[Ardour-Users] subscription support down, your ideas sought

[Paul Davis]

On Fri, 2008-05-16 at 06:15 +0000, John Emmas wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Paul Symons" <ardour at iove.org>
> Sent: 16 May 2008 04:00
> Subject: Re: [Ardour-Users] subscription support down, your ideas sought
> >
> > If we are talking survival and subsistence of the existing pace of ardour
> > development, I reckon bringing in new ideas and developers, to write more
> > open source code is a better long term plan than raising subscription
> > numbers.
> >
> I don't want to be putting words into Paul's mouth but I think the problem
> here is that one won't come without the other.

hah! john probably knows that he and i often don't see precisely
eye-to-eye on quite a few things. but for once, everything he has said
in this post is pretty much word for word a precise indication of my
perspective. thanks!

> II've read some great suggestions during the past few days but in truth,
> none of them on it's own, has the potential to deliver that magnitude of
> increase.  In fact, it's doubtful that this problem has any 'magic bullet'
> solution ,  What's probably needed is a collection of different initiatives,
> all contributing in their own small way.  And a spread of income would be
> inherently more stable anyway.
> 
> It's just another consideration to add to the pot but Ardour's current
> financial problems most probably stem from its reliance on too small a
> number of initiatives.  I strongly believe that in the longer term,  the
> most sustainable solution will be found by favouring a wider variety of
> income raising measures.

Indeed. The central problem there is the tension between the:

	* work needed to develop ardour itself
	* work needed to develop income-encouraging initiatives
	* who would be doing which work
	* who would benefit

There have been some great ideas floated here in the last week or so,
but very few of them represent less than several days of dedicated
attention, and quite a few would need weeks of effort. 

Thanks to everyone for all the input so far.

--p