CamStudio

10 responses so far ↓

• 1 Raymond // Oct 10, 2006 at 11:30 am

  Keeping CamStudio free is essential, in my point of view. It is, I guess, one of the ’selling points’ of this programme. (Just like Wordpress)

  I think a combination of selling a CD with video tutorials, and asking for regular donations, is a good idea. If you can manage to get just 200 people donating $5 a month, that is already $1000 a month. (I will sign up myself).

  I use Camtasia Studio myself and am very happy with that, but in my opinion screencasting is something Everyone should be able to do, not just the people who can shell out a lot of money for a top product.

  I must admit that I haven’t tried CamStudio myself in over a year, but I will give it a try again soon. Good luck, whatever your decision is!

• 2 Paulo Kiefe // Oct 10, 2006 at 12:16 pm

  First I would like to thank you for keeping Camtstudio alive. I strongly believe that you will gain more from letting it be free and profit from services. Free, good, software has very effective self-advertising and seeding properties that will save you a lot of time.

  With an easy payment system (i.e. Paypal) you will certainly get contributions from us and many more.

  

• 3 Jon Purkis // Oct 10, 2006 at 1:14 pm

  Hi Nick,

  Firstly congratulations on continuing with ‘CamStudio’ a truly fantastic & versatile product. I have used CamStudio, probably like many others, in the creation of product training videos I use CamStudio in conjunction with ‘Natural Reader Pro’ (retailing at circa 50 USD) which, for me, has created narrated ‘how-to’ videos.

  Again, congratulations & thank you.

  Reading your plea for help, I would like to add my tuppence worth to your blog, (not that its ever worth that much beleive me:) )

  - You could sell this product outright, I mentioned that Natural Reader retails for about $50 - not a bad starting price for CamStudio. But, do you feel that this may lock you in to supporting this product for a long period of time? (Similar to a car - the manufacturer has to provide original parts for an additional 5 to 10 years after manufacture, whatever!).

  - There also presents the issue of licensing, indeed the introduction of a form of license/product unlock key to help reduce software piracy - lets face it, there aren’t that many products even with these advanced features that CAN’T be hacked!!

  - One of the great things about CamStudio is that under the GNU public license it is a FREE product. I personally believe this appeals to a wide varying audience, who have probably spent in excess of £250 on software just to get ‘off the ground’ with their computer. SO, you could keep it free and sell some or all of the video tutorials, however, I found the product easy to use for my purposes, sorry

  - Charging for support is a good way to generate income, you could have levels of support that range from FREE email/forum support to PREMIUM per incident contractable level support that just falls short of someone looking over the users shoulder whilst they work!! So it does beg the question: ‘How much and for what?’ - how much are people willing to pay?

  (I mentioned that CamStudio does have an ‘ease of use’ that falls well inside my personal comfort zone and probably others - how much support do you really need?)

  - I think donations are not particularly reliable, and at this point I must apologise now, I myself have not donated, sorry.

  As a suggestion, and it is only an ‘off the top of my head’ suggestion without much thought applied:

  1) Is there any possibility of sponsorship from a relevant provider? As an example, there is a FREE real-time effects app called JahShaka (available from Sourceforge) who work closely with nVidia graphics who, in part, sponsor them amongst many others.

  2) Could CamStudio be bundled as part of a product suite and sold that way?

  3) And lastly, (I’ll get out of your hair in a minute). With regards programmers / coders - Is there any possibility of tapping into the wealth of student resources in their final year at university who may be able work with yourself on an ongoing project basis such as CamStudio?

  As a previous post states:

  ‘CamStudio is too significant a program to lose’

  Kidest regards & good luck in the future

  Jon

• 4 Skwerm // Oct 10, 2006 at 1:20 pm

  Greetings!

  First of all, thank you for keeping CamStudio available to the masses. I own Camtasia, but only because I didn’t know about CamStudio until it was too late. I use CamStudio at work where we don’t have Camtasia and it does a wonderful job.

  As for the future…

  I think going the Shareware route would probably be the easiest and most productive. On the other hand, taking something that has been Freeware for so long and suddenly charging money for it might be tricky without adding at least some value to the product. Additional functionality, a user manual (PDF or otherwise), template graphics, improved interface, to name a few.

  People will probably also be inspired to purchase CamStudio if they see what the future plans for the product are. Once the announcement comes down that development of the next generation of CamStudio is in the works, people will be excited!

  Keep up the good work. You can count on my support!

  Cheers!

• 5 DirigoPhil // Oct 10, 2006 at 2:20 pm

  I’m not a believer in free lunches but neither am I a fan of corporate greed. Your situation is different, you have been providing a good, proven product for free and my guess it has come out of your pocket. CamStudio is worth more than that and I for one will pony up! So set a fair price and keep delivering a good product, updates and support… Thanks.

• 6 doc // Oct 10, 2006 at 2:51 pm

  Hi Nick,

  Site idea is cool. Unfortunately money is always a concern, not just for you but for everyone. Since you offer up one of the best software packages around for so long and so low cost (free) I would not complain at all should you want or need to attach a cost to it. I do understand your dilemma.

  My suggestion is, start out as did Linux when it went to cds. Surely you have seen all the websites that have minimal cost for the cd/dvd of the various versions of that software. Charging, in most cases, for the cd and postage.

  Later, if that proves to be inadaquate, then perhaps a move to other options you mentioned.

  Best Regards
  Jim

• 7 Sasha // Oct 10, 2006 at 2:53 pm

  Hi Nick,
  sounds like a “success problem” - an open source project is growing and needs more resources.

  Hiring one developer may not solve all he issues (like i18n). Camstudio needs to be a community project driven by community leaders.

  Branching out and selling the product may conflict with open source community.

  Here are some ideas for generating revenues:
  * Write a book (with CD and on-line content).
  * Add Wiki to the web site. Add ads and Web site sponsors.
  * Partner with computer training companies,
  * Make video podcast (screencast) about CamStudio. Support by ads and sponsors.

  I use CamStudio for screencasts at [www.SkypePodcast.tv], and soon - at [www.spresent.com]. The only problem in the last was a codec.

  Sasha

• 8 Testnet // Oct 10, 2006 at 4:31 pm

  Hi Nick,

  Great job keeping Camstudio going. I think if you are getting that much traffic then you should put adsense ads on your site and see if you can make some money that way!

  Thanks
  Gary Garnett

• 9 philem // Oct 11, 2006 at 8:37 am

  Free is always nice. but you have bills to pay.
  I have found that maybe a donation may be the way to go, let people pay what they can..

• 10 thierry // Feb 6, 2007 at 11:23 am

  I had stopped looking at CamStudio after the Robedemo/renderSoft story but re-found your new site by chance yesterday and what you are trying to accomplish seems very promising.

  I’ve recently been thinking about new ways of doing “Open Source with a goal” and am pushing my company towards this new model.

  Basically, I’ve summarized my ideas in english in the 2 following posts http://www.wouarf.com/blogtk/index.php?2006/05/18/260-google-lopen-source-et-la-vertu and http://www.wouarf.com/blogtk/index.php?2006/12/21/323-a-new-framework-for-altruistic-action (”summarize” may not be a very good word when you consider the length of those posts…).

  You will see that the idea is to “extend” the Open Source collaborative and altruistic model by exploiting developments into commercial companies whose capital is owned by a “cause” (chosen by and agreed on by the project team).

  In CamStudio case, this would mean easier ways to find money, developers, develop product for the benefit of the “cause” (typically a humanitary association) but making the developements closed source.

  I am launching this idea in France (annoucements will come later this year with significant public support here) and for various reasons that are a bit long to write down in a first post, CamStudio is prefectly fit for the model.

  I had emailed you but probably mail did not get through. You can get back to me if interested.

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