On Mon, 30 Aug 1999 04:58:28 +0200, Or Botton wrote:
> There are many reasons for programmers to program other then money:
> A hobby, the challenge, plain bordom, or just "fun". Some also
> do it for the credits that they'll get if the software will become
> popular. Obviously, this is not a "safe" way to do it. The programmers
> might drop the development in the middle or Belldandy knows what.
> But it also could be that this software will be completed. So
> as far as I believe, this development sure do worth a shot.
The majority of individuals who might take advantage of the
resulting products are those who still (forced to, in most case)
using out-of-date hardware due to their economical condition,
whose as someone else already pointed out, obviously won't have
enough money to pay for software -- even though if the registration
price is considered as "dirt cheap" by most of you who living in
high-GNP countries.
Even so, both Michael Polak (author of Arachne), and David Colston
(author of Nettamer), suggested that shareware registrations income
_only_ won't be enough to support them financially. Both of them
achieved most of their fortune from side products and services of
their popular shareware, which geared toward large corporations.
So, in this case, their shareware products were act merely as
"gateway" publication of their outstanding talents. Michael,
for example, also selling Arachne source code, highly customized
software, and web hosting services.
The other extreme: "programming for fun", usually will only work
for platforms that are still in the mainstream. Eyeballs is the
keyword here. Many wonderful side effects could be achieved this
way, ranging from recognition as great programmer, to better job
and living standard (or even the other way around if you're
screwed-up ;). But unfortunately, this is not the case for
platforms which are no longer state-of-the-art (i.e. MSDOS and
SurvPCs); risks are higher. Except if the programmer already a
wealthy person, who have a lot of spare time to burn; or a very
dedicated person, who willing to starve for a nirvana ;)
However, there might be (the third) alternative way. Which reside
in gray area, between programming for fun and commercially. Even
though this might sounds rather impossible too <g>.
According to several posts before, it is clear that most of
institutional users of SurvPCs are social workers, educational,
and non-profit organizations. It might be possible, to set up an
international socially-funded (i.e. UNICEF or USAID) educational-
related IT development NGO (Non Govt Org), that geared toward
older computer recycling issues in general -- *including* software
development projects. So, despite the fact that the org by nature
is not-for-profit, talented people who work there are still get
fairly paid for their working time.
To minimize costs, the actual development projects then could be
placed in low-GNP countries, where living costs -- and thus skilled
labor costs -- are way lower than high-GNP countries. Once well
established, there might also several alternative funding method
that could be implemented, so the org could self-sustained in long
run.
Just my 2c... But as usual, this might no longer an original
idea in this small small world <g>. If there's such NGO already
exist that I'm not aware of, please don't hesitate to inform us.
Comments, thoughts? (to the list, please ;-)
> BTW
> I do not have marketing experience, And I am not planning on
> having one. I'm thinking more to the direction of Software
> Design.
That's OK, Or. Both are critical end, but I doubt if any
individual humans has enough brain capacity and time to learn
_everything_ perfectly ;) It's the usual practice to specialize
just in one field of expertise, that's why we need organizations
and/or corporations in first place to achieve larger goals :)
PS- I'm way behind my private e-mails :( So, please accept
my apologize for those of you who hasn't been replied yet.
Sooner or later I'll be there ;)
--Eko
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