ROOL make 'market map' mouse mats | Drobe.co.uk archives

ROOL make 'market map' mouse mats

Published: 22nd Apr 2007, 03:42:58 | Permalink | Printable

Companies sign up to sponsor design

RISC OS Open are to sell RISC OS-themed mouse mats to bankroll their shared source project. This week the ROOL team called on ROS organisations and companies to pitch in by paying to have their logos featured in a 'map' of the RISC OS scene, which is to be printed on each of the mouse mats.

Companies from the RISCOS Ltd camp, including CJE Micros, VirtualAcorn and ROL themselves, have backed the project, as well as others including Castle and various media outlets (this humble online rag included). The deadline to get involved is end of play, Monday, April 23. The mouse mats are expected to be ready in time for the Wakefield show.

ROOL's Steve Revill said: "All of the profits that we make from selling the mouse mats and from donations are put towards administration of the shared source RISC OS project. The project is reaching a new phase now so all contributions are very welcome."

It's understood efforts to attract donations and funding are being stepped up as the majority of the shared source project's costs have so far been paid for from the ROOL team's pockets. Meanwhile, we believe the terms of version 1 of Castle's shared source licence are being reviewed by solicitors and CTL shareholders ahead of a possible publication of the licence within the coming weeks.

Links

RISC OS Open website

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Discussion

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It's a shame that other RO companies did not come up with the idea of seeling a mouse mat to bankroll their operations. The profit from such a product must be sustantial.

sa110 on 22/4/07 7:49AM
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How about companies release "special" editions of products for a slightly higher price and donating the difference to a fund for RISC OS related projects. This could extend to not only ROOL but other projects that have overheads but no income to cover them e.g. Netsurf, open source projects, updating popular freeware applications.

Products like printers, monitors, consumables etc could be sold with say a 5% margin added that is donated to a fund. All that would be required is someone to manage the fund and people to apply for money from it.

Given the size of the market any new ways of bringing in funding must be of benefit.

knutson on 22/4/07 10:22AM
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sa110 wrote>"It's a shame that other RO companies did not come up with the idea of seeling a mouse mat to bankroll their operations. The profit from such a product must be sustantial."

Perhaps the other guys, given the importance of getting the ROOL project moving, held back to give them a chance?

knutson>Good idea, but then the arguments would start. Either you'd have some people complaining that RISC OS consumables are too pricey or some people would object that *certain* glamour projects are getting money while others are not. The approach ROOL have taken avoids some of this - purchases are optional - and we all know where the money is going so no arguments there either.

AMS on 22/4/07 11:42AM
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In reply to AMS:

You appear to have missed the sarcasim n my last sentence!

sa110 on 22/4/07 12:42PM
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Oops! I forgot about this - Steve, if you're reading, could you email me again about it. Thanks.

arawnsley on 22/4/07 1:44PM
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arawnsley:

You aren't the only one. Having seen the original announcement, I then completely forgot about it until the subsequent one last night, and promptly stumped up some readies.

VinceH on 22/4/07 2:21PM
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I hope they take me serious. I have filled in all details 2 days ago but haven't heard anything so far... It wasn't a working day (friday 23.28 hour) I'll check my mail tomorrow (monday)

EasyKees on 23/4/07 12:51AM
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In reply to EasyKeys:

We've got all your info, thanks.

To everyone else:

Thanks for all of the support! You've still got until midnight (UK time) before we stop collecting requests to go onto the mouse mat design.

riscosopen on 23/4/07 5:47PM
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It's little wonder that very few people indeed take the RISC OS desktop market seriously. Here we have businesses discussing business on a public Web site instead of conducting it privately via email.

arenaman on 23/4/07 6:42PM
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Arenaman:

Normally I agree 100% with your comments on the professionalism of RISC OS companies, but I think you'e being a tad harsh on ROOL - they are a not-for-profit outfit working in their spare time. Despite this, their website is really smart looking and their PR is leagues ahead of some other RISC OS companies. Using Drobe to finalise a fund-raising exercise seems OK to me.

lym on 23/4/07 7:30PM
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Are there actually enough RO businesses left to fill a mouse mat, or would a beer mat be more appropriate?

sa110 on 23/4/07 8:39PM
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sa110:

What need is there for pointlessly negative comments? By the sound of it, the mat is going to be extremely full... I am starting to wonder how they're going to fit everything on and still make the URLs big enough to read, if it's a standard size mouse mat.

dgs

dgs on 23/4/07 10:05PM
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"Oops! I forgot about this - Steve, if you're reading, could you email me again about it. Thanks." from RComp and "I hope they take me serious. I have filled in all details 2 days ago but haven't heard..." from EasyKees were the two comments that inspired my comment. It wasn't an attack on ROOL. What serious business would leave a comment on a news Web site asking another organisation to email again?!

As for ROOL's Web site - I fully agree. It is a very professional design and they do seem to have grasped PR. With any luck it might rub off on other RISC OS businesses.

arenaman on 24/4/07 2:42PM
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