Dianemo from CHT - Professional Home Automation

[Esperanto]

 * the specs of the hardware offered are not listed in the pdf
 * pledges could include more core variations (also be able to include bigger drive)
 * can include MD's and other basic homeautomation stuff so people buy a full experience
 * stretch goals?
 * maybe some kind of closed/paid forum only accessible to paying users. One can get access to when pledging more then an x amount. (this forum can guarantee a response time of one hour during business hours). Also more extensive help documentation can be part of this
 * paid backup option of configuration & database (maybe also of data, donno if that can be done efficiently if multiple users have the same data/media)

[totallymaxed]

This can be a very good development. Certainly interested!

Some initial questions that arise are:

1) what is the license going to be? GPL3?

2) what will be the business model afterwards (so people know what to expect of the continued support)

3) what are the next steps / progressions we can expect from your team once the kickstarter project is done

All elements of Open Dianemo which we use and distribute under open licenses (GPL, MIT etc) will continue to be available under these licenses. Some components of Open Dianemo code (yet to be defined) will be released under GPLv3. Key software components (again yet to be defined but likely to be the Athena Orbiter, Athena media layer and other components that support these) will be released under a Dianemo Public License. The Dianemo Public License will enable a free for personal use version (source code will be provided for all components) but restrict a corporation or reseller/installer from taking the code and re-branding it and or selling and distributing it without our consent (gained by paying the appropriate licensing fee).

We hope the above strikes a reasonable balance that allows anyone to do what they want with Open Dianemo personally and if they want to do something commercial then we will have a range of licensing options for those people too.

We will support the code base as we do now and will provide a mechanism for code to be contributed back too. How code contributions from outside to the DPL code elements will be handled is still being worked out but we will have a mechanism for that too. Updates will be pushed out, again as we do now, and any user with an installation will be able to access those updates.

We will be announcing some enhanced goals for Open Dianemo in the coming weeks - initially mostly driven by our internal needs as a company. This will provide a predictable development path to all. We will also encourage development from the community and we will have a process through which community engineered code/fixes will be integrated back into builds.

All the best


Andy

[totallymaxed]

30 days seems a short period compared to other campaigns...

Your right it is. But there are many other Kickstarter Projects that choose that period length - and we chose to at least see how that length worked for us. Possibly its too short I agree - but we felt we needed to test whether it was or not.

All the best

Andy

[totallymaxed]

* the specs of the hardware offered are not listed in the pdf
 * pledges could include more core variations (also be able to include bigger drive)
 * can include MD's and other basic homeautomation stuff so people buy a full experience
 * stretch goals?
 * maybe some kind of closed/paid forum only accessible to paying users. One can get access to when pledging more then an x amount. (this forum can guarantee a response time of one hour during business hours). Also more extensive help documentation can be part of this
 * paid backup option of configuration & database (maybe also of data, donno if that can be done efficiently if multiple users have the same data/media)

There are some good ideas in your list for sure. Thanks i will pass those on for discussion. Some kind of closed support forum is a possibility - however our preference currently is for us to provide some support/config services to Open Dianemo users who are setting up a system for themselves. But this may need more detailed thought still. A paid for backup service for media/content is of course technically feasible - but dependent on what a user is doing with her/his system ie lots of rips, bluerays etc etc those backups could be enormous - and restoring them could be equally lengthy. Backing up configs is definitely doable though and may well become a service we offer.

Thanks again for the ideas and suggestions - much appreciated.

All the best

Andy

[Esperanto]

All elements of Open Dianemo which we use and distribute under open licenses (GPL, MIT etc) will continue to be available under these licenses. Some components of Open Dianemo code (yet to be defined) will be released under GPLv3. Key software components (again yet to be defined but likely to be the Athena Orbiter, Athena media layer and other components that support these) will be released under a Dianemo Public License. The Dianemo Public License will enable a free for personal use version (source code will be provided for all components) but restrict a corporation or reseller/installer from taking the code and re-branding it and or selling and distributing it without our consent (gained by paying the appropriate licensing fee).

We hope the above strikes a reasonable balance that allows anyone to do what they want with Open Dianemo personally and if they want to do something commercial then we will have a range of licensing options for those people too.

After all this experience with this beast do you really think that someone that just takes it and rebrands it will last long? I think that if you would get some companies willing to spend the time to get to know this system they will also automatically contribute. If it is GPL they have to. Otherwise why go to them and not go to the people who really understand the product. If it is going to be such a personal license again I am afraid it will be the same strange situation as with linuxmce. In any case stating properly in the proposal what it will be is a good idea I suppose.

Also I wondered what it can mean for Linuxmce. If all pluto parts were to be actually opensource by replacing them with gpl and it would also be integrated into linuxmce than this project would also benefit and linuxmce users might also be interested to donate. Maybe an additional pledge is possible there?

I am not sure if it is possible but maybe some porting of for example the orbiter to linuxmce would also be of value. I suppose the devs can say more about that.

After a quick search on google I did not notice any references to the kickstarter campaign. I think that if you want to really get this going a fresh launch together with a push to some proper news sites/stations is required (maybe you already did that and I just did not find it or they just did not publish it). You really want momentum to get this going and seeing the limited response this far on the forum I think another angle might be required to get the lmce community running ;-)

all the best.
E.

[totallymaxed]

After all this experience with this beast do you really think that someone that just takes it and rebrands it will last long? I think that if you would get some companies willing to spend the time to get to know this system they will also automatically contribute. If it is GPL they have to. Otherwise why go to them and not go to the people who really understand the product. If it is going to be such a personal license again I am afraid it will be the same strange situation as with linuxmce. In any case stating properly in the proposal what it will be is a good idea I suppose.

Also I wondered what it can mean for Linuxmce. If all pluto parts were to be actually opensource by replacing them with gpl and it would also be integrated into linuxmce than this project would also benefit and linuxmce users might also be interested to donate. Maybe an additional pledge is possible there?

I am not sure if it is possible but maybe some porting of for example the orbiter to linuxmce would also be of value. I suppose the devs can say more about that.

After a quick search on google I did not notice any references to the kickstarter campaign. I think that if you want to really get this going a fresh launch together with a push to some proper news sites/stations is required (maybe you already did that and I just did not find it or they just did not publish it). You really want momentum to get this going and seeing the limited response this far on the forum I think another angle might be required to get the lmce community running ;-)

all the best.
E.

Again all good comments, suggestions & observations.

We do need a licensable version as we already have some relationships where we provide Dianemo on that basis to pro-installers etc.

Andy

[totallymaxed]

I will post more on this either later today or tomorrow (11/09/2014) but I wanted to get something up here today;

We have taken a selection of real world installations for different sized properties and can remotely install these on your system for you. The configurations cover properties such as to name a few;

- One Bed Apartment
- Two Bed Apartment
- 2 Bed House
- 4 Bed House
- 6 Bed House

Each have audio/tv/media configured for relevant rooms, audio cards vistualised, SqueezeLite devices, Upnp Media Players or SmartTV's, Room names and other options set, scenarios setup and working etc and a whole load of other configuration items all ready to go.

The idea behind these packs is to take a big chunk of the configuration effort away so that you can focus more on the details or in some cases just 'the living' part of the equation ;-). Although in some cases the pack you choose may be all you need to configure, and so after installation you will be pretty much ready to go, for most there will still be a need for some additional configuration. However even if you still need to do some additional configuration after a Configuration Pack was installed, you will still be up and running much more quickly than you would be starting from scratch.

We will install your chosen pack by remote assistance at an agreed time, and then will notify you when the installation is complete. After a Pack has been installed for you, it can be backed up in the normal way, and then re-installed again later if need be by you. Installing a Configuration Pack will over write any existing configuration you have already carried out so please backup your installation if you want to keep that config.

I will outline full pricing on the Packs later but they start at an introductory price of $79 USD for the One Bed Apartment Pack.

Initially we will only have Dianemo compatible Packs available but we are working on LMCE versions too. Some LMCE Configuration Pack's should be available in the next few weeks - so please let me know which Packs you would be interested in.

Anyway PM me if you are interested or have any questions regarding the Packs (**we will also have some discounted bundle pricing when you purchase a Pack + Dianemo License)

All the best

Andy

[hari]

All elements of Open Dianemo which we use and distribute under open licenses (GPL, MIT etc) will continue to be available under these licenses. Some components of Open Dianemo code (yet to be defined) will be released under GPLv3. Key software components (again yet to be defined but likely to be the Athena Orbiter, Athena media layer and other components that support these) will be released under a Dianemo Public License. The Dianemo Public License will enable a free for personal use version (source code will be provided for all components) but restrict a corporation or reseller/installer from taking the code and re-branding it and or selling and distributing it without our consent (gained by paying the appropriate licensing fee).

Don't forget the Pluto Public License'd parts..

[Marie.O]

I think the idea is, that all the PPL parts get replaced.

[totallymaxed]

I think the idea is, that all the PPL parts get replaced.

That's correct.

[Esperanto]

That's correct.

Does that mean we will also have linuxmce without any more constrictions? I think that might interest more users here. Any LMCE users interested?

[Marie.O]

Why should a private entity care if it is PPL or GPL? For Joe Doe the PPL does not put any restriction to the use of LinuxMCE

[Esperanto]

Why should a private entity care if it is PPL or GPL? For Joe Doe the PPL does not put any restriction to the use of LinuxMCE

I thought you are not allowed to supply LinuxMCE installations without a license from Pluto?

[totallymaxed]

The restriction of the PPL is that you cannot use LMCE commercially. There is no restriction to your personal use however.

With the DPL we will have a range of commercial licenses available. Some will be designed for small companies or private individuals that want to build a business around Dianemo and some will be designed for larger companies. And of
course there will be no restrictions at all to non-commercial use.

We feel that's a big improvement on what we have currently.

Andy

[Marie.O]

Any person can intall LinuxMCE for personal use without the need for a license. Anyone that wants to make money from it, needs a license.