[mv] Raising Money

[Birgitt Funk <birgitt@minivend.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Birgitt Funk <birgitt@minivend.com>     ******


Hi Minivendors,

I really would be very grateful, if some of you, preferably the ones
who have done a lot of successful consultancy work and set up many MV
catalog, would give your (public or private) opinion about the
idea to raise some money for further documentation and development.

I am just wondering if those of you, who have successfully set up
storefronts for so many customers and companies, couldn't lobby those 
companies and ask for donations pointing out how much money you 
saved them in using MV, MySql, Linux and showing off a bit the
flexibility and scalability of MV. 

Arguments you could make:

	-- MV doesn't cost anything (you saved them money)
	-- MV is Open Source (you can customize to their needs)
	-- MV has a relatively long learning curve because of
	      its flexibility and scalability. Having strong
	      documentation will cut this time down. Savings
              in consultancy costs for your clients is a plus.
	-- MV has the reputation of being tough. Many customers
	      who would like to save money in doing as much as
	      they can by themselves and hire the consultant just
	      for the "tough" parts, shy away from MV because
	      good consultants who can do the job fast are not
	      that many. A good documentation will help to
	      produce better and more MV consultants.
             
Let's say those arguments were not that naive, (but please let me
know if they are and why - I like to learn), and a group of may be
three to six people would get together and really work on the
documentation, what would the problems be ?

Arguments against it (I am able to recognize, please add your 
comments to help me understand the situation better):

	-- We (the documentarists) are busy and expensive, to get 
              us working on the documentation and give up time on 
              other money-earning projects, a lot of money is needed.
              We will never raise enough money to do that.

	-- Who decides how the money is distributed ? That
              all takes bureaucratic time to decide. Too much 
              overhead, not important enough. I know MV and that's 
              good enough for me.

	-- Why working on a free documentation when in fact I/we
              could work on a book about MV and sell it my/ourselves ?

	-- Why giving a away a good documentation for free ?
              (Here I think the documentation could be sold for
              a price and the proceeds could go back into the
              documentation or further development fund).

	-- MV is so difficult, only the developer can write the
	      documentation. The job is too complicated. The job
	      is just not worth our effort. Too many shopping
	      carts around already. Why get into the hassle ?

You are active in the e-commerce industry as consultants. Could you
help me understand why raising money and getting people paid who 
work on MV development and documentation is just not "the thing to do". 

I tried to find an answer and looking how most of the other large
Open Source packages started out, there is one difference I think.

If you really look at the beginnings of Linux, Perl, Sendmail etc.
all came into being because there was a very "frustrated programmer"
who wanted to eliminate an "annoying/irritating/nagging problem" at 
their work. 

So they started deliberately and voluntarily working on a solution in
their spare time aside their "bread and butter"-projects and wrote
programs to solve them. 

I kind of have a difficult time to see Mike Heins writing the
MV software out of frustration not being able "to buy some things
online" 8-) 

I think he does it because it's fun, has a lot of potential
and he is good at it and it earns him a living. (Wild guesses, I
wouldn't dare to ask him). And then I think he is a nice guy and 
want to help you earn some money as MV consultants/ISPs too,
so he throws his goodies out at you.

That again I think deserves some serious thought about not letting
MV stagnate, but develop it further and document it more.

What are your thoughts ? I am ready to run the gauntlet. I wish 
you "would help me growing up" on this issue. Thanks all.

Birgitt






	




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