hi -- I've answered a couple, and cc'd the message to the SA users list for more feedback from other developers and contributors -- it's a lot of questions! ;)
--j. On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 18:56, DEMBELE Mariam <mariam.demb...@unifr.ch> wrote: > > Dear Mr Mason, > > I am doing my masters in "Information Management" at the University of > Fribourg. I am doing a course called "Global Value Chain" given by Professor > Pawel Dembinski, which analyzes the contribution of small and medium > enterprises in creating value both nationally and globally. > > My working group is examining the value created by open source software > programs. In order to do that, we need to choose a specific software program > and use it as a use case. Your software program,SpamAssassin, retained our > attention due to its well designed interface and the quality of its > services. > > We visited your website in order to get some information, but we still have > some questions about the model you applied. Your answers may be provided > both in monetary value or percentages: > > - How do you assess the work force needed to produce SpamAssassin? if you read the CREDITS file in the Spamassassin SVN repository that will give an idea: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/spamassassin/trunk/CREDITS?view=markup > - What expenses did you incur during the software production process? For the most part, just our time ;) although there may have been some travel expenses that were borne by the individual contributors, too. > - How do you describe the value created by your product? > - How do you finance the development effort of this product? > - Do you have intermediaries to distribute your product? > - How do you benefit from this product, taking into consideration that it is > free? > - How frequently do you update your program? > - What other parameters must be taken into account in the decomposition of > the price of your software SpamAssassin? > > This information can help us understand the logic used in setting the > pricing for software professionals and to show the completeness of the > approach used. You would give us the opportunity to get a more practical > insight of this course. > > Best regards, > > Mariam Dembélé. > >