Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Gather Now Available

[Chris Hansen (itschrishansen]

This looks wonderful, clean and user-friendly. I personally covet good
meals software!
One downside that I imagine may preclude communities like ours is the fee
structure. We are a community of 32 households, so this would cost us over
$1000 per year even at the minimum rate.
I do understand the value, and the amount of time and resource that goes
into developing and maintaining software. I'm just envisioning some
challenges getting agreement from a group which has many mostly-older
computer-users
Cheers!
On Sun, Sep 3, 2017 at 2:41 AM Roger Studley <roger.studley [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

> Tom, this is awesome. I am with a forming community in Berkeley. We can't
> really try Gather yet (or can we?), but can you add me to the email list
> for when the time comes?
> Thanks!
>
> ~Roger (510-604-2607)
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 6:36 AM, Tom Smyth <tom [at] tomsmyth.ca> wrote:
>
> > Hi folks!
> >
> > Gather, the cohousing management system I introduced a few months ago, is
> > now ready for folks to try in a limited beta!
> >
> > As a reminder, Gather is a web application for managing cohousing
> > communities. It has been in use at three Ann Arbor communities since the
> > fall of 2015. You can read more about it here <http://info.gather.coop/
> >.
> >
> > If your community would like to give it a try, let me know. I'll just
> need
> > your Google ID (usually a Gmail address) and the name of your community.
> > I'll add your community and fill it with sample data so you can see how
> the
> > system works.
> >
> > I'll also add you to a low-traffic email list so you can receive
> > announcements about the software. If you'd like to be on the list but
> > you're not ready to try out the software, also let me know.
> >
> > If you like what you see and want to move forward, we'll clear out all
> the
> > fake data and you'll create accounts for all your residents and invite
> them
> > to sign in.
> >
> > For now, the software will be free of charge. Once we move it out of
> beta,
> > there will be a monthly subscription fee. We are thinking this will be a
> > sliding scale fee in the neighborhood of $3-7 per household per month.
> >
> > We like the idea of a sliding scale because some communities have
> expressed
> > an interest to pay more to sustain development of the software, while
> > others might be on a tighter budget.
> >
> > What you'll get for that fee is use of the software and email support,
> and
> > you'll be supporting continued development of new features. There are
> lots
> > of great features yet to come, and the more people sign up, the faster
> they
> > will get built!
> >
> > Subscribers will also have input into the choice of what gets built next.
> > This software project will be rather different than a typical Silicon
> > Valley startup. We want users to have real ownership of the project. In
> the
> > longer term, we are interested in exploring the multi-stakeholder and
> > platform co-op models. But setting up that structure will take time and
> > experimentation, so for now the setup will be less formal. We'll report
> > regularly on progress and offer opportunities for input.
> >
> > Yours in cooperation,
> >
> > Tom for the Sassafras Team
> >
> > --
> > Tom Smyth
> >
> > Worker-Owner, Sassafras Tech Collective
> > Specializing in innovative, usable tech for social change
> > sassafras.coop · @sassafrastech
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> > http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
Chris Hansen
32 East Village Drive
Burlington
Vermont 05401
USA
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