{"id":231,"date":"2008-02-07T14:21:22","date_gmt":"2008-02-07T14:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/?p=231"},"modified":"2009-05-17T16:40:04","modified_gmt":"2009-05-17T16:40:04","slug":"donating-for-freeware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"Donating for freeware"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I’ve ever talked to you about Windows Mobile, the chances are I’ve probably mentioned my wiki note-taking app<\/a>. Of all of the bits of mobile code hacking that I’ve done, it is the one that (a) I dont seem to shut up about, and (b) has been one of my most popular*<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The app has been around for over a year now, and gets downloaded from about 1000 – 1700 unique IP addresses each month (Plus a few thousand more from mirrors on freeware sites). <\/p>\n

The forum set up for users to report bugs and request features<\/a> has over sixty active users.<\/p>\n

And I generally get emails from 20 or 30 other people with requests each month who don’t want to use the forum for whatever reason. <\/p>\n

I’ve even had emails from people using the app far more than I ever envisaged: people who are using the wiki as a work intranet wiki, installing a copy for each of their staff; people who use the wiki to maintain and develop websites; and more.<\/p>\n

It would seem that there is an audience and a demand for this app. <\/p>\n

Nearly a year ago, I decided to try a little experiment to see how this demand would translate into people prepared to pay for it.<\/p>\n

I’m not looking to make money out of the app myself – I wrote it for my own use, and continue to develop it as a hobby. Instead, I used justgiving<\/a> to set up a donations page<\/a> – and made the wiki into donation-ware. <\/p>\n

“If you find this useful, you are invited to show your appreciation by donating a token sum to a charity that I have nominated”. <\/p>\n

Twelve months later, the donations page is soon to close, and it’s interesting to see the outcome of this entirely-unscientific experiment.<\/p>\n