I know I touched on this subject some time ago, but nothing was ever done about
it, yet I feel this could potentially increase the use of Sage.
I know most of the users on this list are academics and students, so might not
appreciate some of the problems users in commercial companies have, but for
someone who has worked in academia, commercial companies and as a contractor, I
can assure you there is an issue.
Clearly the best method of support for Sage is though the sage-support list, as
everyone can benefit from that. But this is not necessary suitable for
commercial customers for several reasons.
1) First and foremost, many companies will have policies that would not permit
the use of software where they can't obtain a support contract.
2) It's easier to argue for the use of software in a commercial company if you
can state commercial support is available.
3) The ability to guarantee information provided will not be made public can be
helpful.
4) It makes Sage appear more professional.
The money obtained from such contracts could be used to fund Sage development.
Support contracts could be arranged on a "per-incident" basis, or on an annual
basis. I might suggest fees of $50 and $400 respectively. I would word the
section on support contracts as something like this.
=== Commercial support contracts ===
Commercial customers are encouraged to use the the free support options
available, which include sage-supp...@googlegroups.com and
http://ask.sagemath.org/ as everyone will benefit from the answers provided. In
most cases, if the information is commercially sensitive, you can remove the
commercial sensitive information and replace it by information which is similar
in nature, but excludes anything that would enable competitors to know of your
work. The use of a non-company email service, such as gmail might also help.
However, the Sage developers are aware that this may not be acceptable to some
commercial customers, especially if company policies dictate using software
without commercial support is not permitted. As such, it is possible to purchase
support contract, where the information will not be made public.
Any annual support contract can be purchased for $400, with no limit on the
number of support requests. Alternatively, commercial support can be obtained on
a per-incident basis for $50.
Commercial companies who are considering using Sage, but are unsure if Sage is
suitable for their needs, can obtain advice on this matter for no charge. Any
information disclosed in such discussions will not be made public.
===========================================
Any comments? Is there any chance of implementing this? I can't imagine this
will be a way to make a ton of money, but I do see it would lower the barrier
for commercial companies to use Sage.
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
Dave
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