Licensing policies (was Re: ANN: Docuverse DOM SDK PR2

[Tyler Baker]

Bill la Forge wrote:

> I think it is important to distinguish between enabling software and
> product.
>
> The W3C DOM is a technology enabler. A high-speed implementation is a
> product. The Docuverse SDK is something in between. Call it an expedient?
>
> I have been wrestling with these concepts for a while myself. I'd like to
> see the Coins api widly adopted. So I've tried to make use of common api
> (SAX and DOM), rather than provide a propriatary one. But I am driven by a
> need to make a profit. I hope to do this by charging a reasonable price for
> related development tools.
>
> The bet that I am making is that Coins will become widespread and that I can
> make a reasonable profit selling those tools for $99.

I haven't looked at coins too much in the last 5 months myself, but it seems
like a useful tool for building parameter-driven applications that if put behind
a big name software label could easily sell for $999 a seat.  The biggest
failure of a lot of software companies is being indecisive with pricing.  Either
you go for high-volume, low-margins in a general market, or else you go for
low-value, high-margins in a niche market.  Low-level tools like parsers
generally sell in the high-volume market, while high-level software like Coins I
would think is more of a niche application that some organizations would pay
top-dollar for.  On the other end of the spectrum, if you could prove to people
that parameter-driven application development is far superior to traditional
application development, then Coins may become much more pervasive allowing you
to lower-the price of coins and go for volume.

On a sidenote to coins, an individual developer named Jack Harich who hangs out
on the Advanced-Java mailing list (I am sure you are familiar with it) has done
a lot of personal research on stuff that is right up the alley of what I
perceive coins to be.  Maybe you two should correspond.  I remember someone
referring Jack to your work before, so maybe you two have already corresponded.

Tyler


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