Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Gather Now Available

[Corey (corey.birnbaum]

Congrats on the beta release, Tom! This is exciting stuff, really great to
see this implemented so well!

I think your cost structure is extremely generous, and it makes a lot of
sense to charge per household because the more people you have using it,
the greater burden support will be. Even with an easy interface, I imagine
most of your time will go towards providing support, so that was a smart
move.

Looking forward to watching Gather grow. Prost!
Corey B

On Sun, Sep 3, 2017 at 4:37 AM, Chris Hansen <itschrishansen [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
> +1 802 5408153
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