features of Photoshop and is
used by us to create most of the transparent images we import into
Metacard/Revolution.
Mediachance, the owner of MultimediaBuilder, granted us a free license
for classroom use and for a fully functional version.
Up to now, the regular price of MultimediaBuilder was 49.50 US$,
recently they raised it to 60 US$ (because of a MP3 license). The
Canada-based firm has made enough profit on such a low price to open a
European division lately - staffed with 3 programmers to care for the
European market. Have a look at their website and their lively mailing
lists (www.mediachance.com).-
Another perspective is very popular here in the world of "academia"
(where many people sit and lean back in their secure positions and
basically need not make extra bucks for their living); that is "open
source". There are several open source programs developed and in
general use at our university.
One of my former doctoral students co-authored a web-managing and
-authoring program ("Sesame"), which is in use here and at other
universities. In his dissertation about "authoring systems" he very much
embraced the philosophy of "open source" and especially "reusable design
patterns". There is an internationally active movement supporting and
discussing the idea of "design patterns", triggered initially by Erich
Gamma from Switzerland with his book "Design Patterns: Elements of
Reusable Object-Oriented Software" (make a search for both the book and
the international movement).
He - this former doctoral student (at present assistant professor in
Hongkong and one of the sharpest programmers I have met) - did very much
in our discussions to persuade me of the values of "open source". I had
may reservations about such a perspective and - among other points - had
argued that in my main field of work there was "Metacard" (Revolution
was not yet in existence), which was at least in specific parts "open
source" - as it could be customized - and which above all was
cross-platform and even available in a free edition. So - at that time -
there was no reason for me put in any efforts into "open source",
although I saw it with a sympathetic eye.
Now, looking for open-source alternatives in the area of xtalk languages
leads to "FreeCard" and "FreeGUI", an open-source and cross-platform
project unfortunately still in an initial stage of development.
So "open source" at present is not the solution for our immediate needs,
but it may be in the future.
===============
To sum up the long story, here is what I propose from my biased angle of
view:
1. Keep the Free Edition. Keep it cross-platform.
If at all, put the nag screen here: "This stack/program was produced
with an unlicensed and limited version of Revolution."
2. Offer a "Slim" Edition, also fully cross-platform.
The lean and clean Metacard IDE could be used here (isn't it a beauty
that you can have an authoring system which you can even use on servers
and that (Windows version) still fits on a 3.5 diskette in compressed
form (without the demo stack and the readme file))?
There would be no special database support, no geometry manager, no
additional "rev"-commands or functions etc. etc, but the option to buy
these and others as separate modules.
Charge 200 US$ for this version. Charge 50% of this for educational
versions.
3. A "Full" or "Top" edition - labels do not matter - the full present
and future Revolution with all bells and whistles.
Charge 1000 US$ for this version, 500 US$ for the educational version.-
Update policy (the lenient way of Scott Raney would be very much
appreciated): All updates at least within a year.
Renewal prices: 30% of the respective amounts paid for the first
license.
=====================
Geoff Canyon has been criticised by some of us for his "many and
quick-witted replies" to the arguments brought up by the list. I also
think that comments and arguments from list members should be taken
seriously, even if - and especially when - they are not compatible with
the current frame of thought within the Revolution team. Surely 99% of
the list members are active supporters and want to contribute to the
development and improvement of Revolution. Of course there are also
diverging views among the list members, which reflect our individual
situations; you have to sort them out and find acceptable solutions.
For the benefit of Geoff Canyon one might point out that he had to bear
the full brunt of arguments alone - while the others were away in New
York, happily dancing in their kilts at the MacWorld - (nice photos).
I like bagpipes (and for that matter, "didgeridoos"; are you there,
Monte?) - though not every tune played on them.
Regards,
Wilhelm Sanke
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