Handling donations (especially commercial ones)
list Henrik Størner
Hi everyone, I've been contacted off-list by a long-time Xymon user, who had some thoughts about how companies can help the Xymon project along by donating some money to the project. We discussed this a bit, and he suggested that I float my ideas on the mailing list for input - and gave me permission to quote from his e-mails. He wrote: "I realise (along with others) that you put a huge effort into xymon and given that our company uses the application extensively I would like to push to get the company to donate something on a regular basis. It may not be big but that’s something we can work on over time. "I've been involved in another open source project for a while now and what they did was to create an association based in Germany to which payments can be given to a dedicated bank account. This model works for our company from a donation point of view but I was just wondering if you had any plans to do something similar?" After thinking about this for a while, I think I can see some issues that companies might have with donating to the project via PayPal, which is currently the only option. There was another user recently who sent me a nice donation, but apparently it felt awkward enough for them to do so via PayPal that they contacted me directly afterwards, to make sure that the donation really did come through. The recent discussion about "Big environment" deployments of Xymon clearly shows that there are some places where Xymon is *really* used a lot. So maybe there are more companies who could be convinced to support Xymon - me - with donations. So what I came up with was this: "I do have a company registered here in Denmark, so perhaps I should consider using that for accepting corporate donations. Then I can provide genuine invoices, VAT-numbers etc - all the stuff that companies normally expect when they buy software. And they can transfer the amount to an official bank account with a proper IBAN bank account number ..." And to make this a bit more formalised, I've added this page to the Xymon website: http://www.xymon.com/license/ It is important for me to emphasize that Xymon is, and always will be, available free of charge under an open source license - regardless of how or where it is being used. So when I write about "buying a license" to use Xymon, it is only because that is the kind of language most manager-types can understand (hmm, I sincerely hope I didn't offend anyone with that blatant generalisation). You will not be required to buy a license - but it gives you a really nice feeling :-) I'd appreciate any thoughs you have about this, and if You'd rather discuss it off-list just mail me directly. Regards, Henrik
list Josh Luthman
Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting ($1000) after it. Josh Luthman Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX XXXX Wayne St Suite XXXX Troy, OH XXXXX
▸
On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Hi everyone, I've been contacted off-list by a long-time Xymon user, who had some thoughts about how companies can help the Xymon project along by donating some money to the project. We discussed this a bit, and he suggested that I float my ideas on the mailing list for input - and gave me permission to quote from his e-mails. He wrote: "I realise (along with others) that you put a huge effort into xymon and given that our company uses the application extensively I would like to push to get the company to donate something on a regular basis. It may not be big but that’s something we can work on over time. "I've been involved in another open source project for a while now and what they did was to create an association based in Germany to which payments can be given to a dedicated bank account. This model works for our company from a donation point of view but I was just wondering if you had any plans to do something similar?" After thinking about this for a while, I think I can see some issues that companies might have with donating to the project via PayPal, which is currently the only option. There was another user recently who sent me a nice donation, but apparently it felt awkward enough for them to do so via PayPal that they contacted me directly afterwards, to make sure that the donation really did come through. The recent discussion about "Big environment" deployments of Xymon clearly shows that there are some places where Xymon is *really* used a lot. So maybe there are more companies who could be convinced to support Xymon - me - with donations. So what I came up with was this: "I do have a company registered here in Denmark, so perhaps I should consider using that for accepting corporate donations. Then I can provide genuine invoices, VAT-numbers etc - all the stuff that companies normally expect when they buy software. And they can transfer the amount to an official bank account with a proper IBAN bank account number ..." And to make this a bit more formalised, I've added this page to the Xymon website: http://www.xymon.com/license/ It is important for me to emphasize that Xymon is, and always will be, available free of charge under an open source license - regardless of how or where it is being used. So when I write about "buying a license" to use Xymon, it is only because that is the kind of language most manager-types can understand (hmm, I sincerely hope I didn't offend anyone with that blatant generalisation). You will not be required to buy a license - but it gives you a really nice feeling :-) I'd appreciate any thoughs you have about this, and if You'd rather discuss it off-list just mail me directly. Regards, Henrik ______________________________**
Xymon at xymon.com<
list Phil Crooker
▸
Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting
($1000)
after it.
If that is a problem you could put (Euro) or EU: Site license for less than 50 hosts: EU€ 100/year Site license for less than 50 hosts: € 100/year (Euro) It needs to be kept as Euros as that is the currency. cheers, Phil
On 6/10/2011 at 8:19 AM, in message
<user-c3dd69b427f2@xymon.invalid>, Josh
▸
Luthman <user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid> wrote:Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting
($1000)
after it. Josh Luthman Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX XXXX Wayne St Suite XXXX Troy, OH XXXXX On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:Hi everyone, I've been contacted off-list by a long-time Xymon user, who had some thoughts about how companies can help the Xymon project along by donating some money to the project. We discussed this a bit, and he suggested that I float my ideas on the mailing list for input - and gave me permission to quote from his e-mails. He wrote: "I realise (along with others) that you put a huge effort into xymon and given that our company uses the application extensively I would like to push to get the company to donate something on a regular basis. It may not be big but that’s something we can work on over time. "I've been involved in another open source project for a while now and what they did was to create an association based in Germany to which payments can be given to a dedicated bank account. This model works for our company from a donation point of view but I was just wondering if you had any plans to do something similar?" After thinking about this for a while, I think I can see some issues that companies might have with donating to the project via PayPal, which is currently the only option. There was another user recently who sent me a nice donation, but apparently it felt awkward enough for them to do so via PayPal that they contacted me directly afterwards, to make sure that the donation really did come through. The recent discussion about "Big environment" deployments of Xymon clearly shows that there are some places where Xymon is *really* used a lot.
So
maybe there are more companies who could be convinced to support
Xymon - me
- with donations. So what I came up with was this: "I do have a company registered here in Denmark, so perhaps I should consider using that for accepting corporate donations. Then I can provide genuine invoices, VAT-numbers etc - all the stuff that companies normally expect when they buy software. And they can transfer the amount to an official bank account with a proper IBAN bank account number
..."
And to make this a bit more formalised, I've added this page to the
Xymon
website: http://www.xymon.com/license/ It is important for me to emphasize that Xymon is, and always will be, available free of charge under an open source license - regardless of how or where it is being used. So when I write about "buying a license" to use Xymon, it is only because that is the kind of language most manager-types can understand (hmm, I sincerely hope I didn't offend anyone with that blatant generalisation). You will not be required to buy a license - but it gives you a really nice feeling :-) I'd appreciate any thoughs you have about this, and if You'd rather discuss it off-list just mail me directly. Regards, Henrik ______________________________**
list David W David Gore
I thought Henrik was in Copenhagen and he would use Danish Kroners? ~David
▸
-----Original Message-----
From: xymon-bounces at xymon.com [mailto:xymon-bounces at xymon.com] On Behalf Of Phil Crooker
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 01:40
To: xymon at xymon.com
Subject: Re: [Xymon] Handling donations (especially commercial ones)
Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting
($1000)
after it.
If that is a problem you could put (Euro) or EU: Site license for less than 50 hosts: EU€ 100/year Site license for less than 50 hosts: € 100/year (Euro) It needs to be kept as Euros as that is the currency. cheers, Phil
On 6/10/2011 at 8:19 AM, in message
<user-c3dd69b427f2@xymon.invalid>, Josh Luthman <user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting
($1000)
after it. Josh Luthman Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX XXXX Wayne St Suite XXXX Troy, OH XXXXX On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:Hi everyone, I've been contacted off-list by a long-time Xymon user, who had some thoughts about how companies can help the Xymon project along by donating some money to the project. We discussed this a bit, and he suggested that I float my ideas on the mailing list for input - and gave me permission to quote from his e-mails. He wrote: "I realise (along with others) that you put a huge effort into xymon and given that our company uses the application extensively I would like to push to get the company to donate something on a regular basis. It may not be big but that’s something we can work on over time. "I've been involved in another open source project for a while now and what they did was to create an association based in Germany to which payments can be given to a dedicated bank account. This model works for our company from a donation point of view but I was just wondering if you had any plans to do something similar?" After thinking about this for a while, I think I can see some issues that companies might have with donating to the project via PayPal, which is currently the only option. There was another user recently who sent me a nice donation, but apparently it felt awkward enough for them to do so via PayPal that they contacted me directly afterwards, to make sure that the donation really did come through. The recent discussion about "Big environment" deployments of Xymon clearly shows that there are some places where Xymon is *really* used a lot.
So
maybe there are more companies who could be convinced to support
Xymon - me
- with donations. So what I came up with was this: "I do have a company registered here in Denmark, so perhaps I should consider using that for accepting corporate donations. Then I can provide genuine invoices, VAT-numbers etc - all the stuff that companies normally expect when they buy software. And they can transfer the amount to an official bank account with a proper IBAN bank account number
..."
And to make this a bit more formalised, I've added this page to the
Xymon
website: http://www.xymon.com/license/ It is important for me to emphasize that Xymon is, and always will be, available free of charge under an open source license - regardless of how or where it is being used. So when I write about "buying a license" to use Xymon, it is only because that is the kind of language most manager-types can understand (hmm, I sincerely hope I didn't offend anyone with that blatant generalisation). You will not be required to buy a license - but it gives you a really nice feeling :-) I'd appreciate any thoughs you have about this, and if You'd rather discuss it off-list just mail me directly. Regards, Henrik ______________________________**
list Josh Luthman
We can't pay in USD?
▸
Josh Luthman
Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX
XXXX Wayne St
Suite XXXX
Troy, OH XXXXX
▸
On Oct 5, 2011 9:46 PM, "Phil Crooker" <user-e8e31cd73303@xymon.invalid> wrote:Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting($1000)after it.If that is a problem you could put (Euro) or EU: Site license for less than 50 hosts: EU€ 100/year Site license for less than 50 hosts: € 100/year (Euro) It needs to be kept as Euros as that is the currency. cheers, PhilOn 6/10/2011 at 8:19 AM, in message<user-c3dd69b427f2@xymon.invalid>, Josh Luthman <user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid> wrote:Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting($1000)after it. Josh Luthman Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX XXXX Wayne St Suite XXXX Troy, OH XXXXX On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:Hi everyone, I've been contacted off-list by a long-time Xymon user, who had some thoughts about how companies can help the Xymon project along by donating some money to the project. We discussed this a bit, and he suggested that I float my ideas on the mailing list for input - and gave me permission to quote from his e-mails. He wrote: "I realise (along with others) that you put a huge effort into xymon and given that our company uses the application extensively I would like to push to get the company to donate something on a regular basis. It may not be big but that’s something we can work on over time. "I've been involved in another open source project for a while now and what they did was to create an association based in Germany to which payments can be given to a dedicated bank account. This model works for our company from a donation point of view but I was just wondering if you had any plans to do something similar?" After thinking about this for a while, I think I can see some issues that companies might have with donating to the project via PayPal, which is currently the only option. There was another user recently who sent me a nice donation, but apparently it felt awkward enough for them to do so via PayPal that they contacted me directly afterwards, to make sure that the donation really did come through. The recent discussion about "Big environment" deployments of Xymon clearly shows that there are some places where Xymon is *really* used a lot.Somaybe there are more companies who could be convinced to supportXymon - me- with donations. So what I came up with was this: "I do have a company registered here in Denmark, so perhaps I should consider using that for accepting corporate donations. Then I can provide genuine invoices, VAT-numbers etc - all the stuff that companies normally expect when they buy software. And they can transfer the amount to an official bank account with a proper IBAN bank account number..."And to make this a bit more formalised, I've added this page to theXymonwebsite: http://www.xymon.com/license/ It is important for me to emphasize that Xymon is, and always will be, available free of charge under an open source license - regardless of how or where it is being used. So when I write about "buying a license" to use Xymon, it is only because that is the kind of language most manager-types can understand (hmm, I sincerely hope I didn't offend anyone with that blatant generalisation). You will not be required to buy a license - but it gives you a really nice feeling :-) I'd appreciate any thoughs you have about this, and if You'd rather discuss it off-list just mail me directly. Regards, Henrik ______________________________** Xymon at xymon.com<
http://lists.xymon.com/mailman
list Ralph Mitchell
That's what management is for - working out the fiddling details, like currency exchange... :) Ralph Mitchell On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 10:38 PM, Josh Luthman
▸
<user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid>wrote:
We can't pay in USD? Josh Luthman Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX XXXX Wayne St Suite XXXX Troy, OH XXXXX On Oct 5, 2011 9:46 PM, "Phil Crooker" <user-e8e31cd73303@xymon.invalid> wrote:Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting($1000)after it.If that is a problem you could put (Euro) or EU: Site license for less than 50 hosts: EU€ 100/year Site license for less than 50 hosts: € 100/year (Euro) It needs to be kept as Euros as that is the currency. cheers, PhilOn 6/10/2011 at 8:19 AM, in message<user-c3dd69b427f2@xymon.invalid>, Josh Luthman <user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid> wrote:Most managers won't know what a € (euro) is. I'd suggest putting($1000)after it. Josh Luthman Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX XXXX Wayne St Suite XXXX Troy, OH XXXXX On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:Hi everyone, I've been contacted off-list by a long-time Xymon user, who had some thoughts about how companies can help the Xymon project along by donating some money to the project. We discussed this a bit, and he suggested that I float my ideas on the mailing list for input - and gave me permission to quote from his e-mails. He wrote: "I realise (along with others) that you put a huge effort into xymon and given that our company uses the application extensively I would like to push to get the company to donate something on a regular basis. It may not be big but that’s something we can work on over time. "I've been involved in another open source project for a while now and what they did was to create an association based in Germany to which payments can be given to a dedicated bank account. This model works for our company from a donation point of view but I was just wondering if you had any plans to do something similar?" After thinking about this for a while, I think I can see some issues that companies might have with donating to the project via PayPal, which is currently the only option. There was another user recently who sent me a nice donation, but apparently it felt awkward enough for them to do so via PayPal that they contacted me directly afterwards, to make sure that the donation really did come through. The recent discussion about "Big environment" deployments of Xymon clearly shows that there are some places where Xymon is *really* used a lot.Somaybe there are more companies who could be convinced to supportXymon - me- with donations. So what I came up with was this: "I do have a company registered here in Denmark, so perhaps I should consider using that for accepting corporate donations. Then I can provide genuine invoices, VAT-numbers etc - all the stuff that companies normally expect when they buy software. And they can transfer the amount to an official bank account with a proper IBAN bank account number..."And to make this a bit more formalised, I've added this page to theXymonwebsite: http://www.xymon.com/license/ It is important for me to emphasize that Xymon is, and always will be, available free of charge under an open source license - regardless of how or where it is being used. So when I write about "buying a license" to use Xymon, it is only because that is the kind of language most manager-types can understand (hmm, I sincerely hope I didn't offend anyone with that blatant generalisation). You will not be required to buy a license - but it gives you a really nice feeling :-) I'd appreciate any thoughs you have about this, and if You'd rather discuss it off-list just mail me directly. Regards, Henrik ______________________________** Xymon at xymon.com< http://lists.xymon.com/mailman
list Cami
▸
On 2011/10/05 11:14 PM, Henrik Størner wrote:
Hi everyone, I've been contacted off-list by a long-time Xymon user, who had some thoughts about how companies can help the Xymon project along by donating some money to the project.
While this is something that certain i can persue from my end, i would like to bring up the topic / discussion about: donations for features/milestones/(insert favourite "WANTED" word here) For example, I know from a large business perspective, our company would pay for "more effort" to be put into built in "views" or authentication based permissions from within Xymon without having to jump through Apache hoops. To be more specific, we have many external clients that we would like to give access to their own subpage which hosts all their servers so that they can view it without having access to all the other hosts / pages beneath it. That is the type of thing i can see large companies more eager to get involved with but its just "another idea" ;) Cheers
list T.J. Yang
Commercial license The following commercial license options are available for Xymon: Site license for less than 50 hosts: € 100/year (USD 125/year) Site license for less than 1000 hosts: € 500/year (USD 625/year Site license for 1000 hosts or more: € 1000/year (USD 1250/year) "Hosts" are counted as number of host entries in the hosts.cfg file - this number is reported by Xymon in the "xymongen" status. The Xymon commercial license is sold by Xymon Software, which is a company registered in Denmark as CVR reg. number 26288681. Please contact user-b48b6a772c94@xymon.invalid to acquire a commercial license. Support Buying a commercial license for Xymon gives You e-mail access directly to the Xymon developer team for reporting bugs. However, due to the development being a >volunteer effort, there is no guaranteed response-time, although we will make a best effort to respond to questions within 2 business days.
Reading from above from license clauses, I believe this is a very good license change. Hopefully in the long run xymon can have a team of people doing the support and enhancement. Cheers tj
▸
On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 4:14 PM, Henrik Størner <user-ce4a2c883f75@xymon.invalid> wrote:Hi everyone, I've been contacted off-list by a long-time Xymon user, who had some thoughts about how companies can help the Xymon project along by donating some money to the project. We discussed this a bit, and he suggested that I float my ideas on the mailing list for input - and gave me permission to quote from his e-mails. He wrote: "I realise (along with others) that you put a huge effort into xymon and given that our company uses the application extensively I would like to push to get the company to donate something on a regular basis. It may not be big but that’s something we can work on over time. "I've been involved in another open source project for a while now and what they did was to create an association based in Germany to which payments can be given to a dedicated bank account. This model works for our company from a donation point of view but I was just wondering if you had any plans to do something similar?" After thinking about this for a while, I think I can see some issues that companies might have with donating to the project via PayPal, which is currently the only option. There was another user recently who sent me a nice donation, but apparently it felt awkward enough for them to do so via PayPal that they contacted me directly afterwards, to make sure that the donation really did come through. The recent discussion about "Big environment" deployments of Xymon clearly shows that there are some places where Xymon is *really* used a lot. So maybe there are more companies who could be convinced to support Xymon - me - with donations. So what I came up with was this: "I do have a company registered here in Denmark, so perhaps I should consider using that for accepting corporate donations. Then I can provide genuine invoices, VAT-numbers etc - all the stuff that companies normally expect when they buy software. And they can transfer the amount to an official bank account with a proper IBAN bank account number ..." And to make this a bit more formalised, I've added this page to the Xymon website: http://www.xymon.com/license/ It is important for me to emphasize that Xymon is, and always will be, available free of charge under an open source license - regardless of how or where it is being used. So when I write about "buying a license" to use Xymon, it is only because that is the kind of language most manager-types can understand (hmm, I sincerely hope I didn't offend anyone with that blatant generalisation). You will not be required to buy a license - but it gives you a really nice feeling :-) I'd appreciate any thoughs you have about this, and if You'd rather discuss it off-list just mail me directly. Regards, Henrik
--
T.J. Yang
list Elizabeth Schwartz
Excellent and good idea! We're definitely using xymon for commercial purposes so buying a license is right and proper. It's much easier to get a PO through the system when you have an actual company and license fee sheet to point to, as you've done. Suspect that paying for "consulting work" is a little tricky, especially internationally. At least in the US paying for stuff is easier than paying for people.
list Jeremy Laidman
For my company, having a "license" makes the difference between it being "open source trash" and a "product". Previously, it would be easier to get funding of $50k for a crappy product than to get approval to install even the most polished and widely-used open source offering. With these new arrangements, I'm much more likely to get a corporate software licence paid for. However, what's missing is a support licence. This makes some managers nervous. My management likes to know that we have an official support contact point if we strike problems. It matters nothing that the product is supported by a group of skilled volunteers far better than most commercial products in the industry. They want some kind (any kind) of service level agreement, even if it's something like "7 day response time by email; bugs fixed on best-effort basis only". Cheers Jeremy
list Henrik Størner
▸
On 11-10-2011 08:43, Jeremy Laidman wrote:
For my company, having a "license" makes the difference between it being "open source trash" and a "product". Previously, it would be easier to get funding of $50k for a crappy product than to get approval to install even the most polished and widely-used open source offering.
I know ... corporate minds work in mysterious ways.
▸
With these new arrangements, I'm much more likely to get a corporate software licence paid for. However, what's missing is a support licence. This makes some managers nervous. My management likes to know that we have an official support contact point if we strike problems. It matters nothing that the product is supported by a group of skilled volunteers far better than most commercial products in the industry. They want some kind (any kind) of service level agreement, even if it's something like "7 day response time by email; bugs fixed on best-effort basis only".
Something along those lines will be part of the deal. I have discussed it off-list with a couple of other users, and I think I can come up with a reasonable offering - although I have to find some sort of balance between the time I can allocate to official Xymon support and the needs of corporate licencees. Xymon is still something I do besides my ordinary full-time job. Regards, Henrik