Money and CHDK - General Chat - CHDK Forum

Poll

CHDK, would you pay for it?

Yes, it must be payed.
1 (1.6%)
A donation, but how?
24 (39.3%)
Maybe, but for who?
12 (19.7%)
No, it'll spoil the developers.
11 (18%)
No, I'll never spend one single dime on software!
5 (8.2%)
None of above.
8 (13.1%)

Total Members Voted: 57

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Money and CHDK

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Offline intrnst

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Money and CHDK
« on: 24 / April / 2008, 06:23:58 »
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Everybody has ever thought, some have even commented... Now, let's fell the fever!
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Offline acseven

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Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #1 on: 25 / April / 2008, 06:24:39 »
CHDK is under GPL, from what I know. Money should not even be involved in a discussion.
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Offline PhyrePhoX

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Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #2 on: 25 / April / 2008, 07:27:05 »
i'm with acseven here. if anything, money should be paid for hosting servers, forums, etc. this is something the value can be "calculated/estimated" of.
giving money to the devs will not neccessariliy spoil them, but create lots of difficulties. i happened to be involved in at least two free projects which tried to go "commercial" or "donation-ware". no good experience. it can be possible with a very very small number of people involved (e.g. dcraw, one developer, he also has a "donate me" button). i dont think i am a chdk "developer", but i still contribute & contributed for chdk. i dont want money off of this, but i guess i wouldnt like someone else (who also contributed "little") to get money from this too (keyword: envy). it would prevent people like me from coding for "free" (when the core devs get money, why should _I_ do it for free?).
But imo the main problem will be the expectations of people. "I spent 5 dollars for this project, it's about time they port my camera!".
Or "I spent money on this software, and still they didnt iron out all bugs - what the hell are they doing all day long?". It would create pressure.
by the way my opinion on this would be the same even if i was not involved with chdk so much (mod, "small contributor"). sounds easy, donating money for a free project, but in reality it creates lots of problems.
my 2 cents :)
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Offline fudgey

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Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #3 on: 25 / April / 2008, 12:13:07 »
GPL is not incompatible with money. :D

But I do think the complete lack of commercial effort in this community helps us keep Canon from getting disgruntled. We certainly help their business by bringing ideas and implementations for their product development to review and try out and direct people to buy their products instead of their competitors'), but attempting to take the money they think deserves to them might not be a bright idea.

Direct camera donations or joint donations to buy a developer a camera for porting are something I could very well see happening.
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Offline mrproper

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Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #4 on: 25 / April / 2008, 19:26:15 »
When you receive money for a product/service you create a sense of trust and value.

The downside is... pepople will start nagging you to fix their problems and requests related to product/service and you CAN'T refuse that...
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Offline intrnst

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Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #5 on: 26 / April / 2008, 07:09:24 »
Far from the ethics of GPL's philosophy -- To money or not too money? --  observing the pool in growth, it seems that the client is willing to give back. This leads to the following question:
    - Is the customer wrong?
« Last Edit: 26 / April / 2008, 13:00:22 by intrnst »
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databoy

Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #6 on: 26 / April / 2008, 11:45:36 »
There are two issues at stake. Money and motive. If your motive is to make a quick buck, there are better ways of earning a living than writing and selling software. On the other hand, there are some bright software developers around. Consider projects like CHDK as an apprenticeship project to learn and perfect your craft. The knowledge and experience gain has a more tangible value when used on a job CV. The degree gained at university is only a piece of paper. Practical experience is what employers are chasing. Anyone who can disassemble and value add to a commercially manufactured product is probably worth their weight in gold. If you have those skills name your price; you will have the skills to develop innovative technology.
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Offline intrnst

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Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #7 on: 28 / April / 2008, 16:40:12 »
As dormant resources already existing in photographic cameras currently available (witch were exploited and enhanced by CHDK), in the same way I see potential interest in us, users, to reward what has already been done.

I think donating is not buying a VIP pass into this forum, but a thanking (a tip, if you like) what already was enjoyed. Registering the fact that NONE voted to BUY the software and the majority has an interest to donate, it seems that I'm not so outside the Gaussian.

Few will deny that problems to structure and manage this task does not exist. But as spoked above, it's a resource that could reverted on the development of more CHDK.

Besides that's a good practice for who wants to develop Bill Gates's skills.

« Last Edit: 28 / April / 2008, 16:47:19 by intrnst »
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databoy

Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #8 on: 28 / April / 2008, 23:48:15 »
People need to earn an income to pay for food, shelter, clothing and indulge in their hobbies. There are a lot of aspiring Bill Gates on the net out to make their fortune. Most will fail dismally. Bill Gates was a brilliant programmer when he was younger. He also came from a wealthy family with generations of business experience. It is very rare to have programming skills and business aptitude.

I was reading an article written by a professional photographer who sells mediocre photos to advertising agencies for $2000US each. His philosophy was that his substandard photos are more than adequate when blown up to billboard advertising size. Over a year he earned a substantial income on photos which would normally end up as trash.

The issue I am addressing is that you need lateral thinking otherwise good financial opportunities are missed. 

Regardless where you live in the world, different people can contribute to projects in different ways. I have no aptitude for programming. I am a hardware person. I spent hours downloading electronic control circuits of the net. I try to source components locally. I came to the conclusion that making the printed circuit board is what will kill the project. The PICaxe approach would be the cheapest and most economical way to approach electronic interface controls to a camera.

Open source projects are good in that many brains to can achieve a desired outcome and the design can be approached from many persectives which may be overlooked when one person is working on a project. I have an application where I want to control a stepper motor to step the camera in the horizontal axis. Shoot a picture, zoom and shoot. When finished, step the camera and repeat the sequence. It can be done on a tripod; I would like to automate the process mainly due to my hands are not as steady as when I was younger.

Australia has strict controls over using radio remote devices. They have to be certified for radio control spectrum use. Importing RF controllers is prohibited. The local market devices are limited to model planes, boats, cars.

I read an article a few years ago where a guy hack a Playstation controller and used it as a servo controller. The Playstation controller or equivalent is an ideal hand piece if it can be interfaced into a PICaxe chip.

Currently I am collecting all the technical information. I will post my full concept at a later date. I have an oscilloscope, digital multimeter, power supply, breadboards. If there is someone who can write a basic program, the project can be posted on the wiki site. 

 
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Offline RaduP

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Re: Money and CHDK
« Reply #9 on: 09 / May / 2008, 14:39:20 »
There are a lot of Open Source projects that make money, usually from donations, advertising, or all kinds of other deals.
Firefox, Php, Mysql, Linux, and many other projects make a lot of money.
Personally, I think the CHDK project is very nice, and the developers could at least use some money for stuff such as hosting and, more important, buy equipment (new cameras).
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