If you are interested in training users and looking for product ‘buy-in’, I would go for all the formats and transformers, while severely limited the output. For training and demonstration purposes, a user would want access to the full functionality. I would not be a fan of ‘redirect to visualizer’ only, as you walk away with nothing from the transformation. However, I would very much limit the output. In this scenario, you may be able to visualize everything, but only export the first X records. Access to the output is important because users need to test the results with other applications.

If you are interested in providing a complete, but restricted capability, I would go for a limited number of formats and transformers, with unlimited output. This would let some users fully solve a narrow set of problems using the freemium edition. The previous discussion on selecting and limiting formats has been very useful. This approach would provide a useful service to the larger community. The draw here would be that use of the product with additional data sources or functionality would require purchase of the product.

Good luck as you sort through this issue … I think it will be a valuable contribution to the broader geospatial community.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by fmemeister: Oh oh, @donatsafe is Going Rogue on me again … http://bit.ly/4DBpOF Freemium FME? That’s crazy talk…or is it???…

Thanks. Indeed it is exciting. This discussion has gone in several exciting directions. Initially we were just thinking of a simple “freemium” model and now we see how coming up with a good “freemium” model can act as the gateway to either desktop or server. The ability for users to build and control FME software components is also an exciting development.

Any other ideas out there that people want to throw our way?

Currently we see users creating “Custom Transformers” on a day to day basis with some being posted to “fmepedia”. The majority of custom transformers are however not posted. While there are I am sure many reasons for this the current Custom Transformer model doesn’t support any form of commerce(freemium or otherwise). It only supports the “free” model. The “freemium” model would make it easier for authors to make available custom transformers which they feel are really valuable. Workbench is a Visual Development Environment as Dale described in an earlier post (http://blog.safe.com/2009/09/graphical-programming-environments-the-challenge-of-hitting-a-home-run/). The crux is we have users creating great stuff with no easy way for developer’s of custom transformers to do anything except give them away. Wouldn’t it be great if we created the tools to support a Custom Transformer “Freemium?” marketplace.

We do enable authors to password protect their custom transformers so that only the author is able to edit it. Of course anyone can run it with a valid FME license. This makes it hard for authors to promote their “value add” as there is no way for them to promote or increase visibility of their “value add” service.

What if we created the necessary tools so that users could provide their Custom Transformers using the “Freemium” model? Doing this would encourage people to create their own Custom Transformers that have a free version with a “value added” version for a fee. Of course they could also develop some that don’t have a free version.

To make this possible all we would need is create a “LicenseCheck” Transformer and a method for users to create their own fixed license files. The good news here is that all the building blocks are already in place and so there isn’t much we would need to do to make this happen. In fact, I have logged an enhancement request for this for FME 2011(which is under development now). Anyone out there think that they would use this new functionality to market Custom Transformers, and Custom Formats?

I think, Cam brings it to the point. Give the users full access to FME, but they can only “route to visualizer” and not actually output the data without having access to an FME Server or a paid version of FME Desktop.

Great. This could make a lot of sense. And as Ulf says, this is some kind of crowd-sourcing for custom transformers etc spreading the fme know-how amongst the hordes of enthusiasts out there and thus growing a critical mass of FME fans that would ask for more and more (paid) FME Desktop licenses or FME Server Services.

Now, this is exciting stuff!

Jeff

It could look like a simplified version of the Universal Translator, allowing the user to run workspaces prepared by others.

There would be no limitations of formats and transformers, making this new tool really powerful, yet simple and making the user want more and more !

Imagine all the custom transformers that could be created by skillful developers who focus on PostGIS, OSM-data, SQLite etc. but currently do not have access to FME.

These custom transformers could, with the right distribution method, be added to all versions of FME (Freemium or not).

These transformers could be free, open-source or paid for in any way!

Doing this the author could also provide “freemium” data that may be generalized but also provide more “value added” views of the data where clients then pay for this. Adding workspaces to the mix means that data authors have more options on how the data is delivered. Indeed an author could build a whole library of workspaces that all use the same uploaded data. Some providing “freemium” views and others not. Is this called “freemium squared?”

Perhaps a FME Freemium version would have, for an example, support for reading and writing 5 formats and that the user could choose from a list of commonly used format when downloading the FME Freemium installation. The support for Open Source formats it’s a good idea and the support of SHP might be necessary. So why not have a totalt of 10-15 format to choose 5 from and then download “your own styled” FME Freemium? The same manner could perhaps be used for transformers?

Another thought is to release FME continously as the developers put together builds of a new FME release (as in the Beta case right now) and then once in a while release a stable FME release. The stable release costs money and you can get support on it from Safe. But the continious releases of newer and newer builds would be free to use. Then you can skip the Beta-releases and go straight to a FME Freemium build-release. And if you are a “safe player” and want a real version of FME when you’ll have to wait until the next stable official FME release.