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From: fordjm@byuvax.bitnet
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Shareware:  A specific case.
Message-ID: <94fordjm@byuvax.bitnet>
Date: 30 Jan 88 09:32:52 GMT
Lines: 46

I find this discussion of Shareware etc. interesting (if a little time-
consuming :-)).  I am currently in the final stages of development of a
software package to teach telephone interviewing skills as part of my PhD.
in Instructional Psychology and I would like to present my present rationale
for using the Shareware distribution channel.  I am interested in comments
from the net.

The package I am writing, "Interviewing Advisor" simulates the interaction
between a novice telephone interviewer (the user) and a series of
artificial respondents.  The interviewer makes decisions about whether enough
information has been provided and several AI "issue recognizers" track his
or her choices for later feedback.  It's a small project, but just the right
size for the ideas I am trying to become familiar with.

Now, here's my view on others' using it.  I have a commitment to social
science research.  I feel that it can be important and beneficial (not that
it *always* is, no flames, please) and would like this program to get around
so that it can be used to train interviewers for research projects. On the
other hand, marketing and political opinion research is *big business* (I
have been employed in these fields) and I feel that if someone found my
program useful in a *primarily*financially*motivated*enterprise* (e.g. a
business) that it would be fair for me to share in the profit gained from
my work.

With this in mind, I presently intend to distribute my program through PD
channels with the invitation for all to use it freely to research or personal
skill development, but if it is used for training in a business setting
I request that I be sent some sort of fee (which I haven't decided upon.).
I do not intend to maintain this program after it is debugged and I do
not (as yet, anyway) make any portion of my living writing software.

So, what do you think of this reasoning?  Comments invited.  The issue for
me, by the way, is not whether I can make a pile of money off of a program
which has a very narrowly defined audience of users, but whether I can
contribute to the research community without giving a freebie to people
who care mostly about the big buck.  (No, I wouldn't go to the trouble of
trying to enforce this distinction legally, but I would want users to
understand the intent.)

So, ?

John M. Ford (*Not* the SF author.)
fordjm@byuvax.bitnet