RE: Ada Developer's Cooperative License (was) Re: Market pressures for more reliable software

["Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <rleif@rleif.com>]

From: Bob Leif
To: Marin David Condic et al.

A good first step is to either have a birds of a feather meeting at SIGAda
2001 or if I am given the opportunity during a workshop on "Creating a
Symbiotic Relationship Between XML and Ada�. The software discussed during
this workshop could serve as the basis for future mainstream commercial
products.

As far as the mechanism is concerned, it is really a simple but imperfect
solution. The first assumption is that the sources for the commercial Ada
programs will be available. The second assumption is that an ASIS
application can be created that calculates the relative contribution of each
developer to a project. The third is that an imperfect, but predictable
objective calculation will be preferred by developers to individual,
expensive optimized negotiations. You may get less money; but, you will not
have to pay a lawyer and perhaps an accountant upfront. The second
assumption has the weakness that we can achieve a consensus on the relative
values of individual types of Ada source. This probably will need to include
some type of arbitration procedure.

The benefits are that individual software engineers are treated as investors
not, as Karl Marx aptly put it, as wage slaves. The benefit to the
capitalist entrepreneur is that for a small upfront cost, one has the chance
to become rich. I might note from previous business experience that the
capitalist should contribute significantly more than money and not be just a
passive investor.


-----Original Message-----
From: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org
[mailto:comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org]On Behalf Of Marin David Condic
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 7:16 AM
To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org
Subject: Ada Developer's Cooperative License (was) Re: Market pressures
for more reliable software


Well, I'm grateful to you for sending me a copy of the license. I'm not sure
I understand it thoroughly or how the mechanics of it would work, but I like
the notion of being able to put software out for public consumption and
saying "Go ahead and use this freely - but if it starts to make a buck, give
me my cut..." Determining what the cut should be and how it is distributed
is unclear to me - but I think it would be attractive to offer developers a
piece of the action.

I'd like to hear from people interested in this - maybe there is some way to
get such a cooperative off the ground rather than just talk about it? (Lots
of us have made software available on the web - maybe we can figure out a
way to make it generate some $$$?)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <rleif@rleif.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.992495488.13975.comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org...
> From: Bob Leif
> To: Marin David Condic et al.
>
> Thank you for your kind words on the Ada Developer's Cooperative License.
> Since you mentioned "or similar", I always have stated that what I wrote
was
> a draft. I would be gratified if others would enhance it.
>
> I should explain that since a good part of my training is in biology, I
> tried to create a system that would benefit from Darwinian selection or in
> engineering terms feedback. Evolving a system with good feedback is an
> excellent way to optimize. The combination of ASIS and the Ada package
> structure offers the possibility of creating a market economy for
software.
> Or reverting to my biological training, we Ada mammals can destroy the
> present software dinosaurs. We can develop a very low overhead
distributed,
> profitable, equitable software development system.
>