Who would donate money towards app signing[UPDATED 27/03/03]

[Guest DJHope]

Heres how id do it:

In DJHope speak a signatory is someone who has donated money!

- Set up a method of donating (paypal?)

- Set up a signatorys homepage with a user/pass for people who have donated.

- Allow signatorys to test unsigned applications as an insentive to donate

- Set up a signatorys forum just for people who have donated

- Look for any sponsors who might be intrested

- Depending on how much money is being generated buy the appropriate baltimore package.

- As soon as the singatures have been brought allow signatorys to vote on which apps should be signed after a specified beta testing phase, through the signatories web page!

Any amendments or comments would be good! Would you support this idea? Or is it complete cr*p (go on i take it)!

And finally YES make the final signed app avalable to all!

Sorry spacemonkey you beat me to it but look through my method!

DJ Hope

[Guest spacemonkey]

I personally would be inclined to keep access to the forum a bit more open than dj hope suggests, as in non donaters should have just as much access to unsigned apps. I don't think we need to incentivise it to this extent.

The voting by donators on which apps go forwards is cool and more democratic than a defined list of team members (maintained by Paul), it's just a question of how much hassle it'd be to set up a controlled voting system etc.

As to company, it also ties to specific individual. I'd be happy to use my company if you wanted, but I'm sure there's others with similar facilities. Don't know about setting up a company specifically for this as the paperwork, setup costs and ongoing costs may be a bit excessive, setup and running it for a year I would think would cost easily as much as the 250 signings. Where as using someones already existing company rides of the fact that they are already covering these costs.

[Guest DJHope]

The only reason i propose that its not as open as spacemonkey is because im pretty sure everyone with an unlocked phone would donate anyways. Also then when the voting comes around we wouldnt have other people moaning since they wouldnt have known what apps were avalable in beta anyways.

DJ Hope

[Guest spacemonkey]

My take on it though is that the reason not to sign will be clear discussion points, such as :

We don't need another tetris clone, and this one specifically doesn't add any features more than existing signed tetrisi

GnuBoy is going well but it won't be signed until we can resolve the problem of it crashing about 20% of the time on startup.

So, people might winge but the no decision will always be based on a sensible reason which they cannot refute.

This is also partly my issue with a voting basis. Voting (and democracy (oh the controversy)) is notoriously short sighted. Voters will concern themselves primarily with this is cool, lets get it out there now rather than, this is likely to have another 3 bugs fixed next week lets wait and sign it then rather than signing it twice.

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Setting up a LTD company can be really cheap, and can be done online.

I will set up a public access forum, but people who have donated will be in the 'SPV-ASP' user group, so we can see who has donated ;)

We really need a respectable, sensible leader. Like it or not, someone has to take overall responsibility. I am happy to do this, but if someone else wants to, then that is fine.

I will also speak to my various contacts, to see if we can have a sponsor. We may be able to find a sponsor who will join us, either providing the money in return for recognition, or matching what we raise...

Has anyone mailed Baltimore to check they are going to be OK with this idea?

P

[Guest spacemonkey]

I'd be more than happy with Paul as the leader...

[Guest DJHope]

I really would like to be active in this project, just give me a week to get my exams out of the way :lol: Off to a project engineering exam YEAAAH!

And definately paul as the leader, all hail paul ;)

DJ Hope

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Aw, you guys... ;)

P

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

How about PHM Regedit as our first signed app?

Obviously consulting Philippe Majerus first!

P

[Guest spacemonkey]

Sounds good, of the freeware around now, it's the only one that is up to a releasable standard.

PS: I haven't talked to Geotrust/Baltimore at all, just read their info off the web.

[Guest Bazz]

Yeah someone really needs to talk to Baltimore first as they may not be happy with it which scuppers the whole thing.

I'd also like to be active on this. Unfortunately I don't really have the time to run it.

It also does seem like we're giving in to the Certification process, but then if we have to we have to...

Also Orange have been promising a developer announcement for ages. What if we set this up, spend the money and then Orange make an announcement that changes everything? Unlikely but still...

[Guest DJHope]

Time is no object for a student (hehe) i will, have oooooooodels of time after next week just 4 more exams togo! Paul i dont supose your limited company could hire me for my student placement obviously i wouldnt charge you for my time (might be an idea to get out of doing a real student placement hehe)

Cheers Lads

DJ Hope

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

At last this is moving on. Hopefully i won't have another busy day like today :/

I'd very much like to be part of this scheme as well, I have plenty of free time during the evenings and time to check up on the forums etc while at work.

Few points from the last 3 (!) pages from today:

PHM Regedit sounds like a good start ;)

Is this going to be run from the forums? And are we going to hold out and try and get 250 signings if the donation scheme goes well?

I'm also happy with Paul running the show, and i don't mind giving Baltimore a bell tomorrow from work.

There is also a need for more utility type applications, as was said before the certificates need to be carefully allocated, any word on a word/excell viewer etc yet?

Anyway, it looks like this might actually work heh.

[Guest Shire29]

I'm not having Bart bloody Simpson as my leader..............pause.....................come to think of it, he's better than Homer, doh.

OK, Paul you have my backing, not that I've donated anything yet, here take it, go on............

I'm afraid I have nothing Technical to add to the venture, no programming skills, nothing, just a lickle bit of cash, feel a bit of a fifth, well fiftieth wheel to be honest, but thats life.

Cheers, Shire

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

OK, so are we on for 'Torch' as the second signed app? ;)

http://www.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=2420

Seriously tho, if someone could phone baltimore and clarify details, that'd be cool. I'll sort limited company (SPV Application Signing Project), bank account, forum and NoChex account this weekend, and we should be ready to rock!

P

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

I'll go through all the posts and give them a bell tomoro morning

[Guest Knight_Rider]

Ok guys count me in for £10 maybe more depends what comes up

Hey Paul I know you can call Orange up and see if they'll sponser us, go on I dare you ;)

[Guest MBoden]

Ok, probably stirring up a hornets nest here, but what about shareware ? We've covered freeware, but somebody might like something in return for their work ?

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

Then they should probably pursue app signing solutions themselves.

We should definitely stick to freeware...

Maybe we could charge shareware developers 1/75 of 600 quid?

P

[Guest MBoden]

if we decide to cover shareware it should be so that they only get paid once their software has made enough money to cover the signing.

The shareware would also have to be usable without paying, ie. you pay for extra features ....or just to support the programmer

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

1/75 of ~£290

The prices quoted on GeoTrusts website are in US$ ;)

I'll try to get time in the next hour to call them.

[Guest Shuflie]

If you are setting up a Limited company why not make everyone who donates during the setup time a shareholder. Then if shareware/small comercial authors want to use the services of the company to get their apps signed they could pay a small royalty to the company which could be used to fund further signings and possibly generate an eventual profit. Would be complicated to operate but might generate mre interest from people wishing to donate initally.

[Guest spacemonkey]

At the end of the day, it's probably best to just keep it simple at the early stages. Start it off as a freeware based thing.

Maybe in the future open it to signing shareware on the basis that the shareware author can pay per signing rather than needing to Baltimore themselves but pay a bit over the odds to help fund freeware signing. But also, what are baltimores terms again. They may be happy with us running this as a freeware "charity" but if we are becoming an onseller for their signing system they may get a bit annoyed.

[Guest MBoden]

Or just charge 25-50£ from people wanting to have their shareware signed, the money goes into the pot for more signings

Just like if you have freeware and want to have it signed without waiting for people voting wheter it should be signed or not could pay 5£ to have it signed regardless...again the money goes into the pot

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Ok, God knows what time it is in GeoTrust's world, but it could be as early as 3am etc, so i have e-mailed them with the message below (that and the fact my company is getting arsey about none-corparate calls, especially international ones ;))

I am an owner of an Orange SPV, running the Microsoft SmartPhone OS.  As part of the SmartPhone user and developer community I have found the certification lock-down to be of great hindrance to the growth and development of this platform.

Therefore a group of us, the SPV owners, would like to set up and run a programme using a registered company to review, test, sign and release freeware applications to the entire SPV community, for no extra charge and funded by donations.  As I am sure you will see from the link below the support for this project is easily great enough to get it set up and run effectively.

http://www.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=2217

Before taking any further steps we would like to confirm that using a registered company, we would be able to purchase one of your SmartPhone certificate packages to digitally sign freeware applications and allow them to be run on any SPV or SmartPhone enabled device.

If there are any problems or flaws in our proposal to increase the developer community, and provide incentives for other developers to look into the SmartPhone platform, could these also be stated.

I would appreciate it if the CC address above could also be kept in any response.

Thank you for your time,

--Chris Brunskill

I've read and reread it and can't see any glaring ommissions or spelling/grammatical errors, hopefully they will get back to me before i finish tonight.