A lot of people on the forum believe in keeping the CHDK community as small as possible. While they might have some good points in doing so, I largely disagree with that philosophy. It destroys the advantages that the open-source-ness of the project has created. I believe that the CHDK community should dedicate a lot of its efforts into making as many people find out about CHDK as possible. Professionals, techies, even Newbies, who have just boughten their very first camera.
CHDK is an awsome program. It really is the start, as I have written in
http://meanpc.com/digital-cameras/38-digital-cameras/187-chdk--camera-20.html, is the start of Camera 2.0, where people don't just use the camera, but actually "write" the camera. Remember just a few years ago, when "website" was considered just a static document that come big corporations made, which only they had access to through software such as Dreamweaver? Well a few years ago it all changed. We got Wikis, Blogs, Forums, you name it! The same for cameras, CHDK is the Wiki of the Camera.
Another thing, why do you think Ubuntu (Linux) and Wikipedia were so successful? Was it because of the amount of time put in to write the code? I doubt it. What Ubuntu did, that revolutionized Linux, was make it easy for people to use. The world is full of a lot of computer-retarded people, by our standards at least. Us techies think much different from them, and whenever they make a simple mistake or don't know something, we laugh at them. I think it is that attitude that drove n00bs away from Linux for a long time. I don't know about you guys, but I spend a lot of my time trying to promote the use of computers to these kinds of people. They are just afraid of using technology. If they keep being afraid, then technology will not move forward. Think about it...would you rather have a tiny group of people, like Microsoft, slowly working on a lame operating system, or have 1/2 of the US writing the source code for the next version of Linux. It is just obvious-the more the better!
In my vision on CHDK, it will be available to ANYONE, not in the sense that they could download it if they want, but in the sense that they can install it, easily. I believe that a 60-year-old woman, who just came out of CircuitCity with her new S5 should be able to install and take advantage of CHDK on her camera.
The current CHDK website is far from simple for the average user. I consider myself a very experienced computer user, and still it took me 30 minutes to figure out how CHDK works, what it does, will it ruin anything, etc, an hour or so to find an easy way to get it on the card. Now imagine how long it would take a 60-yo grandma to do it!
There are tons of simple solutions to these problems. However, unfortunately, I only know php "well", so I can only help you out on the web-end. I strongly encourage the writers of CardTricks to take my suggestions though. I thought about the simplest way of getting CHDK onto the card. Here it is:
1) Person visits a short domain name (I have found a few great ones that CHDK could use, but I will not post them here because somebody, or a bot, might register them). On the front page, we have the "Newbie" section and the "Advanced" Section, clearly labeled.
2) In the Newbie Section, there is a BIG install link
3) User clicks the Install Link
4) User sees a menu where he/she can select their camera, first narrowing down by the series, then by model (ex: S Series, then S5). See
Drivers, utilities and software updates for your Brother Product
for an example, although my proposed version is a bit tweaked.
5) A Download Window Opens Up, a zip file (ex: S5.zip) starts downloading. Inside the zip file are two files, CardTricks, and the build
6) User opens up CardTricks (btw, if you guys package this as a self-extracting exe, it would be even easier)
7) CardTricks gives user simple, animated instructions, of taking the SD card out of the camera, placing it into a card reader, then placing the card reader into the USB drive
CardTricks automatically detects card (you can have it constantly cycling through drives A:/ thru Z:/ trying to find a Removable Device)
9) CardTricks asks "is ___ your drive?"
10) CardTricks does everything else - formats, makes bootable, copies over the zip of the build from the folder it is in.
11) When CardTricks is done, a simple animation is shown, take the card out of the reader, flit the write protect switch to On, place back into the camera.
12) CHDK itself should have a beginner and an advanced mode. When people are faced with large menus they get scared, and get discouraged from using the software. The beginner mode should have very basic functions, such as a battery meter, text file reader, calendar, games, how-much-space-is-left-o-meter
, you get the point.
13) When user gets good at cameras, he/she can switch to advanced mode.
If you dedicate your time into making a version of CardTricks that does all of that automatically, I promise to dedicate my time in the web-end, making it easier for users to find information.
Next up, is money issues. A lot of you might be thinking, this is open-source, so no money should be involved. Ideally, that would be the case. However we live in a capitalist world, making this quite hard, especially if this project is going to become popular. There are expenses everywhere - servers space, bandwidth, advertising (yes, advertising is a must!). Also, the devs of CHDK need money to buy cameras to take apart, and work with. I doubt that they would want to throw away $300 for an S5, just so that they can write a program. DataGhost did
but not a lot of people are like DataGhost. We need a way to make money for these Devs, so that they can be able to continue their work. Also the selection of cameras this is available for is not too big. It should definitely be expanded, to other brands even. All of this takes money.
I am not saying to start charging money for CHDK, that would be awful. Would destroy the advantages of Open Source. I suggest taking an "Ubuntu" alternative
. Ubuntu offers its OS for free, support for free, however it also offers paid support (for companies), and PRECONFIGURED COMPUTERS. I suggest we do one of the following:
* Start Selling Memory Cards with CHDK pre-configured for a certain camera
* Start Selling Memory Cards with certain features pre-configured (customers say what they need)
* Start Selling Canon Cameras with MemCards w/CHDK
* The standard merchandise - shirts, pants, cuts, hats, buttons, etc
If you think about it, all of these options are good for both CHDK AND the public. Have you ever gone to RadioShack, with their $40 1GB cards (a few months ago). People are willing to pay $40 for a gig at their local store. Everybody knows that now, you can buy 4GB for $15. I suggest selling 4GB cards for $20. Newbies will still save tons of money, and we get our $5 bonus. Same thing for selling cameras. Stores overprice...a lot. At a BestBuy (a normal store), a Canon S5 costs $350 + tax (
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8297513&type=product&id=1172881524725). I bought my S5 for $270. That means they overpriced their cameras by more than $80! I don't think it is fair to trick people like that, into buying expensive cameras. I suggest we team up with Canon, buy a few of their cameras in bulk and start selling them, with CHDK pre-installed for say..$290 in the case of the S5. I assume they will sell it for around $250 to us, so that is $40 earnings right there. We are not tricking the customers, it is fair. We are the lowest price on the market. $60+ savings. Plus we give the extra bonus of CHDK preinstalled. A lot of people don't want to mess around with their cameras. This way, we mess around with them for them. And of course the standard merchandise will get people interested "ooh? CHDK? what's that? oh cool! I'll go download it!". You might call me a capitalistic, but I am just trying to help the general public!
I see a big future for Cameras! And it is up to you guys, if CHDK is going to start this future!
Tell me what you think
I am open to suggestions/criticism!
